Like most villages in the district, Anangpur parts of the Aravalli as village commons, largely for grazing as no cultivation was possible on the gair mumkin pahar.
At the Sharika Devi temple, perched on the highest point of Anangpur village, there is cool breeze and a vantage view of the Aravallis, lush in parts in the wake of monsoon. Anand Singh (name changed) points to a few homes surrounded by small bajra fields and vegetation. "That is the road we used to take our cattle for grazing while growing up in the 1960's. Once land was sold for the Kant Enclave, it slowly came to a halt."
Kant Enclave whose demolition was ordered by SC is situated in Anangpur village, Faridabad. Like most villages in the district, Anangpur parts of the Aravalli as village commons, largely for grazing as no cultivation was possible on the gair mumkin pahar. Gair mumkin pahar literally means land that is not fit for cultivation.
But the village commons was claimed as private land and residents said that earlier generations were lured using money to sell it off. This took away the village commons and also affected the forest. Residents of Anangpur said that they were glad that SC's order would preserve Aravallis.
"The land for this enclave was bought from earlier generations by dividing villagers. They made our elders believe that they would continue to have access to this land but that stopped after they began constructions and then a boundary wall was built," said Prem Singh Bhadana, 57, a resident of the village.
Mining was widespread in Anangpur village and it had also affected the groundwater situation. But following SC's orders the mining was stopped. "We are all equally concerned about the environment and hope that this order helps preserve the Aravallis," Singh added.
One of the fundamental basis of the SC judgment on Kant Enclave was the August 25, 1992 notification of Haryana government issued under the Punjab Land Preservation Act. The notification brought 1467 acres of Anangpur village under notification for a period of thirty years. The notification prohibited quarrying of stones, burning of line, cutting of trees or timber and collection of forest produce.
The illegalities in Anangpur village were noted in detail by the Supreme Courts Central Empowered Committee (CEC) in 2008. CEC's report of November 12, 2008 said showed land-use maps and macro plans in respect of Aravalli hills. The SC noted that revenue map of Anangpur super-imposed on satellite imagery revealed revealed that a large number of colonies, farm-houses and mines were located in areas closed under the provisions of the PLPA.
The SC also noted that the groundwater level in the area was rapidly depleting and had already been marked as 'Dark Zone for Ground Water'. In the backdrop of these findings, the CEC had recommended that colonies, farm-houses, banquet halls and other buildings illegally constructed in areas closed under the provisions of the PLPA such as Kant Enclave should be demolished.
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