Mangar on edge: Authorities want the realtors out

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Publication: The Times Of India Delhi;Date: Dec 14, 2011;Section: Times City;Page: 4

TOI IMPACT
Mangar on edge: Authorities want the realtors out
Dipak Kumar Dash TNN Faridabad/ New Delhi: After a series of reports by TOI on the need to protect the ecofragile Mangar area and adjoining forests in the Aravalis in Faridabad, the district administration has sent a detailed report to the state headquarters seeking the conservation of these areas. Deputy commissioner Rakesh Gupta told TOI that the report highlights the need to conserve areas in Manger and 7-8 other villages. We have found that these areas are major water recharge zones and have ample green cover. We hope these issues will be considered by the apex committee constituted by the government, Gupta added. The committee, headed by the deputy commissioner, suggested that this area, being an important forest for Faridabad, should be excluded from real estate zoning. It is also part of a wildlife corridor between Delhi and Rajasthan. Gupta said that non-forestry activities would cause major depletion of groundwater and could pose a threat to the water availability in Gurgaon and Faridabad. The two districts are largely dependent on groundwater. Since the government came out with a Draft Development Plan (DDP) 2031 for Mangar and adjoining villages, the number of requests for boring tubewells in the region has increased manifold. Land prices have also shot up. The plan proposes to allow 22 kinds of real estate activities in the Aravalis hills from farmhouses to airports. The committee found that allowing non-forestry activities in the green belt would fragment the hills and affect the catchment area of Dhauj Lake. The lake has been drying up because of vegetational degradation of the forest in the catchment area. Last winter, a leopard had got trapped in a farmhouse in the forest area and was killed by locals. Further fragmentation will compound the mananimal conflict here, committee members say. Gupta has reportedly directed the forest department that the case for notifying all remaining gairmumkin pahar/ Aravalli Hills/ forest areas in all villages that are covered in the DDP under section 4 and 5 of Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) starting with Mangar and Kot village be prepared and sent to the competent authority for immediate notification.

ECOLOGICALLY SENSITIVE: The committee has suggested that Mangar and other areas should be excluded from real estate zoning

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12/14/2011 1:39 PM