ARAVALLI BACHAO GROUP’S WORK IN 2021
GREEN vs BLACK CAMPAIGN
The big mountain of trash on the Gurgaon – Faridabad road, now higher than the surrounding Aravalli hills witnessed the loud cries of “Remove this Polluting Landfill from our Aravalli Forest”, “If Waste Is Burnt Here, We Will Not Be Able To Breathe”, “Enforce Solid Waste Management Rules”, “Burning Mixed Waste Is Not A Solution”, “We do not want a Toxic Waste to Energy Plant in our Aravallis” by more than 60 adults and 40 children who had gathered at the Bandhwari landfill from the cities of Gurgaon, Faridabad and Delhi as well as the surrounding villages of Manger and Bandhwari on 24th January 2021. The theme of this campaign against the upcoming waste to energy plant is Green vs Black. The adults were dressed in green attire to show that our generation has been blessed to enjoy the beauty of nature whereas the children were all wearing black to signify the dark future that they will be inheriting as a result of the upcoming waste to energy plant which will spew out toxic gases into the already badly polluted air of NCR.
Below NDTV article gives more details.
ARAVALLI BLACK DAY MARKED BY STUDENTS
Students 4 Aravallis team, the youth wing of the Aravalli Bachao Citizens Group did awareness sessions in Galleria market and Cyber city in Gurgaon on 28th February 2021 to mark the 2 year anniversary of the passing of the regressive PLPA Amendment Bill 2019 which seeks to legalise all illegal constructions in the Aravallis and destroy the measly 3.6 percent forest cover of Haryana. The students recited a poem and spoke to the people about the regressive PLPA amendment and it’s implications on people’s lives. They also highlighted the dangers of building a waste to energy plant in the Aravallis.
Hear the voices of the Students 4 Aravallis fighting to save the green lungs and critical water recharge belt of India’s National Capital Region in this video made by Pluc TV to mark the Aravalli Black Day.
https://pluc.tv/episode/are-we-losing-the-aravallis/
Below article in the Hindustan Times highlights the students demands:
CITIZENS GIVE PETITION TO HARYANA CHIEF MINISTER TO NOT LEGALISE MINING IN NCR ARAVALLIS
Ahead of the Supreme Court’s hearing to hear Haryana government’s plea to legalise mining that has been banned in the Aravallis in Gurgaon and Faridabad since 2002, Students 4 Aravallis team members along with senior campaigners from the Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement went to the Haryana Bhavan in Delhi on 3rd March 2021 to give the Resident Commissioner a petition addressed to the Chief Minister. The petition stated the Aravalli Bachao Group’s objections against this regressive move.
This article in the Times of India, Delhi gives more details:
Aravalli Bachao Citizens Group held a nationwide tweetstorm on 4th March 2021 along with forest and environment groups across India to say a resounding no to legalising mining in the Aravallis.
On 9th March 2021, Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement in association with Let India Breathe launched an email campaign in which citizens from all across the National Capital Region and pan India have been emailing the Chief Justice of India and the Haryana government asking that mining in the eco sensitive Aravallis not be legalised. This below link has both the emails.
https://linktr.ee/Aravalli_Bachao
On 14th March 2021, the Students 4 Aravallis team organised awareness drives in Gurgaon to tell people what they stand to lose if mining is legalised again in the NCR Aravallis.
REPORTING ON ILLEGAL MINING IN NCR ARAVALLIS
With trekkers who keep going into the Aravalli forests regularly, the Aravalli Bachao team visited 16 different locations in Gurgaon, Faridabad, Sohna, Nuh Aravallis from end March 2021 to February 2022 to document the rampant illegal mining activity. All these spots in NCR Aravallis are within 1 or 2 hours driving distance from HUDA City Centre metro station in the heart of Gurgaon. Complaint emails were written to the Haryana government and police officials were taken to the different illegal mining sites.
