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Gurgaon: The Haryana government said on Thursday it is scaling up surveillance in the Aravalis and will provide 250 motorbikes to field officials to make the hilly terrains more accessible to them.
The decision, meant to boost conservation, was taken as the state gears up to celebrate Earth Day on Friday.
A forest official told TOI that increasing surveillance is critical for the Aravalis as these forest areas are the only region in the state where natural biodiversity exists and thrives. Rampant Illegal mining, cutting of trees, construction of farmhouses will destroy the rich ecosystem of the region, the official said.
Experts say Aravalis – spanning across 1,603 square kilometres in Haryana — have degraded in the last decade because of mining and their proximity to urban clusters such as Gurgaon and Faridabad, apart from roads constructed through the forest area.
On Friday, state’s forest, wildlife and tourism minister Kanwar Pal will hand over the two-wheelers along with senior officials of Hero Motocorp at Karna lake in Karnal, said Vivek Saxena, CEO of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA)-Haryana.
“We have sent a request for nine bikes for Gurgaon, which will help in increasing surveillance,” added Rajeev Ranjan, divisional forest officer, Gurgaon.
Environmentalists said the decision to increase surveillance will help monitor any illegal activities but the government must create a dedicated task force to protect the forest area from encroachments.
“Providing two-wheelers to field officials is a good move so that they can carry out regular monitoring in forest areas easily. Without any support it makes it impossible to maintain round-the-clock vigilance for field staff. But for years, the proposal on formation of an Aravali task force has not been moved an inch,” said Vashali Rana Chandra, an environmentalist.
Currently, the forest department is responsible for any surveillance in the area.
In the proposal dating back to September 2016, the state forest department considered establishing 52 security outposts for the protection of nearly 1 lakh hectares (or around 1,000 sqkm) of Aravali land in south Haryana at a budget of Rs 238 lakh. It also included revival of eight outposts in Faridabad, 15 in Nuh, 10 in Mahendragarh and eight in Rewari districts.
The proposal did not see the light of day.
The decision, meant to boost conservation, was taken as the state gears up to celebrate Earth Day on Friday.
A forest official told TOI that increasing surveillance is critical for the Aravalis as these forest areas are the only region in the state where natural biodiversity exists and thrives. Rampant Illegal mining, cutting of trees, construction of farmhouses will destroy the rich ecosystem of the region, the official said.
Experts say Aravalis – spanning across 1,603 square kilometres in Haryana — have degraded in the last decade because of mining and their proximity to urban clusters such as Gurgaon and Faridabad, apart from roads constructed through the forest area.
On Friday, state’s forest, wildlife and tourism minister Kanwar Pal will hand over the two-wheelers along with senior officials of Hero Motocorp at Karna lake in Karnal, said Vivek Saxena, CEO of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA)-Haryana.
“We have sent a request for nine bikes for Gurgaon, which will help in increasing surveillance,” added Rajeev Ranjan, divisional forest officer, Gurgaon.
Environmentalists said the decision to increase surveillance will help monitor any illegal activities but the government must create a dedicated task force to protect the forest area from encroachments.
“Providing two-wheelers to field officials is a good move so that they can carry out regular monitoring in forest areas easily. Without any support it makes it impossible to maintain round-the-clock vigilance for field staff. But for years, the proposal on formation of an Aravali task force has not been moved an inch,” said Vashali Rana Chandra, an environmentalist.
Currently, the forest department is responsible for any surveillance in the area.
In the proposal dating back to September 2016, the state forest department considered establishing 52 security outposts for the protection of nearly 1 lakh hectares (or around 1,000 sqkm) of Aravali land in south Haryana at a budget of Rs 238 lakh. It also included revival of eight outposts in Faridabad, 15 in Nuh, 10 in Mahendragarh and eight in Rewari districts.
The proposal did not see the light of day.
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