Violations rampant in Sultanpur park buffer zone, wildlife board rejects nod to projects
Gurgaon: Citing repeated regulatory violations and inaction by Haryana govt, the standing committee of National Board for Wildlife has declined approval to three infrastructure projects proposed within the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of Sultanpur National Park, which is also a Ramsar site.
The minutes of the standing committee meeting on May 9 were uploaded on Friday. These three affordable housing projects are being constructed between 4 and 4.4 km within the ESZ.
The projects are situated in the notified ESZ of Sultanpur National Park, a protected area known for its biodiversity and international recognition as a wetland of global importance.
The committee has flagged 78 instances of violations within the ESZ.
The report underscored the degradation of Sultanpur Jheel, overdependence on the Gurgaon canal for water supply, invasion by non-native species and unchecked construction activity as growing threats to the park's fragile wetland ecosystem. Asked about illegal structures coming up so close to the park, a wildlife department official said, "We have already submitted a list of 32 violations in the eco-sensitive zone.
The department of town and country planning will take action."
On Dec 19, 2023, the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) had constituted a site inspection team following concerns over unapproved construction activity.
The inspection, carried out on Jan 23, 2024, revealed that the user agencies initiated construction work without prior clearance.
This led to the constitution of a high-level committee chaired by the inspector general of forests (wildlife) to assess cumulative environmental impacts and identify no-development zones around the park.
On May 9, the committee decided the state must act on the panel's recommendations and report back, withholding approval for the projects. "The standing committee therefore decided that the state govt shall take action on the recommendations of the committee constituted under the chairmanship of inspector general of forests (wildlife) and against the violations noted by the committee and forward the action taken report to the ministry," the minutes of the May 9 meeting said.
Despite repeated communications from the ministry, Haryana govt failed to provide an action taken report (ATR) on the violations, prompting the standing committee to take a firm stance during its 79th meeting. It ruled against the pending proposals and mandated the state govt to act on the committee's recommendations, initiate legal and regulatory proceedings against violators and submit a comprehensive ATR.
The regional office has been tasked with monitoring the enforcement process and reporting to the ministry on a monthly basis.
The decision also aligns with a directive of Punjab and Haryana high court in CWP-3563-2023 (OM), which ordered the standing committee to conclude its deliberations within three months while ensuring a fair hearing to project proponents. Speaking during the meeting, director general of forests Sushil Kumar Awasthi emphasised the critical role of hydrology in sustaining the region's biodiversity.
Committee member Dr HS Singh highlighted the need for ecological restoration of floodplains and tank beds.
Echoing these sentiments, standing committee chairman Bhupender Yadav stressed that wetlands are equally vital as forests, serving as key carbon sinks and biodiversity reservoirs.
The committee concluded that the Sultanpur National Park is one of the most significant biodiversity areas adjoining Gurgaon. The report highlighted that maintenance of the biodiversity and ecosystem service values of the national park is crucial for the ecological and economic security of the region, as well as a contribution to the maintenance of global biodiversity (for which the park has been designated as a Wetland of International Importance).
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Indian Express
The one-man army who secured the tiger — with love and awe: Valmik Thapar (1952-2025)
Conservationist and tiger chronicler Valmik Thapar passed away early this morning after a brave and tough fight with cancer at his Kautilya Marg residence in New Delhi, his family said. He was diagnosed with cancer in his digestive tract. Considered one of the world's foremost authorities on tigers, Valmik Thapar inspired generations to rally for the cause of wildlife conservation. A veritable one-man army, he authored over two dozen books mostly on big cats, presented several wildlife documentaries, including the seminal BBC series Land of the Tiger (1997), and remained the loudest – and most articulate – voice for conservation in India since the 1990s. With no formal training in wildlife biology or conservation, Thapar developed a deep understanding of tiger behaviour, as he put it, by watching wild tigers