Ecologists, Planners Object to NCR Regional Plan 2041

Over 3,200 citizens, ecologists, conservationists, planners and environment organisations from across India have objected to the proposed changes in the NCR Regional Plan 2041, which has replaced the provision of “Natural Conservation Zone” (NCZ) with “Natural Zone” and deleted specific mention of conservation of areas such as Aravalis. The analysts and planners have also flagged how the NCR Planning Board (NCRPB) has eliminated the target of forest cover in the NCR. In the 2021 Regional Plan, it had set the target to increase forest cover to 10%. They have also flagged how the NCRPB has also not put the proposed land use map in the proposed plan. The NCRPB had invited suggestions and objections to the proposed plan till January 6. The planners and conservation activists have pointed out that the NCRPB Act specifies that the Regional Plan is meant to control the land use and allocate the broad use of land whether for development, or conservation or otherwise. “The earlier plans have reviewed the change in landuse in the NCR over the plan period, assessed the trends and then proposed policy and zoning regulations supported by the proposed land use map. However, to our dismay, the draft RP-2041 has not done an exercise to compare land use trends from 1999 and the current period. Neither has it included a proposed land use map, or indeed demarcated the NCZ on the same, as was done in RP-2021,” they have written in their representation to the board. In fact, the Faridabad Final Development Plan shows virtually all of the Aravalli in the NCZ, and all of the Yamuna and a 500 metre buffer as well as demarcated in the 2021 Regional Plan. They have referred to the Supreme Court judgment of March 2004 which said, “The Aravallis must be protected at any cost” and have also cited the minutes of the NCRPB meeting of 2017 in which then urban development secretary Rajiv Gauba has been quoted as saying that “Aravallis play an important role in controlling the climatic conditions of the region and it is, therefore, crucial to conserve the same”. In the letter, the experts have claimed that the proposed dropping of the word ‘conservation’ signals that conservation is no longer the objective or the priority land use in the Natural Zone. “The Aravallis were an integral part of the Natural Conservation Zone in the current Regional Plan 2021, but the term ‘Aravallis’ has been deleted from the draft Regional Plan 2041 – leaving them open to unlimited real estate construction,” the representation said. They have also claimed that if the proposed Regional Plan is implemented, it will drastically reduce the forest cover, degrade wildlife habitat, increase air pollution, and open the floodgates of indiscriminate real estate development in the Aravallis and forest cover areas in the NCR, particularly in Gurugram And Faridabad.