Noida soon to begin demolition drive to free Yamuna floodplains

Amid allegations of illegal concrete constructions on government land causing damage to the Yamuna floodplains, the Noida authority will carry out a demolition drive to raze the farmhouses in multiple villages, officials said on Friday.

The move comes after farmers in the area filed complaints, alleging that the land mafias were constructing illegal farmhouses, and not letting them to carry out agricultural activities on the floodplains.

According to a June 2012 directive of the state government, the copy of which HT has seen, land owners are not allowed to erect permanent concrete structure on the said land. In May 2013, the National Green Tribunal also directed the Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana governments to clear all concrete structures built illegally from notified no-development zones on the NCR flood plains.

However, a survey conducted by the Noida authority in November last year found out that there were around 2,000 illegal farmhouses built on the Yamuna floodplains.

These illegal farmhouses were built in multiple villages, including Nagla Nagli, Wazidpur, Momnathal, Asgarpur, Jhatta and Badoli.

The unabated sale of land for construction of permanent structures has caused severe damage to the flora and fauna of Yamuna floodplains by blocking water channels, hampering filtering of the water that goes into the ground subsequently destroying vegetation, according to environmental experts.

“The land mafias selling illegal farmhouses have built concrete boundary walls with bricks and cement. They have also constructed the concrete farmhouses using construction material which is banned on the floodplain as it damages the fragile ecology. We fail to understand as to why the authority is not filing FIRs against them,” alleged Teekam Singh Chauhan, a farmer who has filed several complaints in this regard to the Noida authority.

The authority in the past has carried out demolition drives but locals say it has proved little to stop the illegal constructions. The last such drive was carried out in November 2022.

Another farmer, Rishi Bhati from Momnathal village, said, “The Noida authority has carried out demolition drives many times in the past but they razed few of the farms symbolically without acting uniformly against the organised crime which has posed threats to the health of Yamuna river. Why cannot the authority demolish all illegal farmhouses as they dump their sewer and other waste into the soil, affecting not only the river but also the ground water.”

Noida authority’s officer on special duty, Prasoon Diwvedi, said, “We have prepared a file about the demolition drive on the floodplain. Once we complete the legal processes, we will carry out the demolition drive.”

“The material which is used in building farmhouses involves brick, cement, steel and walls etc, if built on the flood plain the activity destroys flora and fauna. People who live in these structures dump sewage into the soil which goes directly into the groundwater, thereby polluting the river,” said Vikrant Tongad, an environmentalist.