Fight for a forest RAVI AGARWAL From where comes this greenery and flowers? 15% of the city’s land, though much What makes the clouds and the air? of it has been flattened. The decidu- – Mirza Ghalib ous arid scrub forest of the ridge still provides an unique ecosystem, which THE battle for protecting Delhi’s today lies in the heart of the modern green lungs, its prehistoric urban for- city, and is critical for its ecological est, has never been more intense than health. Though citizen’s action has now. The newly global city, located in managed to legally protect1 about a cusp formed by the tail end of the 1.5 7800 ha of the forest scattered in four billion year old, 800 km long Aravalli mountain range as it culminates at the * Ravi Agarwal is member of Srishti and river Yamuna, is the aspirational capi- founding Director of Toxics Link, both envi- 48 tal of over 15 million people. ronmental NGOs. He has been involved in the ridge campaign since 1992, and was inducted The hilly spur known as the into the Ridge Management Board in 2005. Delhi Ridge once occupied almost He is an engineer by training. SEMINAR 613 – September 2010 distinct patches, the fight for the ridge besides protecting the city from desert Dynasty in the 13th and 14th centuries forest has been long and is ongoing. sands blowing in from Rajasthan and marked by the towering Qutab Land is scarce, with competing uses (south of Delhi). Most importantly, for Minar. in the densely populated city, sur- an increasingly water scarce city, the rounded by increasingly urbanized ridge forest and the river Yamuna once peripheral townships of Gurgaon, formed a network of water channels, Even though the Delhi Ridge forest Faridabad and Noida. though most of them have been lost or has had a long history of protection, it The Aravali range which enters highly fragmented. is now battling against being diverted Delhi through its southwest boundary Once, many small streams and for ‘development’. There are early splits into two spurs, one travelling a nullahs originated from the ridge and records of afforestation by Firoz Shah short distance eastwards towards drained into small and large water- Tughlaq for hunting, and of the Brit- Tughlaqabad, the other forking off bodies, which ultimately emptied into ish planting trees on it.3 Even in 1878, westwards to end 40 kms away in the the river. Today, large water bodies parts of the area were declared as a North. The plateau-like arms had such as the Najafgarh jheel (now an Reserve Forest under the Indian For- bounded the various cities over time, industrial area), or the Hauz Khas est Act, 1878. Later between 1913 and and only in post independence India, jheel are dry. Many nullahs which 1948 additional areas received protec- were they blasted to extend it in order crisscrossed the city as streams carry- tion on the northern and central ridge. to accommodate thousands of new ing water to the river, have turned In 1980, 20 sites in the northern, south- migrants. This trend has continued into open sewers and are now being ern and central ridge were declared as unabated, and the ridge is now unrec- covered up for making roads. protected under forest laws. More ognizable. recently, in 1986, the Lt. Governor of Massive residential colonies, Delhi declared 1880 ha of forest in the several religious institutions, univer- The fractured and porous quartzite southern ridge as the Asola Wildlife sities and security force camps have rocks helped the ridge serve as a Sanctuary. By 1991, an additional 840 been allotted land on the ridge. The groundwater recharge zone. The scrub ha of the Bhatti mines area were four isolated forest patches which still forest was once rich in animal and brought under the Asola Sanctuary. remain, were once contiguous. Even plant life. There are records of foxes, Though many of the earlier these bounded patches – the Asola porcupines, chinkaras and black-bucks, notifications were never withdrawn, Wildlife Sanctuary (6200 ha, southern though now it is mainly neelgai and their current validity has become un- ridge), Sanjay Van (633 ha, south cen- smaller animals like hares that can be certain, especially since many ground tral ridge), the central ridge (864 ha, seen. Bird life still abounds, with birds markers have disappeared. With the behind Rashtrapati Bhavan) and the of prey like the shikhra or passage formation of the Delhi Development northern ridge (87 ha, Delhi Univer- migrants, along with more than 150 Authority (DDA) in 1957,4 Delhi sity) – are under pressure from other other species. However, much of the undertook the task of urban planning. ‘use’ claims. Other ridge areas have original vegetation has been over- The first master plan (1962) recog- unfortunately not received protection taken by exotic species like ‘vilayati nized the need to conserve and pro- under