Haryana government pushes to cut Mangarbani's buffer zone

NEW DELHI: The new BJP government in Haryana has endorsed the decision of the previous Hooda dispensation to whittle down the crucial buffer zone meant to protect the sacred Mangarbani forest in Aravalis. The Khattar government has even moved to get the proposal cleared by the NCR Planning Board, which is scheduled to meet next week.
As per the fresh plan, the buffer zone would be reduced to 60 metres from 500m, proposed earlier by the Hooda government at the board's meeting in April 2014. That proposal is recorded in the minutes of the meeting.

The Congress government later did a U-turn, claiming it had never com mitted to have a 500-metre zone where no constructions would be allowed -a claim contested both by the Union urban development ministry and the NCR Planning Board.

Now, with the Khattar government too backing that contention, green activists have accused both parties of trying to reduce the green cover in this ecologically fragile area of the Aravalis, at the behest of the realtor lobby. The agenda items accessed by TOI shows that the current Haryana government has reproduced a letter of June last year in which the then-town and country planning secretary had said that the state never offered to keep a buffer zone of 500 metres. It says Haryana had only offered to set aside a "suitable" area around Mangarbani as a no-construction zone.

The minutes issued by the NCRPB secretariat following its April 2014 meeting contradicts this claim. It states that "the government of Haryana will ensure that Mangarbani, along with an essential buffer zone of 500 metres, will be `no construction zone" in the state's sub-regional plan.

The state later claimed that a buffer in the nature of an eco-sensitive zone was applicable only in the case of a national park or wildlife sanctuary .

"Since Mangarbani is neither a national park nor a wild life sanctuary , the concept of buffer is not legally applicable in this case. Moreover, if a 500 metre restricted belt as proposed in the minutes is considered, the area of this restricted belt will work out to be more than half of the bani itself," states the letter issued by then town and country planning chief T C Gupta.

But even after a change of guard both at Centre and in the state, Haryana has supported its predecessor's stand.

At a meeting held under the UD secretary in January , the state government reiterated that provision of a 500-metre buffer as a no-construction zone was never discussed or decided in the April 2014 meeting of the NCR Board. "Haryana government has requested to consider this issue in the board meeting," says the minutes of the meeting, assessed by TOI.

However, Haryana has committed to the Centre that it won't allow any construction within the 500-metre buffer till a fresh decision is taken.