The Delhi high court on Friday severely reprimanded the forest department — the third time this week — for approving the construction of an office building, Van Bhawan, and a new road in the Ridge area, ordering the work on both to be halted.
The court said it wondered if the forest department’s Ridge Management Board (RMB) was instead a “Ridge dissolving board” and expressed “shock” over the board’s decisions allowing rampant constructions within what is considered the “green lungs” of the national capital.
Read here: ‘Will shut you down’: High Court warns Delhi forest department over non-compliance of order
RMB, in a meeting held on December 11, approved the proposal to construct an office building for the directorate general and Central Record Office of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police on a 2.847-acre land at RK Puram; the headquarters of the forest department in the existing premises of deputy conservator of forest (west) in the Central Ridge; and an approach road from IGNOU to South Asian University.
This was further recommended to the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) for approval.
The court said that it was “disheartened” by the board’s approach — of portraying its concern regarding the protection of the Ridge on the one hand while granting permissions for constructions “left, right, and centre” on the other.
“Is it ridge management or ridge dissolving board? What is it doing? Two acres of land for construction of building and another plot of land for construction of headquarters? I’m shocked. What are these other agendas… 2.487 acres of land for construction of an office building? I’m not understanding,” a bench of justice Jasmeet Singh asked advocate Sameer Vashishth, who appeared for the forest department.
Considering a petition regarding the conservation of the Ridge, the judge added, “Everyone is crying to protect the ridge. I’m unable to understand what the approach is and this is really disheartening.”
Approvals to projects in any of the Capital’s four ridge areas has been a controversial issue. One of the latest projects to be approved was on December 6, when CEC cleared a Delhi Development Authority (DDA) proposal to construct two roads — Gaushala Road, Chattarpur Road to South Asian University (SAU); and SAU to Central Armed Police Force Institute of Medical Sciences (CAPFIMS) — in parts of the Southern Ridge between Chhattarpur and Maidangarhi to facilitate a series of housing projects for central security agencies.
Vashishth submitted that though RMB permitted the department to construct a six-to-eight-metre-wide trail in the Central Ridge area, the approval would be put before the Supreme Court by CEC.
He added that removing it before the top court’s hearing would result in wasting the public exchequer’s money. “The court’s orders are highest for us. If court says we have to remove it, we will remove it (6-8 metre wide trail),” he added.
Amicus curiae Gautam Narayan and Aditya N Prasad submitted the board did not have the jurisdiction to grant permission for the construction of the trail.
On November 29, the high court had rebuked the department for the construction of the trail, saying that the Ridge belonged to the people of Delhi and could not be dealt with in a “cursory manner”.
In a similar vein, the court expressed displeasure on Monday at the forest department and PWD, slamming them for a “lack of will” and asking them to implement its directions concerning the greening of arterial roads and forest areas by planting trees.
Then, on Wednesday, the court directed the forest department to immediately remove the enclosed platform (chabutra) around the trees on the footpath — which was done for “beautification purposes” — in the Bhikaji Cama Place Complex, warning the department that it would be “shut down” in case of non-compliance with the court’s orders.
RMB, during its first meeting held in August, cleared five development projects falling in Ridge or morphological Ridge (area with ridge-like features not notified or protected forest land), for which 93 trees were to be felled or transplanted. The total area of the projects, including the construction of a new lab complex by Inter University Accelerator Centre near JNU, a new office building for the Asian Development Bank in Chanakyapuri, and CAPFIMS in Maidangarhi, was around 16.34 hectares.
Read here: Forest dept must take steps to protect Ridge: Delhi HC
HT reported on December 2 that over 314 hectares (ha) of the Southern Ridge — spread across areas such Rajokri, Asola-Bhatti and Pul Prahladpur — was yet to be cleared of encroachments.
(With inputs from Jasjeev Gandhiok)