Category Archives: News

Source:Live Mint, http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/FZqFSl44GLUt115t0iKvnN/The-city8217s-wild-side.html

Date:08/07/2011

Secretive and silent. Intertwined trees, twisted trunks, thorny twigs, rocky slopes, and clumps of grass. The nearest McDonald’s is 2 miles away. We are on Delhi’s Central Ridge, a forest in the Capital’s heart abutting Sardar Patel Road in Chanakyapuri.

For a city on the edge of a desert, Delhi is remarkable for the number and diversity of its trees. This dry, dusty metropolis is home to 252 species (New York has 130). We could just as well be in a rainforest. The 2009 Forest Survey of India records Delhi’s forest area at 85 sq. km, which is 5.73% of the city. In the period between 2005 and 2009, the cover grew by 16 sq. km.

Verdant city: (Anticlockwise from top) The Ridge Road, with Rashtrapati Bhawan in the distance; Mangar Bani valley (Photographs by Pradip Krishen); and Shalimar Bagh (Solveig Marina Bang).

Delhi’s pockets of wilderness are rarely frequented. The popular Lodhi Garden and Nehru Park are wooded but the grass is trimmed, the hedges pruned. The natural wilderness that once existed is now hidden, built upon or degraded. Connaught Place was a forest of babool trees before the British destroyed it to make a commercial district. Over the years, especially after independence, many parts of the Aravalli hills, which end in isolated hills and rocky slopes in the Capital, have been flattened to make way for neighbourhoods and bazaars.

The Ridge, the hilly spur of the Aravallis that survives in four distinct patches in and around the Capital, is Delhi’s lungs. It starts at Wazirabad, north Delhi, passes through Delhi University, and goes to Paharganj, where it was levelled and built over. The central portion, made into a reserved forest in 1914, extends from Sadar Bazaar to Dhaula Kuan. Some bits have since been nibbled away by petrol pumps. The Ridge then surfaces in areas such as Jawaharlal Nehru University in the south, before culminating in the Tughlakabad stretch that includes the Asola Bhatti wildlife sanctuary. Mangar Bani falls in the last part.

Not far from the Chattarpur farmhouses in south Delhi, it is a spectacular sight. It is a 100-hectare jungle, consisting of dhau, a tree with small leaves and silvery trunk. A species that’s adapted to rocky land, there are great jungles of dhau in Ranthambore and in Bundelkhand, but here it is close to the limits of a metropolis, with the skyscrapers of Gurgaon threatening an invasion from the west.

Early morning is the best time to visit Mangar Bani. The forest is sacred, the trees are worshipped and there are two temples. The valley has a village of Gujjar herdsmen who believe in a mystic called Gudariyadas Baba. The forest has survived because of the faith of villagers. They believe that cutting a tree—even a branch—would invite Baba’s wrath. On Sundays, village children share stories of the invisible Baba under a banyan tree.

After the rains, tiny red velvet mites appear, their almost-luminous bodies in stark contrast to the greens around them. A monitor lizard, more than a metre long, ambles into the undergrowth. Above, a sunbird flits in the low branches. Underfoot, a centipede plays dead.

Walking in the valley reveals the fragile beauty of our fast-receding green cover. Pradip Krishen, an encyclopaedia on Delhi’s forests and author of Trees of Delhi, says, “Mangar Bani is like a little museum of what the rocky past of the Ridge must have looked like before being swallowed by Delhi.”

In summer, dhau sprouts new leaves. By the time the monsoon arrives, the area is one of the most beautiful sights in Delhi. “Standing on a cliff with the valley below you, it’s like looking at a giant cloud of green,” says Krishen. The new leaves ofdhau have long silvery hair on their tips. When you look at trees from the distance, you see little silver points of light.

Another beautiful and strange forest, close to Mangar Bani, is in a former stone quarry on the Gurgaon-Faridabad Road, about a half-hour drive from Lodhi Garden in central Delhi. On a recent weekend morning, Krishen led a group of seven people there.

The quarry used to be excavated for Badarpur sand and Delhi quartzite, among the most commonly used construction materials. The mining in this area began in 1992 and, following a Supreme Court order, ended a decade later.

