Concern of Aravali

The deep implications of the Supreme Court’s strict order regarding the removal of illegal residential construction in the sensitive forest area of Aravalli can be understood. There is no doubt that the damage caused to the ecosystem of Delhi and the National Capital Region due to illegal mining and deforestation needs to be seen in a broader sense. The Aravalli mountain range not only protects this area from the harshness of nature, but also gives life to the forest range from the ever-increasing pollution. This is the reason why the Supreme Court has taken an initiative to save the Aravalli hills by ordering the removal of about ten thousand illegal residential constructions in Lakkadpur-Khori village in the forest area of Faridabad district. During this, the seriousness of the problem can be understood from the strict remarks of the court. The court has said in a stern tone that land grabbers become honest in court but do not do any work outside according to law. That is, bluntly stated that the occupiers of the land are not entitled to take refuge in the law. This message was not only for the illegal land grabbers on the land but also for the officials who failed to comply with the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The court has considered environment and ecology as national assets. There is no doubt that such illegal occupation is not possible without ignoring the administration, forest department, local body, for which a group of builders, touts and local leaders play a role. The blinding of the monitoring departments gives impetus to encroachment. There is no doubt that thousands of people will be punished by the orders of the court. There will be many such people among them, who must have spent their entire life to fulfill the dream of their roof. Many people may have also taken loans from banks and financial institutions. But they too should not have ignored the court’s warnings and orders issued for a long time.
The aspect to consider here is how this situation of encroachment and construction has arisen. Why the executive remained insensitive to protect the environment and protect the Aravallis from encroachment. The Green Bench of the court has been repeatedly terming the non-forest use of forest land as a violation of the Forest Act. In May 2009, the court had banned mining activities in Haryana’s Aravalli area, which also included parts of Gurugram and Mewat. The court is of the view that clean environment is part of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution. It is our responsibility to preserve it for the generations to come. Apart from this, in September 2018, the court had also ordered the Haryana government to demolish illegal constructions in an enclave in Faridabad. Along with this, the company that built the enclave was also ordered to deposit Rs 5 crore in the Aravali Rehabilitation Fund. In the latest case, the top court has sought a compliance report in six weeks. In fact, as the density of population has increased in the country’s capital and national capital region, the game of builders and brokers has increased and people who dream of housing get caught in their clutches. Whereas it was the responsibility of the administration and the local body to mark the forest area and prevent people from building residential in this area in time. The question is also that why the officials who completed the land papers and passed the construction maps would not have been made accountable in such cases. That is why the court also said that those who do not have any other option can be considered separately for their rehabilitation. However, the recent court order must be viewed in a broader sense at the national level as thousands of kilometers of forest cover continues to be illegally occupied in environmentally sensitive areas in the country.