New Delhi: Environment ministry has placed responsibility on the state administration in its response to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) regarding a pond in south-west Delhi that was affected when the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) constructed a highway across it.
The reply from the ministry came after the tribunal in 2024 took suo motu cognizance of a Sept 2024 TOI report titled “NHAI has made highway at protected pond site in Delhi: Activists”. The article pointed out that NHAI built Urban Extension Road-II over the pond in Goyla Khurd village, situated in Delhi’s south-west district. The pond was among the list of over 1,000 ponds meant to be protected.
“The land and water are a subject matter of the state govt. The forest/wetland areas and the legal boundaries thereof are determined and maintained by the concerned state govt. That being the repository of land records, the state govt has the primary responsibility to determine the status of any parcel of land,” stated the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) in a reply dated April 2.
The ministry said it identified over 2.3 lakh wetlands nationwide in 2021, and their safeguarding falls with the respective state govt, which in this instance, is the Delhi govt.
“Under the Wetlands Rules, 2017, the state/union territories wetland authorities have been constituted, thereby replacing the erstwhile central wetlands regulatory authority,” stated the union ministry. It further highlighted that activities restricted under the rules include conversion for non-wetland uses, including encroachment of any kind; setting up of any industry; manufacture or handling or storage or disposal of construction and demolition waste; solid waste dumping; discharge of untreated wastes and effluents from industries, cities, towns, villages, and other human settlements; any construction of a permanent nature except for boat jetties within fifty meters from the mean high flood level observed in the past 10 years calculated from the date of commencement of these rules; and poaching.
“In view of the aforesaid, the Hon’ble Tribunal may pass any order(s) as it deems appropriate,” the reply added.
Earlier this year, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and Delhi state wetland authority held Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the land-owning agency, answerable for handing over a listed pond to NHAI, over which a highway was constructed, impacting the water body.
New Delhi: Environment ministry has placed responsibility on the state administration in its response to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) regarding a pond in south-west Delhi that was affected when the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) constructed a highway across it.
The reply from the ministry came after the tribunal in 2024 took suo motu cognizance of a Sept 2024 TOI report titled “NHAI has made highway at protected pond site in Delhi: Activists”. The article pointed out that NHAI built Urban Extension Road-II over the pond in Goyla Khurd village, situated in Delhi’s south-west district. The pond was among the list of over 1,000 ponds meant to be protected.
“The land and water are a subject matter of the state govt. The forest/wetland areas and the legal boundaries thereof are determined and maintained by the concerned state govt. That being the repository of land records, the state govt has the primary responsibility to determine the status of any parcel of land,” stated the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) in a reply dated April 2.
The ministry said it identified over 2.3 lakh wetlands nationwide in 2021, and their safeguarding falls with the respective state govt, which in this instance, is the Delhi govt.
“Under the Wetlands Rules, 2017, the state/union territories wetland authorities have been constituted, thereby replacing the erstwhile central wetlands regulatory authority,” stated the union ministry. It further highlighted that activities restricted under the rules include conversion for non-wetland uses, including encroachment of any kind; setting up of any industry; manufacture or handling or storage or disposal of construction and demolition waste; solid waste dumping; discharge of untreated wastes and effluents from industries, cities, towns, villages, and other human settlements; any construction of a permanent nature except for boat jetties within fifty meters from the mean high flood level observed in the past 10 years calculated from the date of commencement of these rules; and poaching.
“In view of the aforesaid, the Hon’ble Tribunal may pass any order(s) as it deems appropriate,” the reply added.
Earlier this year, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and Delhi state wetland authority held Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the land-owning agency, answerable for handing over a listed pond to NHAI, over which a highway was constructed, impacting the water body.
The reply from the ministry came after the tribunal in 2024 took suo motu cognizance of a Sept 2024 TOI report titled “NHAI has made highway at protected pond site in Delhi: Activists”. The article pointed out that NHAI built Urban Extension Road-II over the pond in Goyla Khurd village, situated in Delhi’s south-west district. The pond was among the list of over 1,000 ponds meant to be protected.
“The land and water are a subject matter of the state govt. The forest/wetland areas and the legal boundaries thereof are determined and maintained by the concerned state govt. That being the repository of land records, the state govt has the primary responsibility to determine the status of any parcel of land,” stated the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) in a reply dated April 2.
The ministry said it identified over 2.3 lakh wetlands nationwide in 2021, and their safeguarding falls with the respective state govt, which in this instance, is the Delhi govt.
“Under the Wetlands Rules, 2017, the state/union territories wetland authorities have been constituted, thereby replacing the erstwhile central wetlands regulatory authority,” stated the union ministry. It further highlighted that activities restricted under the rules include conversion for non-wetland uses, including encroachment of any kind; setting up of any industry; manufacture or handling or storage or disposal of construction and demolition waste; solid waste dumping; discharge of untreated wastes and effluents from industries, cities, towns, villages, and other human settlements; any construction of a permanent nature except for boat jetties within fifty meters from the mean high flood level observed in the past 10 years calculated from the date of commencement of these rules; and poaching.
“In view of the aforesaid, the Hon’ble Tribunal may pass any order(s) as it deems appropriate,” the reply added.
Earlier this year, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and Delhi state wetland authority held Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the land-owning agency, answerable for handing over a listed pond to NHAI, over which a highway was constructed, impacting the water body.
New Delhi: Environment ministry has placed responsibility on the state administration in its response to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) regarding a pond in south-west Delhi that was affected when the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) constructed a highway across it.
The reply from the ministry came after the tribunal in 2024 took suo motu cognizance of a Sept 2024 TOI report titled “NHAI has made highway at protected pond site in Delhi: Activists”. The article pointed out that NHAI built Urban Extension Road-II over the pond in Goyla Khurd village, situated in Delhi’s south-west district. The pond was among the list of over 1,000 ponds meant to be protected.
“The land and water are a subject matter of the state govt. The forest/wetland areas and the legal boundaries thereof are determined and maintained by the concerned state govt. That being the repository of land records, the state govt has the primary responsibility to determine the status of any parcel of land,” stated the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) in a reply dated April 2.
The ministry said it identified over 2.3 lakh wetlands nationwide in 2021, and their safeguarding falls with the respective state govt, which in this instance, is the Delhi govt.
“Under the Wetlands Rules, 2017, the state/union territories wetland authorities have been constituted, thereby replacing the erstwhile central wetlands regulatory authority,” stated the union ministry. It further highlighted that activities restricted under the rules include conversion for non-wetland uses, including encroachment of any kind; setting up of any industry; manufacture or handling or storage or disposal of construction and demolition waste; solid waste dumping; discharge of untreated wastes and effluents from industries, cities, towns, villages, and other human settlements; any construction of a permanent nature except for boat jetties within fifty meters from the mean high flood level observed in the past 10 years calculated from the date of commencement of these rules; and poaching.
“In view of the aforesaid, the Hon’ble Tribunal may pass any order(s) as it deems appropriate,” the reply added.
Earlier this year, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and Delhi state wetland authority held Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the land-owning agency, answerable for handing over a listed pond to NHAI, over which a highway was constructed, impacting the water body.