The group walked down a slope on which trucks once carried stones from the mine. The ground was red with Badarpur sand. The sides of the slope were made of the same sand; their depressions and fissures indicating that the surface was being eroded by water. The extraordinariness lay in that this sandy and rocky landscape was the site of a special ecosystem. The slender leafless stems of tamarix, a tree rare in Delhi, were just beginning to bloom with little pink flowers. The blue flowers ofshankhpushpi were growing not an inch above the ground. The soil here is porous and does not retain water, so only a narrow band of plants survives. Siras, ullu and sheesham were the other trees.

While cicadas sounded in the undergrowth, the group clambered down to an area of flat, parched ground. At one corner of it stood a dhatura plant with a solitary white flower. A little further, on a slope, was a sand cave that housed a small community of Rhesus macaques, along with a few birds and insects. There were also signs of porcupine and palm civet. The cave’s packed sand could easily disintegrate and wash away in heavy rain, destroying the microhabitat it nurtures.

To the north, at the other end of the city, lies Shalimar Bagh. Nestled between shopping malls, banquet halls, bungalows and apartments are the 100-acre remains of a network of Mughal-era orchards and gardens. Shahjahan gave this land to his subjects on the understanding that their rent would be waived if they grew trees. In the 1857 uprising, the Indian sepoys fired at the British soldiers on the Ridge from behind these trees. After the British took over the city, they cut down most of these woods. Today the area is owned by the Delhi Development Authority.

Entering the Shalimar Bagh garden, also known as District Park, Sheesh Mahal Park, etc., gives an idea of what it must have been like when the grove stretched all the way to Subzi Mandi in Azadpur. Fruits that have gone out of fashion can still be found here: badhal, kamrakh, shehtoot, karaunda, amda and amla. Some trees are unwieldy; their limbs leaning close to one another, their branches embracing. The walkways are like ribbons choked with moss and grass. Bird sounds drown out every other noise. A few white cows complete this pastoral scene. You begin to wonder if Shahjahan’s greatest contribution to Delhi was its Walled City or this orchard.

The Walled City was, of course, built on the Delhi Ridge. The Jama Masjid, for instance, is on a hill. Much of Old Delhi has its neighbourhoods named after hills.

As Delhi has grown, it has lost vast folds of the Ridge. What is left is the semi-wilderness of trees such as dhak, khai, phulai,kareel and—most sadly—vilayati keekar, a thorny foreign import planted by the British that has singled-handedly wiped out many other tree species from the Ridge. Yet there are patches of serene, untamed surroundings. One such haven is in the Jawaharlal Nehru University, within earshot of Nelson Mandela Marg. There’s a stream, indigenous bushes, and native trees. Close your ears, and Delhi disappears.

Source:Post, http://post.jagran.com/Colonies-in-ridge-forest-areas-to-be-regularised-in-Delhi-1317123894

Date: 27/09/2011

New Delhi: The Delhi government has decided to clear the way for development of 357 colonies of which 157 are habited in ridge and forest areas with no sign of any forests or greenery. Besides, the proposal has also been mooted to sanction 200 colonies which have already completed more than half of their construction.

These decisions were taken in the meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) held at the state Secretariat here on Monday.  GoM Chairman Raj Kumar Chauhan said the decision has also been taken to carry out afforestation on the Gram Sabha land on the basis of the land area to enhance the national capital’s green belt.

It may be noted that Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had formed the Group of Ministers (GoM) to facilitate and speed up development works in villages, unauthorised and rehabilitated colonies.

According to the GoM, the government had issued a notification in 1995 to save the ridges and forests. Currently, the ridge and forest area is devoid of plant life. However, there are several colonies which came up much earlier of which most of them are located in South Delhi with Sangam Vihar being the biggest one.

Lakhs of people residing in these colonies cannot be rehabilitated elsewhere, therefore it is necessary to regulate and develop them, the GoM said.

Further, the GoM also decided to regularise as many as 200 colonies which had less than 10 percent construction in 2002 and less than 50 percent construction in 2007 but have now accomplished 100 percent establishment.

When referred to the rule made in 2007 that colonies with less than 50 percent construction should not be regularized, Chauhan said, “Now the rules will be changed and if needed the case will be taken to the court.”

He, however, added that after the panel’s approval, the proposal would soon be sent to the government.

The next meeting of the GoM slated on Friday would decide on bringing the 30-feet wide roads presently under the Municipal Department of Delhi, under the Public Works Department and on giving ownership rights to the residents of the rehabilitated colonies.

The decision on the trading of land in the unauthorised colonies will be taken in another GoM meeting to be held on next Monday.

