Gurugram: Illegal structures in Aravalis to be razed next week

GURUGRAM: The forest department is planning to carry out a demolition drive to
free Aravalis from encroachments in the district after the rollback of GRAP-3 restrictions. To
begin, it will demolish illegal structures over more than 20 acres of Aravali land
in Abheypur near Damdama lake next week.
NGT in August 2020 ordered an end to the illegal tree felling, construction activities and to
restore the forest in Sonya Ghosh case. The plan is to demolish 200 illegal constructions in
Aravalis in 15 days.
According to Gurugram divisional forest officer Rajiv Tejyan, a total of 52 violations have been
reported in areas protected under sections 4 and 5 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA),
1900 and show-cause notices have been issued to all the violators. “We plan to demolish
farmhouses and restore forest land in Abheypur,” Tejyan said. He also said the municipal
council of Sohna will soon conduct demolitions in Raisina.

Once the restoration of the forest is complete, the district administration will also carry out drone
surveys in the area every week to ensure that no further encroachments take place.
The Supreme Court in the Narinder Singh vs Divesh Bhutani case on July 21 this year ruled that
land covered by special orders issued under Section 4 of PLPA should be treated as forests and
that the provisions of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 will apply to these.
In September 2021, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had directed the Haryana and
Rajasthan governments to take prompt action to remove illegal constructions in Aravalis. Both
the states have now been given three months’ time to submit an action-taken report. This came
when the court was hearing a petition by Sonya Ghosh regarding illegal construction in ‘gair
mumkin pahar’ (uncultivable hill) area of the Aravalis hills in three districts of Haryana
(Faridabad, Nuh and Gurugram) and one Rajasthan district (Alwar).
At least 500 farmhouses have been built illegally on Aravali land in Gurugram, concentrated in
areas like Gwalpahari, Abheypur, Gairatpur Bas, Sohna, Raisina and Manesar.