NEW DELHI: Environmentalists have welcomed the retention of environmental safeguards in the NCR 2041 Regional Plan, which will soon replace the 2021 plan and provide a development plan for the National Capital Region.
Earlier, the draft 2041 plan, issued in 2022, replaced the term “natural reserve area” – mentioned in the 2021 plan – with the term “natural area.”
Environmentalists said the change means conservation is no longer important in the NCR’s regional plan, putting the Aravallis, forest areas and all water bodies in the region at risk. However, environmentalists say, the latest agenda for the National Capital Region Planning Council meeting, scheduled for June 16, states that “the ‘Natural Conservation Area’ concept of the NCR 2021 Regional Plan will be retained in the new NCR Plan 2041.”
In a statement, Neelam Ahluwalia, co-founder of the Aravalli Bachao Citizens’ Movement, said it was a “huge relief” to people who opposed the change in terminology.
To oppose the introduction of the new term, several ground protests were held and people wrote letters to various authorities, she said.
“In all letters of objection… it was proposed to retain the term NCZ used in the 2021 Regional Plan in the new 2041 Regional Plan, and not replace it with ‘natural areas’… [A]“The areas classified as natural areas in the draft NCR Regional Plan 2041 do not require mandatory protection like the NCZ areas that states are obligated to conserve, as the current NCR Regional Plan 2021 restricts any construction to only 0.5% of the total natural protected area,” she added.
The term natural area in the draft plan 2022 includes natural features such as mountains, hills, rivers, water bodies and forests that have been notified for conservation under central or state laws, and are recognized as such in land records, Aravalli water and environmental conservationist Dr Rajendra Singh said in a statement.
“This was a very harsh restriction as it would have excluded the majority of forests, Aravallis and even rivers, floodplains and water bodies in the National Capital Region – a few of which meet both the proposed criteria – from notification and presence in the revenue records,” Singh added.
In the National Capital Regional Plan 2021, the major natural features, identified as eco-sensitive zones, the extension of the Aravalli mountain range in Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi, forest areas, and the Yamuna, Ganga, Kali, Hindu and Sahbi tributary rivers, have been demarcated as NCZs.
It also includes major lakes and water bodies like Badkal Lake, Suraj Kund, Damdama in Haryana sub-region, Silisarh Lake in Rajasthan, etc.
This article was generated from an automated news feed without any modifications to the text.