Source:IBN Live, http://ibnlive.in.com/news/delhi-ridge-put-to-private-use-officials-turn-blind-eye/70609-3-1.html

Date: 07/08/2008

New Delhi: The Delhi Ridge, the sole green lung of the city is today under threat. The forest, residents allege, is being encroached upon by the land mafia.

Delhi Ridge RWA President, Imtiaz says, “Trucks come at night here. There is a small room that they have constructed on one corner, half complete, which is what they use.”

Till January 2008, the ridge was protected forest land, but today, it’s difficult to recognise it.

ays a resident of the area, Abdul, “Till January 29, 2008, there was the board of the Forest Department on which was written that this is protected ridge land, but when they erected the wall, the encroachments began.

The problem began when the Forest Department decided to create a boundary wall demarcating the Ridge. Residents claim that the new boundary has been pushed inside, leaving large tracks of forests open to encroachment.

But when contacted, the Forest Department refused to take responsibility.

In a letter sent to CNN-IBN, the department claims: “The construction of the boundary wall is being carried out as per the demarcation given by Revenue Department.”

But legal experts say that the law of the land is clear – an area marked as forest land cannot be put to any non-forest use.

In this it’s not a question of public or private land, it’s a question of forest and the forest department can exercise its jurisdiction because land use is being changed.

Delhi Ridge pays a daily service to the city by recharging its ground water, but rapid urbanisation and concretisation have left the forest battered and fragmented. The Delhi government now needs to step in to save the city’s Green lungs.

Source:  The Times of India,http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-03-11/delhi/37622682_1_ridge-management-board-dda-vice-chairman-ridge-area

Date: 11/03/2013

NEW DELHI: The ban on construction activity in the ecologically sensitive ridge area has not stopped the Union home ministry from going ahead with its plan to build a residential-cum-office complex for Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) in South Central Aravali Ridge near Mahipalpur.

Despite opposition from residents of Mahipalur village, a 10ft-high boundary wall came up around the 3,000sqm plot in November 2012. Now, the residents want Delhi Development Authority (DDA), which allotted the land, to cancel the order.

The matter was reported to the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee, Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA), in January. The committee is likely to visit the area for the second time soon. “We are enquiring if the area is part of the ridge. Construction in the ridge area is not allowed. Once we get all the documents, we will examine the matter,” said Bhure Lal, chairperson of EPCA.

Col Devinder Sehrawat (retd), secretary of Delhi Gramin Samaj and resident of Mahipalpur, said, “DDA has allotted this land, which belongs to the gram sabha, to the ministry. It should be used for the welfare of the residents of Mahipalpur. An environment friendly project should be planned here.”

If this complex is allowed, the entire village will be cut-off from Aravali Biodiversity Park, say residents. “The approach to the park is from Vasant Vihar (Poorvi Marg gate located about 4km southwest of Moti Bagh) near JNU and Vasant Kunj malls. We have an old shrine in the park, frequented by Mahipalpur residents. But as the land around the park has been given to several government agencies, we have to travel more to go there,” said Sehrawat.

DDA had allotted the land in December 2010. Referring to the Delhi high court order stopping construction activities by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Border Roads Organisation (BRO) near Naraina in the ridge area, Mahipalpur residents call for a similar action here. “The high court had clearly said that ‘no future construction should take place in the ridge area’. We have held meetings with the DDA vice-chairman and met chief minister Sheila Dikshit in August 2012, but nothing has happened so far,” said Sehrawat.

While no forest clearance has been taken for the project, Ravi Agarwal, member of Ridge Management Board, said, “If the area is in the ridge or even has its features, the project needs to be examined before it starts. It has not come before the board so far.”

Source: The Indian  Express, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/stop-nonforest-activities-in-3-aravalli-villages-green-tribunal-to-haryana/1101698/

Date: 13/04/2013

The National Green Tribunal has directed Haryana to prohibit all non-forest activities in the villages of Kot and Mangar in Faridabad and Roz-ka-Gujjar in Gurgaon. The direction came after it was contended that tourism, commercial and other non-forest activities were going on in the three villages.

A bench headed by tribunal chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said premises sealed by a committee constituted by the Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon, as a preventive measure, are “prohibited to carry on such activities and their premises would remain sealed till the next date of hearing”.

“The persons who are carrying on non-forest activities in violation of the provisions of the Indian Forest Act and also violating the provisions of the Environment Protection Act or Air Act should be prohibited from carrying on such activity in future,” the tribunal said.

