“How can they have protection? I don’t understand. Sixty-three is not a small number. It is a huge number… It [Central Ridge] is the lungs of Delhi. How can there be 63 structures? What are these and what is the protection? If there is no protection, the structures have to go,” the Delhi High Court said recently.
A single-judge bench of Justice Jasmeet Singh was hearing a contempt plea, in which amicus curiae advocates Gautam Narayan and Aditya N Prasad raised certain issues related to cases where parties were directed to plant trees in the national capital. Abhinav Kumar, Deputy Conservator of Forests (West Division) informed the Court that 14 truckloads of construction and demolition material and 10 truckloads of municipal solid waste had been removed from the Central Ridge over the last two months.
The Court said that this is unacceptable. In the first instance, there should not have been any construction and demolition material or municipal solid waste in the Central Ridge. To this, the Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) assured the Court that there will be adequate monitoring and appropriate deployment of staff to ensure that there is no dumping of material in the Central Ridge. Taking on record the assurance, the Court said in case of any violation, the DCF shall be personally responsible for the same. The Court further stated that in case the DCF (West Division) is in need of any additional resources to do the needful, he shall be at liberty to file an application before the Court and it will be considered.
The Delhi Ridge, sometimes simply called the Ridge, lies in the Northern Aravalli leopard wildlife corridor in the National Capital Territory of Delhi. It is a northern extension of the ancient Aravalli Range, some 1.5 billion years old. The ridge consists of quartzite rocks and extends from the southeast at Tughlaqabad, near the Bhatti mines, branching out in places and tapering off in the north near Wazirabad on the west bank of the river Yamuna, covering about 35 kilometres. The Ridge acts as the “green lungs” for the city, and protects Delhi from the hot winds of the deserts of Rajasthan to the west. It has also enabled Delhi to be the world’s second most bird-rich capital city, after Kenya’s Nairobi. Though modest in height, the Ridge acts as a watershed, dividing the Indus Plain to the west from the Gangetic Plain to the east, within the Indo-Gangetic plain. It is believed that the Aravallis are one of the oldest mountain ranges in India which evolved around 2.5 billion years ago in the Archaeozoic times. The range extends from Gujarat through Rajasthan to Haryana-Delhi. In Delhi, the spurs of the Aravallis are commonly called the Delhi Ridge which is divided into the Northern, Central, South Central and Southern Ridge.
The Court was informed by Delhi government counsel Sameer Vashisht that there was a trail/park which was being made through the Central Ridge and now it has been stopped and no further construction of any kind of trail/park will be done without permission of the Court. In addition, he further stated that the trail/park which was already made shall be removed along with the material within a period of six weeks and a compliance affidavit shall also be filed in this regard before the next date of hearing.
As regards the averment that some trees were felled at the Central Ridge, Vashisht, ASC, submitted that there was only pruning of trees on account of application by the Department of Archaeology, GNCTD, for the purposes of maintaining the Malcha Mahal and about 38 trees were cut as they were affecting the stability and safety of its structure. Aditya N Prasad, amicus curiae, submitted that the same could not have been done as it is violative of the orders of the Supreme Court in MC Mehta vs Union of India, the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, and Indian Forest Act, 1927.
The Court directed that the DCF (West Division) shall file an affidavit explaining the modus operandi followed for permitting of such felling. In addition, the DCF (West Division) will also indicate the status apropos the direction issued to the Department of Archaeology, GNCTD, for planting of trees and whether the same has been complied with and the success rate of those trees. As regards the amounts lying in the Green Delhi Fund, Vashisht, ASC, shall seek instructions for the optimal utilization of the funds in the account in consultation with the DCFs, the Court said.
The Court also asked the Standing Counsel, Shobhana Takiar, for the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to join the proceedings regarding the expansion of forested areas in Delhi. The Court further directed that Takiar shall have a meeting with the Director (Planning), DDA before the next date of hearing and will try and identify some land which can be utilized for extending the forest land in Delhi.
In addition, the amicus curiae will also point out the areas where they think it is viable for tree plantation in the city of Delhi, maybe on the roads, boundary walls of various buildings, playgrounds, and the same shall also be looked into by the concerned departments through the ASC. The suggestion of the amicus curiae shall be forwarded to the ASC who shall take further appropriate steps in that regard. The DCF shall ensure that there will be no further felling of trees without intimation to the Court. Also, there will be no clearing of the land by felling of trees.
In 1993, parts of north Delhi, central Delhi, south West Delhi and south Delhi covering 7,777 hectares were declared a reserve forest. Thereafter in 1994 and 1996, a major part of the Ridge was notified by the government, thus stopping all construction. Over the years, pressures of urban development have seen forests of Delhi Ridge under threat. In many areas, landscaped public parks, and public housing have come up, plus the area also faces dumping of construction waste.
Presently, the Ridge for administrative reasons, is divided into four separate zones, namely:
(1) The Old Delhi or Northern Ridge denotes the hilly area near Delhi University and is by far the smallest segment of the Ridge. Nearly 170 hectares were declared a Reserved Forest in 1915. Less than 87 hectares remain today near Delhi University, which is being developed as the Northern Ridge Biodiversity Park by the Delhi Development Authority.
(2) The New Delhi or Central Ridge was made into a Reserved Forest in 1914 and stretches from just south of Sadar Bazaar to Dhaula Kuan. It extends over 864 hectares, but some bits have been nibbled away.
(3) The Mehrauli or South-Central Ridge is centered on Sanjay Van, near JNU and Vasant Kunj and encompasses 633 hectares. Large chunks have been encroached and built upon. Approximately 70 hectares near Sainik Farms are being developed as the Tilpath Valley Biodiversity Park.
(4) The Tughlaqabad or Southern Ridge sprawls across 6,200 hectares and includes the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary. This is the least urban of the four segments of the Ridge, but a lot of it is village-owned or privately owned farmland. This includes Bandhwari and Mangar Bani forests.
The importance of the Ridge for the ecological security of the capital city of Delhi can hardly be overemphasized. There are records that the Ridge was accorded some degree of protection during the later period of the Mughal rule in India. The British Indian government had also put in place robust statutory framework by way of notifications in 1913, declaring an area of 796.25 hectares in eight villages of Delhi as a Reserved Forest under the provisions of Indian Forest Act, 1878. Later on, some more notifications were issued which provided protection to the Ridge in Delhi. The British India’s Gazetteer of Delhi 1883-84 records the presence of a vast faunal diversity in Delhi.
The imperatives of protecting the Ridge were further amplified by the Supreme Court in writ petition in the matter of MC Mehta vs Union of India and others. The apex court also cajoled the Delhi government to constitute a Ridge Management Board for the protection of the Delhi Ridge in 1995 in the MC Mehta case. The MC Mehta case directions led to the constitution of the Ridge Management Board under the chairmanship of the chief secretary with head of the forest department of Delhi government as its member-secretary. This Board had members from government and NGOs. The Board took a series of measures not only to carry out the directions of the Supreme Court, but also for the protection of the Ridge.
—By Adarsh Kumar and India Legal Bureau