in Ranthambhore over five decades. In 1976, it was a chance encounter with Fateh Singh Rathore, then director of Ranthambhore tiger reserve, that had him hooked for life. Both outspoken and often contrarian, Rathore and Thapar formed an indefatigable partnership — until Rathore's demise in 2011 — that influenced and, often, shaped India's conservation efforts and policies over the decades. Thapar served in multiple apex bodies of the government, including the National Board for Wildlife and the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court. He was also a member of the Tiger Task Force set up to prescribe reforms in the aftermath of the disappearance of tigers from Rajasthan's Sariska in 2005. That was also the year I started learning the mercurial ways of India's Tigerman. Thapar was warmly supportive of my work in The Indian Express from the day I first reported the total loss of tigers in Rajasthan's Sariska tiger reserve in January 2005. He offered me encouragement, insights and contacts, as the investigative series took me to parks across the country: Ranthambhore (Rajasthan), Panna, Kanha (Madhya Pradesh), Indrawati (Chhattisgarh), Valmiki (Bihar) and Palamu (Jharkhand) over the next three months. In May 2005, I reported how Ranthambhore was in shambles despite attracting more money than all other tiger reserves combined. Non-profits, including Thapar's NGO Ranthambhore Foundation, had received a sizeable chunk of those funds. The report appeared in the morning then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Ranthambhore. Thapar was livid over what he said would be his last phone call to me. It was a we-told-you-so moment for a couple of young conservationists who had flagged how often Thapar used to grandly bemoan how he failed to save 'his' tigers. 'Valmik is in love with his ego,' his critics would carp. Two months later, it was Thapar himself, back at what he loved doing, who would alert me to what he perceived as a 'pro-people bias' in the Tiger Task Force report which observed that the tiger 'issue is not about the tiger per se… but about rebuilding forest economies.'' Thapar's legendary stubbornness – a key shield for his activism – did not come in the way of changing his mind. Inviolate areas are often impractical, he would eventually concede, and 'conservation is impossible without community support.' Thapar had set up his Ranthambhore Foundation back in 1987 to work towards integrating local communities into conservation efforts, and also partnered with another non-profit, Dastkar, to create livelihoods for displaced villagers. But Thapar's fight, as he wrote in his 2012 book Tiger My Life, Ranthambhore and Beyond, 'was always for inviolate spaces—where the tiger could live free, away from noise, away from humans.' Post-Sariska, though, reform was in the air and prompted him to look beyond the model of exclusionary conservation. Around 2006, Thapar's 'tiger guru' Fateh Singh Rathore was also warming up to 'soft strategies' — such as educating children from traditional hunter communities — pushed by biologist Dharmendra Khandal, who had recently joined Rathore's non-profit TigerWatch. From mostly-stick, the Rathore-Thapar conservation scale started leaning decisively towards mostly-carrot in a matter of years. What did not change was Thapar's inbuilt distrust of the government system, even though he remained an insider most of his life. Perhaps that intimate knowledge led him to observe that 'bureaucracy killed more tigers than bullets ever did.' Yet, even Rajesh Gopal, who took heavy flak as then head of Project Tiger from Thapar during the Sariska years, is quick to assert that his adversary was not self-serving. 'All said and done, Valmik really helped the tiger's cause,' Gopal told The Indian Express. Until his last days, Thapar was involved in conservation work, guiding Khandal on various TigerWatch projects, and curating a defining collection of photos of Ranthambhore. Thapar was born in 1952 in Mumbai to Romesh and Raj Thapar, journalists and co-founders of the political journal Seminar. He is survived by his wife, actor and director Sanjana Kapoor, and son Hamir Thapar. Days before his death, I had called Thapar for a comment about a story I was working on related to the use of live bait to lure tigers. He never mentioned he was admitted to a hospital, but readily agreed to weigh in on the 'stupid thing they are doing, feeding tigers and risking lives.' The promised quote arrived on WhatsApp within minutes. Later, I learnt he was in considerable discomfort and 'fussed all day in an irritable mood.' On his first tiger sighting, Thapar once wrote: 'It was like shedding one layer of skin and putting on another… The transformation was total.' Until his last days, the mere mention of tigers would have the same impact on the man. Not always William Blake's tiger with its 'fearful symmetry' but something softer, more magical.