It directed the committee to “make a general survey of the area in the three villages, namely Kot, Mangar and Roz-ka-Gujjar and report to the tribunal the details of the persons and the commercial/non-forestry activity which is being carried on by them in the forest area. The report shall clearly state as to the nature and the number of structures that have been raised by each of those ventures.”

“This committee shall also report to the tribunal if those ventures are using borewell and generator sets. If the answer is in the affirmative, the extent of its adverse effect on the ground water as well as in the air pollution in the area in question and whether they are causing pollution or not should also be stated,” the tribunal said.

In the case, the applicants had contended that those involved in tourism, commercial and non-forest activities “should be stopped forthwith as they are not only damaging the forest area but are adversely affecting the environment as well. The persons who are carrying on tourism and other commercial activities are using borewells to meet water needs and generator sets for electricity which are not available to them or have been disconnected under orders of the authorities concerned.”

Date: 13/04/2013

Source: Live Mint, http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/jAA8rxF4YtE99J60S5qkSM/Delhi–The-forest-city.html

an you believe we are still in the city?” K.S. Gopi Sundar asks with a wide smile. “This place is almost unbelievable.” A research scientist with the US-headquartered International Crane Foundation, Sundar leads a programme in India documenting the habitats of the Sarus crane. But it’s not the lanky, dancing bird that’s making Sundar happy. The reason for his joy is that 10 minutes by foot from his apartment in south Delhi, Sundar can enter Sanjay Van, a dense urban woodland, and spend hours watching a dazzling variety of birds. “Delhi has such extensive forests,” he says, “that you even get to see birds you’d never normally see in a city.”

In fact, there’s only one capital city in the world which hosts a greater variety of birds than Delhi’s checklist of nearly 450 species, and that’s Nairobi, Kenya. “And Nairobi is next to the Serengeti National Park (in Tanzania),” says Sundar, “so you can imagine how special that makes Delhi.”

Sundar walks with sprightly purpose through the earthen trails inside Sanjay Van, and with the sharp eye of an experienced birdwatcher, spots around a dozen species in under 10 minutes. The trail leads down to a small lake full of ducks, and up towards the ancient fortress wall of Lal Kot, built around a thousand years ago. The stone wall rises gently above the canopy like a ridge, and at the top, offers a spectacular view—a sea of green radiating in every direction, the Qutub Minar dominating the skyline, and in the far distance, a few skyscrapers, the only evidence of the city.

It is not easy to look beyond the thick clutter of cars, or the urban flood of people and concrete, and notice Delhi’s trees and forests. But the extent of Delhi’s green cover, compared with our other major cities, is startling—squarely against the grain of rapid urbanization, the greenery is growing.

The latest India State of Forest Report 2011, brought out by the Union ministry of environment and forests, says Delhi’s green cover (which includes shrubs and trees outside forests) doubled in a decade—from 151 sq. km in 2001 to 296.2 sq. km in 2011. In the same period, Bangalore lost 269 sq. km. of dense forest. Between 2009 and 2011, 367 sq. km. of land officially classified as forest was lost countrywide. While all the major cities in India have less than 15% of their area under forest or tree cover (and dwindling), Delhi lists a remarkable 20% according to the report. The city’s forest department claims the number has gone up by at least 2% now and is set to keep increasing over the next decade.

“It is the most challenging job I’ve ever done,” says G.N. Sinha, chief conservator at the department of forest, Delhi. After a decade of working in Goa and Arunachal Pradesh and its extensive forests, Delhi, he says, felt scary when he was posted here in early 2012. “The demand for land is so high,” he says. “I thought, who can think of a forest in a place like this?”

Tilak Chand, 53, has been facing that challenge head on since 1990, when he joined the forest department. “Delhi was in a terrible state then,” he says. “If it was not built-up land, it was wasteland. There were no forested areas.”

Chand is now an assistant conservator. In his field office abutting the Central Ridge, a large expanse of woodland in the heart of the city, he is struggling with a mound of papers. Almost all of them are related to court cases fighting encroachment on forest land. “It is getting harder and harder to hold on to our lands,” he says. “If we file a case, an encroacher will get a stay from the court, and that takes care of that for 10 years.”

