News: Wall built around one acre of Aravalli land in Faridabad, case filed-07-05-2021
Wall built around one acre of Aravalli land in Faridabad, case filed
Officials of the forest department on Thursday said that a wall has been built over a one-acre area in the Aravallis in Faridabad district, in a fresh attempt to encroach the area
Raj Kumar, divisional forest officer of Faridabad forest division, said, “Around three to four days ago, we learnt that a wall had been built around a one acre plot in the Faridabad Aravallis and the ground levelled off. We sent a team to inspect the area and a forest offence report has been filed in the matter. We also wrote to the police station concerned for lodging an FIR.”
The land in question is notified under special sections 4 and 5 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act, which extends protection against land-use change to certain specified Aravalli areas and forests and trees.
He further said that no decision has been taken so far over the demolition of the wall.
“Due to the lockdown, it could have been easy for the wall to be built but our staff regularly patrols the area to keep a check on such activities. One or two more incidents of encroachments were reported from forest areas away from the main road and FIRs have been registered for those cases as well,” added Kumar.
In March, a little over 25 acres of forest land in Ankhir village under the Faridabad forest division has been encroached upon, said officials.
Ankhir is one of the two villages in Faridabad district (the other being Mewla Maharajpur), where over 90% of the village common land is notified under the Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900. As per previous Supreme Court orders, this accords the land legal ‘forest’ status with protection under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
