Unauthorised construction continues in the Aravallis

GREEN ACTIVISTS HAD ALERTED THE FOREST DEPT ABOUT ILLEGAL CONSTRUCTION OF A ROAD IN FOREST AREA

GURGAON: Illegal construction continues in the Ar av all is despite several complaints being made to the state forest department. Environmental activists said that though they wrote to the forest department alerting them about illegal construction of a road and a boundary wall in the forest area of Ankh ir in Far ida bad, no action has been taken and the construction continues.

The area where the construction is going on falls under the sections 4 and 5 of the Punjab and Haryana Land Protection Act (PLPA), 1990. Any kind of construction and non-forest activity is prohibited in areas notified under these sections, as per the Forest Conservation Act.

Hindu stan Times had reported the matter in its edition on December 29.

The wall, construction on which started last month in the PLPA area of the Aravalli forest, is now almost 300 metres long, environmental analyst Chetan Agarwal said.

The wall is being built in the Faridabad division between the Ankhir Chowk and the Siddha- data temple along the main road. “It is very evident that it is being constructed in forestland ,” Ag arwal said.

“The construction work on the wall has not been stopped. Also, an illegal road is being developed near the Gurgaon-Faridabad highway; this, too, is in the forest area. The forest department was supposed to investigate the matter,” he said.

Environmentalist Jitender Bhadana of Save Aravalli said, “All land in Haryana is being privatised. Even the protected forest areas are being encroached upon and no action is being taken against them. Soon, there will be no forest land left.”

Meanwhile, the forest department confirmed that they are aware of the situation.

“Right now, there is an intradepartment transfer underway and so we are taking time to act. We will take action against the violators within a week,” chief conservator of forest (south Haryana) Satya Bhan said.