NGT fines three realtors for felling trees in Faridabad

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday imposed a combined fine of Rs 1 lakh on three real estate firms for felling trees in Mangar village in Faridabad district in 2014.

According to media reports, the tribunal has also directed the companies to plant 10 times the number of trees cut and maintain the area for five years.

The tribunal passed the order on a petition filed by Col Sarvadaman Singh Oberai against the change of land use from ‘gair mumkin pahar’ (non-cultivable land) to agricultural land by changing ‘girdhawari’ (land records) of land in the village of Mangar in Faridabad district.

The petition has also alleged that companies had cut trees while constructing an access road to connect their land with the main road.

According to the reports, the firms had filed 90 applications in 2014 with the Haryana Revenue Department to change land use of several patches of land in Mangarbani. “These applications were withdrawn by the firms on September 10, 2014, after an application was filed in the NGT on September 9, 2014,” Col Sarvadaman Singh Oberai was quoted in media.

Oberai said that if the change had gone through, the hilly lands would have not been recorded as Aravali hills in the revenue records, and would then have been excluded from the natural conservation zone (NCZ) category in the sub-regional plan of Haryana-NCR which restricts construction.

Kenwood Mercantile and two other companies — Good Faith and Nandakinfracon — own over 400 acres of land in Aravali hills, including a substantial portion of the Mangarbani sacred grove. “Allowing them to change the use of their land would have caused irreparable damage to Aravalis and Mangarbani,” he added.