Gurgaon: Sultanpur National Park has a little less space to breathe this year compared to 12 months ago. Next year, some concrete may eviscerate a little more of its protected area, some more the following year, and yet more the year after, till the park boundary and urban settlements run into one another.Unless, of course, govt intervenes, something it should have done long ago to protect one of north India’s richest bird nesting sites, and the first in Haryana to get a Ramsar tag.There were 48 more violations of eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) norms around the park in the latest round of inspections compared to the last, taking the cumulative count to 183 and showing how concrete structures are closing in on the park despite regulatory interventions.The violations include farmhouses, banquet halls, commercial establishments, residential buildings, boundary walls, gates and other structures that have come up within the notified ESZ, where development activities are regulated to protect the park’s ecosystem and internationally recognised wetland.The 5-km ESZ around the national park covers 22 villages, where no construction is permitted within 300 metres of the wetland, buildings are restricted to two storeys within 500 metres, and polluting industries and commercial construction are prohibited within a 3km radius.Last year, the wildlife department recorded 32 violations in Jan and another 25 across March and April. A National Board for Wildlife (NBWL)-appointed committee separately flagged 78 violations while assessing the ecological impact of development around the protected area — taking the tally at the time to 135. Despite this, no effective action was taken against the identified structures.Notices had been issued in the past, but only to some property owners, and by the department of town and country planning (DTCP) — not the forest department. This will be the first time the forest department itself issues notices to violators, officials said.A joint inspection of the sites has been scheduled for Monday, with representatives from the pollution department, DTCP, the district revenue office, and forest and wildlife officials, said Gurgaon divisional forest officer (wildlife) RK Jangra. “After Monday, a fresh survey will be undertaken to identify additional violations,” he said.TOI had earlier reported on the growing unauthorised construction around the protected wetland.The enforcement drive comes nearly a year after the NBWL panel declined to recommend three affordable housing projects proposed within the ESZ, citing repeated regulatory violations and the Haryana govt’s failure to act against unauthorised construction. The committee directed the state to initiate legal and regulatory proceedings against violators and submit an action-taken report to the Union environment ministry.That decision followed a ministry-ordered site inspection, prompted by concerns that construction was proceeding without mandatory wildlife clearance inside the ESZ. The inspection confirmed this, leading to a high-level committee, headed by the inspector general of forests (wildlife), to assess the environmental impact.Beyond illegal construction, the panel flagged the degradation of Sultanpur Jheel, growing dependence on the Gurgaon canal to sustain the wetland, the spread of invasive species, and unchecked urbanisation as major threats to the ecosystem.Sultanpur is recognised as an important stopover on the Central Asian Flyway — a major global migratory route for over 600 bird species, stretching from the Arctic in Russia down to the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Conservationists have repeatedly warned that unchecked development around the park could irreversibly damage the ecological buffer sustaining its biodiversity.Experts said issuing notices is an important first step, but what matters is whether it is followed by effective enforcement on the ground.“The eco-sensitive zone exists to act as a protective buffer for Sultanpur National Park, and allowing unchecked development within it will eventually undermine the wetland’s ecology and biodiversity,” said environmentalist Vivek Kamboj.