In 1997, Chand says, he was part of the creation of the first “city forest” by his department, around Hauz Rani in south Delhi, a settlement that dates back to the 13th century. Now he is overseeing the plantation and development of five new city forests, all in the rural parts of Najafgarh (though still inside the administrative boundaries of the National Capital Territory). The forests are coming up on gram sabha land—uncultivated land owned by the villages. They occur like patchwork between farmlands, groves the size of football fields, some planted five years back and already thick with trees, some planted a few months back with knee-high saplings.

“We clean the land, weed it, till it, fertilize and water it, plant the saplings,” Chand says. “For the first three years, it’s hard going, and then the forest begins to take care of itself.” Five years after the first saplings are planted, the woodland becomes self-sustaining. Standing near a shady grove in Najafgarh that was planted five years back, Chand points out a tall tree overhung with a crowded network of weaver bird nests. “As their habitats increase, birds and small animals begin coming on their own,” he says.

Creating forests

The new impetus for Delhi’s afforestation was made possible by a Union government body referred to as Campa—the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority. An agency that manages to legally acquire forest land anywhere in India for development purposes pays Campa the value of that land. Campa holds on to this money on behalf of the state, and pays out part of it every year for afforestation and forest maintenance according to the states’ needs. In 2010, when Campa was implemented, Delhi generated more than Rs.18 crore worth of funding. Since then, the Capital has received a little less than Rs.2 crore annually for forestry.

An older law, the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994, which came into effect in 1996, has also played a central role in increasing the city’s green cover.

“It’s a unique rights-based approach for a tree,” says environmentalist Ravi Agarwal, who runs the NGO Toxics Link. Anyone who cuts a tree, even in their own backyard, needs permission from the forest department, and for every tree cut, an individual or organization has to pay the cost of planting 10 saplings.

The city and the jungle

Delhi’s battle to balance urban spaces with wild areas has been going on for centuries. Mughal kings to the British Raj, have dabbled with afforestation and deforestation, but the challenges of saving the city’s greenery has never been more under stress than now.

These funds are shared by all the civic agencies in Delhi who have trees or forests under their jurisdiction. The Delhi Development Authority, or DDA, has some of the best-known urban woodlands and parks in the city. Some are archaeological parks with extensive greenery, like Lodhi Garden, some are natural forests with walking trails, like the Jahanpanah City Forest. The DDA made the smart move of outsourcing forestry work to the experts with its share of the Campa pie. They tied up with Delhi University’s Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems to develop green areas called biodiversity parks, as well as improve pre-existing woodlands. This year, nearly 0.64 sq. km of restored wetland forest, the Yamuna Biodiversity Park, was deemed fully functional. Restoration work on another 1,200 acres of contiguous wetland is on. Another biodiversity park, in the Aravalli hills in the southern part of the city, is almost ready.

Emeritus professor C.R. Babu, who heads the project, says proposals for five more parks have been approved, some of them to link and expand existing forests that have been fragmented over the years by buildings and roads. Fragmentation rapidly destroys a forest’s ecosystem.

“The Yamuna Biodiversity Park itself will extend up to 1,000 acres finally,” Prof. Babu says. “It will be a network of wetlands, grasslands, and flood plain forests.”

Around eight years ago, when he first saw the land on which the Yamuna Biodiversity Park stands now, Prof. Babu says it was so degraded and polluted that nothing grew on it. “Now we have over 400 species of plants, porcupines, civet cats, jungle cats, even wild boars. Once the full thing is developed, it will be one of the finest bird sanctuaries in India.”

Paradise to parking lot

Delhi’s forests are such an integral part of its heritage that the history of the city can be traced through them. Most of Delhi’s forests are on the Ridge, the tail end of the Aravalli hills that runs from the south to the north of the city like a crooked, inverted “y”. Once contiguous, it is now divided into four fragmented zones, and has been the topographic feature that attracted settlers to the area for thousands of years. From the eighth-century Lal Kot fort and 12th century Qutub Minar, to Shah Jahan’s 17th century walled city and Lutyens’ 20th century Delhi, much of the Capital’s historical architecture is found in and around the Ridge.

The battle for Delhi in the 1857 uprising happened here: the British, picketed for three months at what is now Hindu Rao Hospital, at the northern end of the Ridge, overlooking the walled city; the Indian fighters using the Mughal gardens, orchards and forest groves around the city as cover to snipe from. When the British finally took over the city, they used the orchards of the 18th century Qudsia Bagh as cover. Built by Begum Qudsia, a dancing girl who married Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah , the massive garden contained a pleasure palace, a mosque, rose gardens and fruit orchards and ornate gateways. A small part of the bagh, ruins of the mosque and one gateway still remain. Once the sepoys were defeated, the British set about the task of retribution with savage frenzy. Along with people and buildings, the trees that hid the Indian fighters were also massacred.

