As bulldozers inch deeper into the Aravallis and unchecked city sprawl carves away its historical ridgelines, consultants at City Adda 2025 issued a stark warning — the degradation of the Aravalli ecosystem may upend Delhi-NCR’s battle in opposition to air air pollution, water shortage, and concrete warmth.
Panelists through the City Adda 25 conclave organized by ICCT at Habitat Centre on Thursday, June 5, 2025. (RAJ Ok RAJ /HT PHOTO)
Talking at a panel co-hosted by GuruJal and the Faculty of Planning and Structure (SPA), Delhi, environmentalists referred to as the Aravallis not only a inexperienced buffer however the area’s final line of defence in opposition to environmental catastrophe. “Creeks and groundwater recharge zones are vanishing,” stated Dr Ranjana Ray Chaudhuri of The Vitality and Sources Institute (TERI). “This is not just biodiversity loss — it’s a suicide pact with climate.”
The warning is especially related to Gurugram, the place encroachments into the protected Aravalli vary have intensified. Regardless of court docket orders and safeguards beneath the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), massive tracts of forest land have been carved up for unlawful farmhouses, luxurious villas and wedding ceremony venues in areas reminiscent of Raisina, Gwal Pahari, Sohna, Ghata, and Basai Mev.
Total hillsides have been flattened to make approach for personal estates, usually registered as agricultural land on paper. Activists stated the dimensions of tree-felling and topsoil stripping has triggered aquifer collapse, desertification, and a dramatic lack of native wildlife.
Chetan Agarwal, forest analyst and senior fellow at CEDAR, stated Delhi-NCR’s subsequent Grasp Plan should combine pure conservation zones (NCZs) with authorized mandates. “We can’t afford another planning document that ignores the ecological spine of this region. The Aravallis are not empty land for exploitation — they’re living infrastructure essential for resilience.”
Nidhi Madan of Raahgiri Basis echoed the urgency, calling the destruction “an irreversible ecological crime”. “Cities must adapt to the geography they occupy — not bulldoze it. What’s happening in the Aravallis is not growth, it is erasure,” she stated.
The panel referred to as for an empowered Aravalli Conservation Taskforce to crack down on unlawful building, monitor deforestation, and prosecute offenders. In addition they pushed for a joint conservation pact between Haryana and Rajasthan, backed by the Supreme Court docket’s central empowered committee (CEC), to conduct up to date surveys and rehabilitate degraded zones.
As Delhi-NCR grapples with rising temperatures, erratic rainfall and worsening air high quality, the message at City Adda was unequivocal: saving the Aravallis is now not non-obligatory — it’s the survival technique for the capital.