Haryana Government notified forests in Aravalli range are not a forest

The Haryana Government on 14 April 2015 issued a notification that forests in Aravalli ranges are not a forest.  According to the latest order, the vast tracts of forests of Aravalli range, including Mangarbani grove, would now be recorded as not forest.

Mangarbani grove is often considered as the last remaining virgin forest in Delhi NCR and held sacred by local villagers.

The notification states that, only recorded forests will be shown/marked as forests while carrying out ground truthing exercise in Aravalli region. Areas other than recorded forests will be shown or marked as not forest, which is the present status.

Consequently after this order, the forest clearance regulations which currently prevent the lands from being diverted for any other activity would not apply on these lands, making it a cake walk for real estate and other industries to chop the forests to use the lands.

This latest decision of Haryana government to free up about 80000 hectares of land is seen by activists and local villagers as a result of constant lobbying by builders.

Earlier in March 2015, it was decided to record the entire Aravalli range as forest while carrying out ground surveys of natural conservation zones in NCR.