In the early 1900s, the British began restoring some of the Mughal gardens, and when their capital shifted from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Delhi, afforestation work began in full swing. The idea was that the new Imperial capital would be “a sea of foliage”. The avenue trees planted by the British still form the bulk of the greenery in Lutyens’ Delhi.

Post-independence, as Delhi exploded into the megacity it is today, large chunks of the Ridge were swallowed up by the city, and more and more forest lands were left under dumped construction material—concrete, plastic, cement, and other garbage. By the 1990s, Delhi was on the brink of an ecological disaster. Less than 5% of the city had green cover, and the Yamuna had become little more than a sewage canal for industrial effluents.

A long battle

Reclaiming Delhi’s greens from that critical point has been hard work.

The Ridge got legal protection as a reserve forest in 1994, after a campaign to save it began in 1992. Agarwal, who was part of that campaign, now sits on the Ridge Management Board which oversees the protection of that area. “The fight is still as tricky and hard as before,” he says. “The board gets a proposal for land diversion once every two-three months, and it’s complicated because there is always a case for larger public good—a new road, Metro lines, power transmission lines.” The board, which has representatives from all the civic bodies, is always walking the thin line between preservation and development work. Much of it is avoidable, says Agarwal, if agencies factor in trees and forests at the beginning of the planning stage for a project.

“There is no sensitivity shown to the ecology,” Agarwal says. “No one at the planning stage thinks ‘Let’s see if there is a way these trees can be saved’.”

NGOs like Kalpavriksh, which began the Ridge campaign, continue to play a powerful role in keeping the greens alive; monitoring construction activity, making sure civic agencies remove concrete from around trees (a Delhi high court order from 2009 says all trees must have a 6ft circumference around them free of concrete to allow them to survive), and working with residents to conduct tree surveys in various localities.

Under the canopy

Delhi’s greening efforts may be on the right track, but problems still abound. One of the main concerns for environmentalists is the quality of a forest, and the kind of protection it gets. Environmentalist Pradip Krishen, the author of Trees of Delhi, did a quick survey, spread over a few days, of selected forest areas for this article to judge their quality. The ground reality is optimistic but messy.

Most of the Ridge forests are populated with a highly invasive South American plant called vilayati kikar or Mexican mesquite. Planted by the British at the turn of the 20th century in a misguided afforestation effort, the tree has taken over by killing local flora. “Not only does it destroy native plants and biodiversity, it also sucks up groundwater quickly,” Krishen says. “A forest area should do just the opposite, it should allow groundwater to recharge.”

Delhi’s department of forest says it makes no efforts to remove vilayati kikar. “We don’t plant it either,” Sinha says, “but it makes up nearly 80% of the Ridge forest, so we will lose all the green cover if we try to remove it.”

At a large swathe of forest land near a village called Mandi in south Delhi, villagers carry away head-loads of firewood. Most of the forest is highly degraded, and there are stumps of trees chopped off everywhere.

“This is a theatre of destruction,” Krishen says. “When it could have been an ideal repository for useful tree species—there is space here, different elevations, different water gradients, a seasonal lake.”

A simple idea, Krishen says, would be to build awareness among villagers.

“Instead of villagers cutting down whatever tree they feel like, why can’t forest officials educate them and tell them to cut only the vilayati kikar?” he asks. “It makes excellent firewood, and this way the forest department doesn’t have to do anything at the expense of the people’s needs.”

The Ridge forests are poorly protected as well. Krishen says he has never seen “a single forest official” in the Central Ridge, which he has been exploring almost every day for 40 years, and encroachment is rife. “The biggest violators are state agencies themselves,” Agarwal says. “Private parties don’t stand a chance. But what do you do when the civic agencies themselves are the perpetrators?”

Agarwal says the Ridge Management Board is constantly battling government bodies—the DDA dumps construction material on the ridge, the army starts building housing quarters without permission.

The list is long. Yet Delhi at least has the chance to turn things around. It has already made a strong start.

“The city has remarkable potential,” Krishen says. “Can you imagine, if the Central Ridge is properly managed, you will have the most unique, amazing forest, rich in plant and animal species, in the middle of the city?”

