NEW DELHI, AUG. 8. Members of the Citizens for the Preservation of Quarries and Lakes Wilderness (CPQLW), responding to the Government's stand that the essential part of Delhi's natural heritage in the South Central Ridge bounded clockwise by JNU, the Mehrauli Mahipalpur road, National Highway 8, Palam Road and Vasant Vihar does not qualify the criteria of being a protected area, have maintained that the area was sensitive and needed legal protection.
Stating that the area was actually a forest area, member of the CPOLW claim that the State Forest Department has in its earlier recording noted that the area "has vegetation characteristic of the Aravalli Ridge but is under very heavy biotic pressure and is in a degraded stage''. The note further explains that the "area has the potential to be restored as a forest''.
"What we are asking the government to do is to preserve this area as a forest land which in the long run will prove to be a boon for the Capital,'' explained Vikram Soni of CPQLW. "We find it very disturbing that construction activity and habitat destruction continues in the Vasant Vihar-Vasant Kunj Mahipalpur Ridge despite the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) directive to the Delhi Government and the MOEF to ensure there was no further construction,'' pointed out Prof. Soni.
"The Army continues to deny that it has received such a direction from the Delhi Government. And also the draft report of experts points out that the area is geologically and ecologically a Ridge and a forest area and is thus protected by law, regardless of the ownership.
The construction projects of the Army and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) are a violation of the law,'' he added. Environmentalists have also pointed out that the area was sensitive because of the fact that there are water bodies which sadly have been subjected to large-scale withdrawal by the Army and the DDA. "This is a water notified area, where all colonies have water shortage. It can however be used as a good source of good quality drinking water, as all rainwater that collects in the water bodies in this area is completely unpolluted,'' said Prof. Soni.
What the group also finds disturbing is the fact that though the Army has been told about the violation and was requested to stop construction first in 1999 and again now this year, the response so far has been negative. "We have to understand that protection of the area as a whole is a must. Besides helping in the prevention of air pollution, the area acts as a water cover and an important environmental buffer for the city,'' explained the director of Toxic Links, Ravi Aggarwal.
