Activists to approach NGT against felling of trees

Environmentalists are set to file a petition with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday, challenging the Gurgaon Manesar Urban Complex Master Plan 2031.

The move follows felling of around 5,000 trees for the construction of three underpasses — at Rajiv Chowk, IFFCO Chowk and Signature Tower intersections.

Environmentalists alleged that the Master Plan is solely focused on real estate development and urbanisation, rather than holistic development. Despite Haryana having the second lowest forest cover in the country, the Master Plan has no provisions for preservation of the green cover, the activists

With no proper policy to restore forests in the area and false data on forest cover, the city may soon have less than 1% forest cover. AMINA SHERWANI, green activist

alleged.

The Master Plan states, “The green belts are meant for road widening and hence are essentially temporary in nature.”

“The green belts should be termed as ‘utility belts’ as apart from planting trees, they are being used for all other purposes,” Vivek Kamboj, an environmentalist, said.

Gurgaon has already lost 8% of its forest area in the last decade. The total protected forest area in Gurgaon is about 1,600 hectares, which is about 2% of the total city area, as per forest department records. Of this, about 130 hectares has already been diverted for infrastructure projects.

Chetan Agarwal, an environment analyst, said, “By 2031, the population of the city is expected to double; thus, the natural infrastructure of the Aravallis and groundwater recharge zones that provide the ecosystem services, on which the population will depend, have to be protected and increased. There is a need to increase the area zoned as forest so that the per capita forest cover is maintained as the population of the city will increase. Only infrastructure projects cannot help the city develop.”