Gurgaon: National Green Tribunal (NGT) has pulled up Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEF&CC) for failing to appear for the ongoing proceedings on environmental violations in the ecologically sensitive Raisina Aravalis despite being served notice.A bench of NGT chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and expert member Afroz Ahmad directed the respondent to either appear virtually on the next date of hearing or appoint an advocate to represent it. The ministry’s Chandigarh office was also asked to file its reply within two weeks to an intervention application moved by Ansal Retreat Resident Welfare Association (RWA).The directions were issued during the hearing of a suo motu case initiated by the tribunal on the basis of a TOI report published on July 28, 2024, titled “Gurgaon farmhouses back: Raze & rebuild cycle ensures Raisina never heals.” The case is being heard along with an execution application in the long-running hearing on Aravali protection.Under the Aravali notification of 1992, construction of buildings and infrastructure and felling of trees in protected areas are prohibited without permission.The tribunal also granted Ansal Retreat RWA two weeks to place on record the names of its members and their plot numbers. In a separate application, Kuldeep Kumar Kohli sought to be impleaded in the proceedings. NGT directed that copies of the application be supplied to all respondents within three days and gave them two weeks to file their replies.The matter has been posted for hearing on Sept 1, 2026.In Dec last year, NGT had directed Haryana and Rajasthan govts to set up a monitoring committee to regularly review removal of encroachments and illegal construction from protected Aravali areas in Gurgaon, Faridabad, Nuh and Alwar.In 2018, the tribunal had ordered restoration of all protected Aravali areas in Gurgaon and Faridabad. Although the Gurgaon district committee sent show-cause notices to property owners in 2020, areas covered under the Aravali notification are yet to be restored as forest.In 2021, around 30 structures in the area were demolished by Sohna Municipal Council.A forest department survey has found that at least 500 farmhouses have been built illegally on Aravali land in Gurgaon. In 2020, the administration replaced the term ‘gair mumkin pahar’ with ‘gair mumkin farmhouse’ in revenue records, helping farmhouse owners bypass provisions of the Aravali notification.In 2019, around 195 show-cause notices were issued to farmhouse owners for unauthorised construction in the Aravalis, most of them at Ansals Aravali Retreat.Col SS Oberoi (retd), an environmental activist, said, “Despite several orders of NGT and specifically the order in Oct 2018 to remove encroachments and restore forests in the Aravalis, construction has only increased in Raisina due to delayed action of the district administration.”
