Green panel orders status quo on Basai wetland in Gurgaon
WETLAND ATTRACTS A NUMBER OF MIGRATORY BIRDS; WASTE PLANT NEAR IT WILL DESTROY THEIR NATURAL HABITAT
National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Wednesday directed that the construction work of the C&D waste treatment plant be suspended till the next hearing on July 27.
The green court was hearing a petition filed by Delhi Bird Foundation, an NGO, stating the wetland that attracts large number of migratory birds every year, is under threat because of the plant.
Bird enthusiasts demanded to suspend the work of construction and demolition (C&D) plant which is supposed to come up in Basai and also requested be shifted it from the wetland.
This issue came as the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) gave nod to a multinational construction firm to build a debris processing plant over 3.5 acres in Basai and the project was inaugurated by the MCG commissioner V Umashankar on May 23.
The 20-acre wetland attracts a large number of migratory birds every year and setting up a C&D plant nearby will destroy the birds’ natural habitat, environmentalists said.
The wetland currently has yellow bittern, black bittern, painted snipe, water cock, jacana and weaver birds. “We have submitted pictures of Basai wetland in the court. There are evidences that the wetland is a home for large number of species,” said Pankaj Gupta, a birder.
AccordingtotheC&DManagement Rules 2016, a plant cannot be near a forest, water body, wetland, sanctuary or human clusters. The NGO said the area has an active aquatic life and has all features of a wetland.
On June 17, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar laid the foundation stone of the C&D plant, even when, the birders had wrote to him raising concern regarding the fate of the 200 bird species that visit the wetland every year.
The bird experts had initiated an online campaign to raise awareness regarding wetland and the need to preserve it.
Meanwhile, the MCG officials said the land is not a notified wetland and they are setting up the plant under the direction of NGT which stated that the city requires a C&D waste treatment plant as the waste was dumped into Aravallis. “The boundary wall of the project is completed at the site. In master plan also the area is kept for public utility space and moreover the area has huge number of big housing project coming up and is close to Dwarka Expressway and railway track. All these elements will not attract birds and also the city needs a C&D plant to process the waste it generates,” said Sudhir Chauhan, senior town planner (STP) of MCG.