forest laws, but been left free kikar’, or Prosipis juliflora.2 Also, in tect the ridge as a natural forest, but to be used as per the dictates of the the past, the elevation of the ridge offered no legal protection to it, as for- city master plan, leading to many provided a vantage point over the est laws did. Hence, when major chunks conflicts. northern plains of the Punjab, provid- ing the city both ecological as well as 3. For a detailed discussion on this, see Michael Mann and Samiksha Sehrawat, military security. Many related old ‘A City With a View: The Afforestation of A large forest in the midst of a dense, structures still exist on it, including the the Delhi Ridge, 1883-1913’, Modern Asian highly urbanized and growing city is city built by the sultans of the Slave Studies, 2008, pp. 543-570, Cambridge Uni- an unusual blessing, its ecological versity Press. First published online 25 Sep- tember 2008. functions probably more needed 1. Declared as a Reserve Forest under Section 4. The Delhi Development (Provisional) today than ever before. The ridge for- 4 of the Indian Forest Act, 1924, in 1994. Authority – DDPA – was constituted through est acts like a green lung for the city’s 2. Kalpavriksh, The Delhi Ridge Forest, a Delhi (Control of Building Operations) polluted air, allows a rich biodiver- Decline and Conservation. Delhi, 1991, and Ordinance, 1955 which was replaced by the 49 Pradip Krishen, Trees of Delhi: A Field Guide. Delhi Development Act, 1957, with the pri- sity to exist in it, lowers the ambient Dorling Kindersley and Penguin Books, 2006, mary objective of ensuring the development temperature and acts as a noise buffer, pp. 24-25. of Delhi in accordance with a plan. SEMINAR 613 – September 2010 of the ridge land were transferred to There were, however, funda- Four members from environmental the Delhi Development Authority in mental differences on how the idea of NGOs (Indian National Trust for Arts 1992, despite earlier forest notifica- ‘green’ was understood. The Delhi and Cultural Heritage – INTACH, tions, it raised a public alarm. Development Authority (DDA) saw it Kalpavriksh, Srishti, World Wide as a ‘regional park’, manicured like Fund for Nature – WWF) were part of the Buddha Jayanti and Mahavir the committee along with officials. The recent fight to protect the ridge Jayanti Parks on the central ridge. It The committee recommended that forest began in the mid eighties by stu- argued that citizens needed jogging four of the areas be notified as reserve dent groups like Kalpavriksh, who tracks, benches, grass ‘clear of snakes’, forests, and that the forest character of tried to stop tree felling, or the build- and that protecting the ridge like a the area be maintained irrespective of ing of transmission towers on it, even ‘wild’ forest would harbour anti- which agency manages the land. 7 prompting intervention by Prime social elements. Many citizens, on the This was an important victory, and on Minister Indira Gandhi.5 But it was other hand, wanted the forest as an 24 May 1994 these areas were duly only in the wake of the 1992 order that ecosystem whose biodiversity could notified as deemed Reserve Forest matters came to a head. For those who only survive when the grasses and under Section 4 of the Indian Forest had grown up walking in the forest or shrubs were left for animals, birds and Act, 1927 (IFA).8 bird watching, this was both a death- insects to feed and nest in. Parks, and knell and a call to action. The moment Delhi already had over 12000, needed converted ordinary citizens into activ- water, manure and labour, while a for- Subsequent to the notification, the ists. Voluntary organizations and citi- est only had to be left alone. The forest mandatory settlement of forest rights zens came together under the banner was not only ecologically superior to began, but was immediately mired in of the Joint NGO Forum to Save the a park, but also symbolized a balance controversy as it was obviously dis- Delhi Ridge with prominent NGOs between nature and development. criminatory. For example, amongst like WWF, Kalpavriksh, Srishti spear- the first to be displaced were the rag heading the action. pickers and shanty dwellers on central It was truly a moment of passion. However, the associated legal and ridge adjacent to a large police camp, School children marched through the land ownership issues surrounding a gurdwara and a well-known chari- streets of Delhi carrying banners they the ridge areas were complex and table hospital, even as the President’s had painted, residents organized colony institutionally intertwined. For exam- Bodyguard’s owned a swanky polo meetings, activists devised new slo- ple, while the DDA and the forest club ground on the ridge forest behind gans, gathered supporters and con- department owned Sanjay Van and Rashtrapati Bhavan itself.