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Indian Express
Valmik Thapar, conservationist and chronicler of India's tigers, dies at 73
Valmik Thapar, a towering figure in Indian wildlife conservation and one of the country's most passionate advocates for the tiger, died Friday morning at his residence on Kautilya Marg in New Delhi. He was 73 and was diagnosed with cancer last year. Over nearly five decades, Thapar became synonymous with India's tiger conservation efforts. An author of over two dozen books on wildlife and conservation, Thapar has also presented several landmark wildlife documentaries, including the seminal BBC series 'Land of the Tiger' (1997). His entry into the world of conservation came in 1976, after an encounter with Fateh Singh Rathore, then director of the Ranthambhore tiger reserve in Rajasthan. Both outspoken and often contrarian, Rathore and Thapar formed an indefatigable partnership that inspired India's conservation efforts and policies over four decades. Until his last days, Thapar was involved in conservation work, notably through TigerWatch, a non-profit established by Rathode in Sawai Madhopur. Thapar served in multiple apex bodies of the government, including the National Board for Wildlife. He was also a member of the Tiger Task Force set up to prescribe reforms in the aftermath of the disappearance of tigers from Rajasthan's Sariska. He was a staunch critic of the 'lethargic government system' and had famously observed that 'bureaucracy killed more tigers than bullets ever did.' In 1987, Thapar set up Ranthambhore Foundation, a non-profit that worked for integrating local communities into conservation efforts. He also partnered with the non-profit Dastkar to create livelihoods for displaced villagers. Thapar was born in 1952 in Mumbai to Romesh and Raj Thapar, journalists and co-founders of the political journal Seminar. He is survived by his wife, Sanjana Kapoor and son, Hamir Thapar. In his book 'Tiger My Life, Ranthambhore and Beyond', Thapar, in 20212, summed up what he called his mission: 'My fight was always for inviolate spaces—where the tiger could live free, away from noise, away from humans.'
Time of India
3 days ago
- Time of India
Violations rampant in Sultanpur park buffer zone, wildlife board rejects nod to projects
Gurgaon: Citing repeated regulatory violations and inaction by Haryana govt, the standing committee of National Board for Wildlife has declined approval to three infrastructure projects proposed within the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of Sultanpur National Park, which is also a Ramsar site. The minutes of the standing committee meeting on May 9 were uploaded on Friday. These three affordable housing projects are being constructed between 4 and 4.4 km within the ESZ. The projects are situated in the notified ESZ of Sultanpur National Park, a protected area known for its biodiversity and international recognition as a wetland of global importance. The committee has flagged 78 instances of violations within the ESZ. The report underscored the degradation of Sultanpur Jheel, overdependence on the Gurgaon canal for water supply, invasion by non-native species and unchecked construction activity as growing threats to the park's fragile wetland ecosystem. Asked about illegal structures coming up so close to the park, a wildlife department official said, "We have already submitted a list of 32 violations in the eco-sensitive zone. The department of town and country planning will take action." On Dec 19, 2023, the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) had constituted a site inspection team following concerns over unapproved construction activity. The inspection, carried out on Jan 23, 2024, revealed that the user agencies initiated construction work without prior clearance. This led to the constitution of a high-level committee chaired by the inspector general of forests (wildlife) to assess cumulative environmental impacts and identify no-development zones around the park. On May 9, the committee decided the state must act on the panel's recommendations and report back, withholding approval for the projects. "The standing committee therefore decided that the state govt shall take action on the recommendations of the committee constituted under the chairmanship of inspector general of forests (wildlife) and against the violations noted by the committee and forward the action taken report to the ministry," the minutes of the May 9 meeting said. Despite repeated communications from the ministry, Haryana govt failed to provide an action taken report (ATR) on the violations, prompting the standing committee to take a firm stance during its 79th meeting. It ruled against the pending proposals and mandated the state govt to act on the committee's recommendations, initiate legal and regulatory proceedings against violators and submit a comprehensive ATR. The regional office has been tasked with monitoring the enforcement process and reporting to the ministry on a monthly basis. The decision also aligns with a directive of Punjab and Haryana high court in CWP-3563-2023 (OM), which ordered the standing committee to conclude its deliberations within three months while ensuring a fair hearing to project proponents. Speaking during the meeting, director general of forests Sushil Kumar Awasthi emphasised the critical role of hydrology in sustaining the region's biodiversity. Committee member Dr HS Singh highlighted the need for ecological restoration of floodplains and tank beds. Echoing these sentiments, standing committee chairman Bhupender Yadav stressed that wetlands are equally vital as forests, serving as key carbon sinks and biodiversity reservoirs. The committee concluded that the Sultanpur National Park is one of the most significant biodiversity areas adjoining Gurgaon. The report highlighted that maintenance of the biodiversity and ecosystem service values of the national park is crucial for the ecological and economic security of the region, as well as a contribution to the maintenance of global biodiversity (for which the park has been designated as a Wetland of International Importance).
