Five farmhouses built in Aravalis demolished

GURUGRAM: Five farmhouses over four acres of Aravali land were razed by the Haryana forest
department in Gwalpahari on Tuesday – in line with directions of the National Green
Tribunal (NGT) to demolish all illegal structures in areas that fall under sections 4 and 5 of
the Punjab Land Protection Act (PLPA).
Non-forest activities are not permitted on land categorised as gair mumkin pahar (uncultivable
hill).
“We demolished five farmhouses today and four acres of land recovered in Gwalpahari. Notices
were given last year to the owners of these farmhouses. We will carry out more such drives in
the coming days to remove all encroachments from Aravali areas,” said Rajeev Ranjan,
divisional forest officer, Gurgaon.
The NGT on December 9 directed the Haryana and Rajasthan governments to set up a
monitoring committee to ensure that illegal constructions are removed from protected Aravali
land in three Haryana districts – Gurgaon, Faridabad and Nuh – and Alwar in Rajasthan. The
tribunal also asked the chief secretaries of both the states to ensure compliance with its
directions.
Before that, in September 2021, the green tribunal had ordered both the governments to remove
the illegal construction and restore forest land apart from submitting action-taken reports.
According to a Haryana forest department survey, at least 500 farmhouses have been built
illegally on Aravali land.