Latest Development by Supreme Court
the Supreme Court of India extended the green protection for forest land in the Aravalli ranges. The Supreme court said that about 30,000 hectares of forest land in the Aravallis and Shivaliks in Haryana would be treated as forest. The Supreme Court said that all land in Haryana covered under special orders issued under Section 4 of the Punjab Land Conservation Act (PLPA) will be treated as forest area and this land will be entitled to protection under the Forest Conservation Act of 1980.
Latest Rulings:
- The SC upheld that Section 4 demarcations were valid and were “forest land traps”.
- The court also made a distinction – even though all demarcations were deemed to fall within the PLPA’s standards of protection, they did not fall within the forest act provision.
- It also rejected the State’s argument that all 11 districts should be treated as forests, saying that in Gurugram’s case, Section 4 of the PLPA would apply only to 5.4% of the land.
Conclusion:
The Aravalli range passes through 5 districts of Haryana namely Gurugram, Faridabad, Rewari, Mahendragarh, and Mewat and covers an area of about 180 sq km in Faridabad, Gurugram. Starting from Asola, the Aravalli Range extends to Surajkund in Faridabad, Badkhal and Damdama in Gurugram. That is why environmentalists are assuming that if illegal mining is not stopped completely, then trees, vegetation and fauna will be destroyed. In such a case, the supreme court’s decision of protecting the Aravalli Range will be proved as the biggest milestone.