First drone survey in Aravalis completed, 550 notices sent

GURUGRAM: The first comprehensive drone survey of the Aravalis, covering 7,019 hectares, was completed on Friday. While the forest department will take two more days to analyse the data, show-cause notices have been sent to owners of more than 550 illegal structures in the eco-sensitive area so far on the basis of the survey.

The survey was undertaken in the wake of the Supreme Court’s July 23 direction during its hearing on the illegal colony in Faridabad’s Khori, which it had ordered demolished, that no illegal construction on Aravali land, including farmhouses, commercial establishments and religious structures, should be spared.

“Most of the illegal farmhouses are located in Gwalpahari, Raisina and Abheypur areas. Some illegal colonies have been built in Ghata and Shikhopur,” said Rajeev Tajyan, divisional forest officer, Gurgaon.

He added that the department was carefully examining the satellite report. “We have already started demolition in several areas. Once a complete analysis is done, more notices will be sent and demolition drives will be carried out after that,” Tajyan said.

Four teams had been deployed with one drone to carry out the survey. According to a rough estimate, there are more than 1,000 illegal structures in the Gurgaon Aravalis.

On Friday, a demolition drive was carried out in Ghata, where nearly 10 acres of forest land had been encroached by illegal structures. The area falls under sections 4 and 5 of the Punjab Land Protection Act (PLPA), 1900.

According to a forest department survey, at least 500 farmhouses have been built illegally on Aravali land in Gurgaon, mostly concentrated in areas like Gwalpahari, Gairatpur Bas, Sohna, Raisina and Manesar. A detailed list of these structures, including total area occupied and locations, was submitted to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in the Sonya Ghosh vs state of Haryana case last year.