New Delhi, Environmentalists have welcomed the retention of ecological safeguards in the NCR Regional Plan 2041, which will soon replace the 2021 plan and provide a development plan for the National Capital Region.
<figure class="art
Earlier, a draft of the 2041 plan, released in 2022, replaced the term “Natural Conservation Zone” – mentioned in the 2021 plan – with “Natural Zone”.
Environmentalists said the change meant that conservation was no longer important in the NCR 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 Board’s meeting, to be held on June 16, states, “The concept of ‘Natural Conservation Zone’ of NCR Regional Plan 2021 will be retained in the new NCR Plan 2041.”
In a statement, Neelam Ahluwalia, co-founder of Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement, said that it was a “huge relief” for people who had opposed the change in terminology.
She said to oppose the new term’s introduction, several ground protests were organised and people wrote letters to different authorities.
“In all the objection letters… it was suggested that the term NCZ used in 2021 Regional Plan be retained in new Regional Plan 2041, and not be replaced with ‘Natural Zones’… [A]reas categorised as Natural Zones in Draft Regional NCR Plan 2041 do not require mandatory conservation like NCZ areas which the states are bound to conserve as the current NCR Regional Plan 2021 restricts any construction to only 0.5% of the total natural conservation area,” she added.
Dr Rajendra Singh, a water and Aravalli conservationist, said in a statement that the term natural zone in the 2022 draft plan comprised natural features such as mountains, hills, rivers, water bodies, and forests that were notified for conservation under central or state laws, and recognised as such in land records.
“This was a very harsh restriction as it would have excluded a majority of the forests and Aravallis and even rivers, flood plains, and waterbodies in the NCR – as very few of them met both the criteria proposed – of notification and presence in revenue records,” Singh added.
In the NCR Regional Plan 2021, the major natural features, identified as environmentally sensitive areas are the extension of Aravalli ridge in Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi, forest areas, the rivers and tributaries of Yamuna, Ganga, Kali, Hindon and Sahibi, sanctuaries, have been demarcated as NCZ.
It also includes major lakes and water bodies such as Badkal lake, Suraj Kund and Damdama in Haryana Sub-region and Siliserh lake in Rajasthan, etc.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