Date: 14/03/2013

Source: Business Standard, http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/ngt-restrains-construction-of-roads-in-delhi-ridge-area-113031400488_1.html

he National Green Tribunal (NGT) today restrained construction of roads and any non-forest activity in the Rajokri forest area here.

The NGT bench headed by Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar also restrained the use of the road in the forest area for “public vehicular traffic”.

“Having heard parties, we hereby restrain any person or authority from constructing any roads or using the road in the forest area for public vehicular traffic. Furthermore, they are also restrained from carrying on any non-forest activity in the area in question,” the bench, also comprising judicial member Justice P Jyothimani, said.

The NGT also impleaded the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) as a party in the matter and has asked it to file its response in two weeks time.

The tribunal had on March 6 taken suo motu cognisance of a news report alleging illegal construction of roads in the Rajokri forest area and had sought the response of the Delhi government, DDA, the Delhi Police Commissioner and Ridge Management Board on the issue.

The bench today granted two more weeks to the respondents to file their response.

The tribunal’s order was passed after it was informed about the news report and the issue of alleged illegal encroachment in the southern ridge area through an application filed by amicus curiae Raj Panjwani, assisted by advocate Rahul Choudhary.

The application said the report had alleged that three roads cutting across the Rajokri forest in the southern ridge area have been built unauthorisedly and illegally.

The report had also alleged that several unauthorised constructions have come up inside the forest area and a lot of dumping is taking place there which would result in serious degradation of the forests, according to the application.

Date:10/02/2013

Source: Hindustan Times, http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/RWA-to-save-South-Delhi-ridge/Article1-1009692.aspx

Resident Welfare Association (RWA) representatives, residents of Mahipalpur and environmental activists on Sunday decided to join hands to “reclaim” the gram sabha land (commons) and save the plunder of the south-central Aravali ridge by different government agencies.

Stressing on the need to conserve the ridge and proper utilisation of gram sabha land, the RWA and villagers , with the help of environment activists, will safeguard the environment of Mahipalpur, Vasant Kunj and its surrounding areas.

“Tree plantation drives will begin from February 17 on the land, which has seen rampant digging activity by government agencies in violation of the Supreme Court orders,” said a statement issued after the meeting.

Source: The Hindu, http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/du-plans-a-heritage-walk-through-the-ridge/article3761503.ece

Date: 13/08/2012

University writes to ASI for permission to look after the monuments

The “Ridge”, another name for the remains of the ancient Aravalli Hills whose rocks crop up all across the city, has its strongest and most sinister formation at Delhi University’s North Campus — now a hotspot for wild monkeys and furtive couples but once the frontline for one of India’s most decisive battles.

The Flagstaff

“During the famous siege of Delhi in 1857, the British who managed to escape from the rebels in the city — made their way towards the Ridge and took shelter at the Flagstaff. The rebels chased them, many days of fighting ensued and the battle almost tilted in favour of the rebels until the British were rescued by a regiment from Punjab… and the rest is history,” says Delhi University’s Vice-Chancellor Dinesh Singh. He was standing in front of the historic Flagstaff, the first stop on a heritage walk that he has planned for willing students beginning this October.

The Flagstaff is a pale pink and has the necessary locks and sign-boards that declare the tower a “protected monument”, but there is nothing else. Nobody, except an avid historian familiar with the city, will be able to guess what the Flagstaff stands for, with the signboards offering no explanations just warnings to keep off the “protected monument” — which now does not even bear a hint of the bullet-marks that once covered its walls, all thanks to a recent “renovation”.

Top of the Tower

“We have applied to the Archaeological Survey of India to let us look after this place and the other landmarks of the historic battle, they are considering letting us take over the maintenance. We will then put sign-boards explaining the history behind this place and open up the tower so people can actually walk to the top,” says Prof. Singh, adding that the tower used to be open when he was a college student and that he often came here with his telescope and camera. He wanted other kids to be able to do the same.

Khooni Khan Lake

Another place that Prof. Singh used to visit most often is the Khooni Khan Lake which is located deep within the Ridge that now resembles a deserted garden overgrown with wild trees, bushes and cacti. It is also infested with monkeys and feral cats but has a paved road running all through it, with park benches placed along the road and at clever bends inside the thick foliage. It is a long walk and the Aravalli remains jutting out of the ground make it an uncomfortable one. “During the battle the lake was used as the main water source. After several days of fighting, the water turned red from the blood of the wounded, thus earning it the name of Khooni Khan Lake.” The lake is now green and is barricaded by thick and sharp wires. The resident monkeys have made it their personal swimming pool, using the overhanging branches of trees as the diving board.