For more details, read this blog:
ILLEGAL MINING IN HARYANA ARAVALLIS
CITIZENS AT BANDHWARI LANDFILL AFTER IT CAUGHT FIRE IN JULY 2021
Members of the Aravalli Bachao Citizens Group along with Citizens for Clean Air visited the landfill site located in the Aravalli forest on 12th July 2021 evening. Even 30 hours later, the fire had not extinguished. This Quint article gives more details:
ARAVALLI BACHAO TEAM MEETS THE HARYANA CHIEF MINISTER IN JULY 2021
2 members of the Aravalli Bachao Citizens Group attended the grievance redressal meeting that the Chief Minister of Haryana held at Apparel House in Gurgaon on 13th July 2021 and expressed anguish over the damage that the Bandhwari landfill is doing to the Aravalli ecosystem and the health of the people and wildlife in the vicinity. We told the CM that the waste to energy (WTE) plant that the Haryana government wants to build at the landfill site is not the right solution. Waste to energy plants have not worked anywhere in India as the Indian waste composition is not suitable for burning in a WTE plant. The Aravalli Bachao Group members told the CM that Gurgaon and Faridabad municipalities need to strictly enforce waste segregation at source, decentralised waste management (composting and biogas units in the premises of every bulk waste generator and at every sector / ward level) and dry waste recovery centres in every ward. This will take care of 75 percent of both the cities’ waste in a sustainable way and eliminate the need for a toxic landfill or a polluting waste to energy plant.
Hard copy of the Aravalli Bachao Group’s change.org petition having close to 30,000 signatures was handed over by the group members to the Chief Minister. This petition states the problem of waste mismanagement at Bandhwari landfill and gives sustainable waste management solutions for Gurgaon and Faridabad that have been arrived at after consulting with solid waste management experts across India. http://change.org/RemoveBandhwariLandfill
ARAVALLI BACHAO GROUP OPPOSES EXPANSION OF WASTE TO ENERGY PLANT IN THE ARAVALLIS
On the day of the public hearing on 31st August 2021, braving the pouring rain and foul smell from the mountain of garbage in the middle of the Aravalli forest, nearly 200 residents of Gurugram, Faridabad, Delhi, and the villages of Bandhwari, Mangar, Gwal Pahari gathered to tell the authorities that they need to scrap this plan to make a polluting waste to energy plant. This video by the Quint captures the voices of citizens from different walks of life and the work of the Aravalli Bachao group in highlighting this issue.
This article gives more details:
ARAVALLI BACHAO GROUP INTERVENED IN AN ONGOING CASE IN SUPREME COURT IN NOVEMBER 2021
Aravalli Bachao Group intervened in the Supreme Court in an ongoing case through Environment Lawyers Ritwick Dutta and Rahul Chowdhary to challenge Haryana government’s affidavit regarding forest land protected under Punjab Land Preservation Act 1900 in the Aravallis and Shivaliks in Haryana.
ARAVALLI BACHAO GROUP’S WORK IN 2022
HIGHLIGHTING HOW TOXIC WASTE DUMPED IN THE ARAVALLIS IS PLAYING HAVOC WITH NCR’S CRITICAL WATER RECHARGE ZONE
In early January 2022, the Aravalli Bachao Group came to know that solid waste from the Bandhwari landfill was being dumped in mining quarries and protected forest areas in different locations in the Aravallis in Gurgaon and Faridabad. These mining quarries are the lifeline for water recharge in the Aravallis and should not have any waste lying in them. Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement decided to get this dumped solid waste tested. We reached out to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) for this. The CSE’s Environment Monitoring Lab team came down on the 14th of January 2022 and collected samples from the solid waste thrown in the Aravalli forest just a few metres after the toll near the Bandhwari landfill on the Gurgaon – Faridabad road. This waste had an extremely foul smell and noxious fumes were seen coming out of it. Report by the Centre for Science and Environment stated that the The concentration of toxic heavy metals in the solid waste dumped in many locations in the Aravallis was way above the safe limits. The level of chromium was 262 and that of nickel was 128, against the safe limit of under 50. Pathogens such as Fecal coliform and E.Coli were also found to be way above the prescribed standards.
