Delhi ridge faces encroachment

Amitabh Shukla

New Delhi, July 20

The lungs of Delhi, the Ridge area, faces rampant encroachment. A recent assessment by the Forest Department has found out that there are 12 major encroachers in the Ridge and due to lax laws, no action could be taken against them for several years.

The Delhi government has approached the CPWD for sending notices to the encroachers. “Notices have been sent to them and their response is awaited,” a senior official told the Hindustan Times.

In a status report on the Ridge, the officials have admitted that lack of authority with the Ridge Management Board (RMB) is primarily responsible for the encroachments. “If any violation of the forest occurs and encroachment takes place, RMB has the authority only to issue appropriate directions to the agency concerned. It cannot take any direct legal action,” an official pointed out.

Even after the RMB issues the directions to the agencies concerned – DDA, CPWD and others, no action is initiated as none of these agencies have a forest officer who can guide and give directions on ridge management, strictly as per the Forest Act.

The Delhi ridge is divided in four parts – northern, central, south-central and southern. The southern ridge is the biggest with 6200 hectares of land while the total ridge area in Delhi is 7777 hectares. These have been declared as notified forest areas

Ironically, in the southern ridge, there are three JJ clusters and despite Supreme Court orders these have not been removed. Officials in the Forest Department said that they had deposited Rs 10.71 crores to the MCD for the shifting of these slum clusters in 1997 but the civic body has not yet started the process of shifting these clusters.

Even as the government has failed to protect the Delhi ridge, it was left to the Eco Task Force (ETF) of the Indian Army to retrieve forest area being plundered. The ETF was given an area of 840 hectares in Bhatti Wildlife sanctuary in the southern ridge in the year 2000. It has so far covered 680 hectares and planted 4.29 lakh saplings. It is planting another one-lakh saplings this year.

(2005)