Mutiny Memorial

The Ashoka Pillar, opposite the Hindu Rao Hospital, is the next stop on Prof. Singh’s list. It is quite ordinary-looking and would not inspire the average passersby to stop and gaze, but Prof. Singh said it is historically relevant. After all, a Muslim ruler brought this symbol of peace all the way from Meerut into the city. A stone’s throw away is the Mutiny Memorial which resembles a tower. The architecture is a mixture of colonial and Islamic styles and is imposing with steep steps that go all the way to the top and boasts stunning views of the city. The memorial was originally built for “the Delhi field forces who were killed between May 30 and September 8, 1857” and by “the comrades who lament their loss and the government they served so well”. The number of soldiers, native and white, who were killed, wounded or missing in battle has been carefully etched on the walls.

However, the entrance to the memorial, built most recently in 1972 has this. “The “enemy” of the inscriptions inside this monument were those who rose against colonial rule and fought bravely for the nation’s liberation in 1857.” Prof. Singh says the university has also applied for maintenance of the pillar and memorial.

Viceregal Lodge

The Viceregal Lodge, already with the university is the last stop on Prof. Singh’s list for the proposed heritage walk which would follow the pattern of history. “We start with the bloody battle of 1857 and end with the Gandhi-Irwin pact which took place right here at the Vice-Regal Lodge, we are just trying to find the room where the pact was actually signed. We have searched everywhere; there is no secret room or basement that has missed us. Now we have people looking through the national archives, our archives. We really want to find it.”

Source: Zee News, http://zeenews.india.com/news/delhi/court-stops-defence-construction-on-delhi-ridge_745454.html

Date: 5/12/2011

New Delhi: Two defence agencies have been forced to stop building residential flats in the heart of the national capital with the Delhi High Court staying construction in the ecologically sensitive ridge area.

A division bench consisting of acting Chief Justice AK Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw made it clear that no fresh construction would be allowed. “No future construction should take place in the ridge area,” the bench said.

The court passed its order after the Delhi government informed it that no clearance was taken by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to carry out construction activities in the ridge that were threatening the area’s ecology.

Sikri also pulled up the organisations for not only bypassing the objections raised by the forest department but also violating the Supreme Court guidelines on protecting the ridge.

It rejected the contentions of the organisations that the construction of flats was at an advanced stage and so they should be allowed to be completed.

The bench was hearing a public suit filed in 2005 by Naraina village resident AK Tanwar alleging that the DRDO and the BRO had begun construction of residential flats in the protected ridge area near the village in West Delhi.

“We are appalled to find that the defence organisations not only overlooked the objections of the government but also began the construction work in violation of the guidelines of the Supreme Court,” the judges said on Thursday.

Delhi government counsel Najmi Waziri told the bench that while the site of construction was not a part of the reserved forest it was an extension of the same forest area which is highly protected and no construction could be raised there.

The Ridge Management Board (RMB), a seven-member non-statutory body headed by the Chief Secretary of Delhi, also said that no prior sanction had been taken for the construction works.

“None of the organisations under the Defence Ministry have sought any clearance either from the Ridge Management Board or the Supreme Court through the Central Empowered Committee (CEC), before undertaking any construction in the area. Such permission is a pre-requisite in view of the directions of the Supreme Court,” the board said.

The Supreme Court in May 1996 restricted the ongoing construction activities in the ridge.

“…some parts of the ridge have been erased in the central city area. No further infringement of the ridge is to be permitted. It should be maintained in its pristine glory”, the Supreme Court said earlier.

The Delhi government submitted that it had informed the court that the RMB in similar cases in the past had granted clearance to the Delhi Metro for laying of Metro tracks.

“But those activities were carried out outside the notified forest land and the permission for it was also confirmed by the Supreme Court through the CEC,” counsel for the Delhi government said.

While the Central government claimed it had all the required permission and argued that the site in question was actually in the extended ridge area where it was permitted to carry out construction, the Delhi government told the High Court that the land was in the “geological ridge area”, which was highly protected.

The Delhi government said that in its view there should be no construction activity in the area. It informed the court that the land was earlier with the revenue department, but was transferred to the forest department in view of its location.

The High Court sought a response from the two organisations after the petitioner argued that the RMB needed to be kept in the loop on the issue to ensure all permissions had been taken.