Supreme Court order a fresh lease of life for Aravallis

The Supreme Court's clear ruling in the Kant Enclave case on Tuesday that land notified under the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA),1900, should be treated as forest and forest land has given a much-needed boost to the preservation of the vulnerable Aravalli mountain range. The apex court judgment may also have wide ramifications on residential complexes, farm houses and marriage lawns that have come up in the Faridabad-Gurugram belt of Aravallis.

To begin with, the Haryana government has notified 4,227 hectares of land across 17 villages in the Faridabad district and 6,700 hectares of land across 38 villages in the Gurugram district under PLPA. This is part of the nearly 30,000 hectares of land notified under the PLPA in Haryana of which large parts are in the Aravallis. In light of the Supreme Court's ruling to recognise this land as forest, 10,927 hectares of land across Faridabad, especially along the Surajkund-Badkhal route, and Gurugram will now come under scrutiny and may face consequences.

Under PLPA, which the state government used as a tool to ring Aravallis from development, breaking of land that is not fit for cultivation, mining, quarrying and even herding of animals is prohibited. Land under PLPA was largely village commons land is locally known as 'Gair Mumkin Pahar' or literally land that is not fit for cultivation. The use of PLPA to build a protection ring around Aravallis has staved off real-estate development till now and helped to store groundwater despite illegal mining activities in the past. This Act has also helped the government to prevent large-scale land-use change.

The Surajkund-Badkhal road, activists and environmentalists said, was one of the most-exploited stretches of the Aravallis. Cutting through the Aravallis, the road is home to Kant Enclave, a bunch of banquet and marriage lawns in succession and even the plush Gymkhana Club near Ankhir, Faridabad. "The Supreme Court has confirmed for a third time that no construction can happen in Aravallis," said Chetan Agarwal, an environment analyst who works actively on issues relating to Aravallis.

Besides the possible implications of the apex court judgment on several constructions in this area, experts believe that the court has definitively settled a long-pending and controversial matter regarding what constitutes as forest in the Aravallis. In its judgment, the SC bench stated categorically, "we have no doubt that land notified by the State of Haryana under the provisions of the PLP Act must be treated as 'forest' and 'forest land' and has in fact been so treated for several decades by the State of Haryana. There is no reason to change or alter the factual or legal position."

Haryana government's decision to "identify" forest areas and Aravalli preservation

The court's observations derail the Haryana government's attempts to open up Aravallis for large-scale real-estate development. Last year, the state government had constituted a committee under the Chief Secretary to examine and identify forest and non-forest areas on land notified under PLPA which was ironically already deemed as forests. This decision was taken despite several Supreme Court orders directing the state to accord the highest protection for Aravallis, especially those in south Haryana. The state government, though, went with its exercise and in this year and last year had also granted permissions to Bharti Land, a real-estate firm, to fell trees on a 52-acre plot inside Aravallis in Faridabad.

Haryana government's decision to "identify" forest land non-forest land was based on the BS Sandhu judgment of the top court. In this judgment, the court had said that inclusion of Karoran village of Ropar district of Punjab under PLPA did not make it a forest. The Haryana government used this to go ahead with the ground verification exercise. This move faced the ire of activists and environmentalists who said that the government was using a judgment meant applicable to Shivaliks for the Aravallis.

Further, environmentalists also pointed out that the Haryana government ignored the Supreme Court's clear directions on the status of PLPA areas as forests from a 2008 order in the MC Mehta case. In 2015, the National Capital Region Planning Board had identified 50,000 acres in the Aravalli hills in south Haryana but these areas were not notified under sections 4 and Section 5 of the PLPA. The government decided that the status of this 50,000 acres would be kept in abeyance. This was contrary to the TN Godavarman judgment of 1996 which had stated that forest is to be understood in the dictionary sense and that any area regarded as a forest in government records, irrespective of ownership, would be a forest.

"If you read the order in proper perspective, the court has clarified the legal position on this issue. A particular land may not have tree cover but the purpose is conservation of groundwater and prevents erosion. This was the key basis to notify areas under PLPA," said RP Balwan, a former Conservator of Forest, Gurgaon.

"The Supreme Court passed several orders on this issue, but nobody from the state bureaucracy bothered to do anything. Accountability has to be fixed and there has to be a functional mechanism to protect the green lungs," said MC Mehta, an environmental lawyer and petitioner in the Kant Enclave case.

Mehta added, "This case has been on since the early 90s when the protection of Ridge was brought up before the court. More than ever, it is important to protect the Aravallis now because it acts as a buffer against Capital's air pollution problem."

Major Villages

1) Mangar village 
2) Lakarpur village 
3) Ankhir  
4) Badkhal  
5) Mewal Maharajpur