In March 2022, the Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement shared the CSE report from the Centre for Science and Environment with the government authorities. Months later, till date, the authorities have not managed to get their act together and the toxic heavy metals, as shown in the CSE report are continuing to percolate into our groundwater aquifers, putting the health of 30 million people living in the National Capital Region at risk. This video and article by Quint gives the details.
LEGAL CASE FILED IN NGT FOR ILLEGAL MINING IN 3 DISTRICTS OF HARYANA ARAVALLIS
Members of the Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement had undertaken field visits in the Aravalli areas in Gurugram, Nuh and Faridabad around India’s National Capital Region from March 2021 to March 2022 and found illegal stone and sand mining happening in contravention of judicial verdicts and environment protection laws. In many locations, we found substantial portions of the hills mined and, in some instances, completely razed to the ground. On 12th of May 2022, we filed a legal case (Application No. 362/2022 Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement Versus Union of India & Ors.) in the National Green Tribunal for illegal stone and sand mining in a total of 16 locations in the Aravallis in Gurugram, Nuh and Faridabad through Environment Lawyers Ritwick Dutta and Rahul Chowdhary.
Media coverage for this legal case:
https://thewire.in/environment/aravalli-ngt-illegal-mining-conservation
BIG LEGAL WIN IN THE SUPREME COURT SECURES PROTECTION TO 30,000 HECTARES OF FORESTS IN HARYANA
In a big legal win in July 2022, Aravalli Bachao group secured ‘forest status’ for 30,000 hectares across the Aravallis and Shivaliks in Haryana via a legal intervention done by us in the Supreme Court through the environment lawyers Ritwick Dutta and Rahul Chowdhary. On 21st July 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that all land covered by the special orders issued under Section 4 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act must be treated as ‘forests’.
PUBLIC OUTREACH CAMPAIGN TO HIGHLIGHT DILUTIONS IN NCR DRAFT REGIONAL PLAN 2041
Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement did a huge public awareness and social media campaign throughout the year 2022 to highlight environmental dilutions in the ill-conceived NCR Draft Regional Plan 2041 which is excluding ‘Aravallis’, ‘Forest Areas’, ‘Natural Conservation Zone’, ‘Tributaries & Floodplains of Rivers’, ‘Forest Cover Target of 10% included in the NCR 2021 regional plan’. This will open up more than 70% of the Aravallis and other natural ecosystems across 25 districts in the 4 NCR states for commercialisation, real estate development etc.
In September and October 2022, Aravalli Bachao group submitted letters and signatures from more than 2,40,000 citizens (represented by medical & resident welfare associations, school students, teachers, rural and urban citizens across 4 NCR states) asking for revision in the NCR Draft Plan 2041 to 8 government offices: Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, NCR Planning Board, 4 CM offices of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
ARAVALLI DAY MARKED BY NCR SCHOOL STUDENTS
13th December 2022 was marked as ‘Aravalli Day’ by the NCR school students where 750 children dressed as Aravalli flora and wildlife species gathered in the Aravalli forest in Gurgaon to bring attention on the fact that 31 Aravalli hills have been destroyed by mining and demanding the constitution of an independent Aravalli Protection Authority to protect what remains of the Aravalli ecosystem across the 4 states of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
ARAVALLI BACHAO GROUP’S WORK IN 2023
ENGAGEMENT WITH COLLEGE STUDENTS TO CREATE AWARENESS ON THE ARAVALLIS
In March and April 2023, JNU in Delhi, Jindal university in Sonepat in Haryana and NIIT university in Alwar invited the Aravalli Bachao Founder Members to talk to their students about the Aravallis.
https://niituniversity.in/happenings/invited-talk-ms-neelam-ahluwalia-on-aravalli-bachao-campaign
SUBMISSION MADE TO JOINT PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE HIGHLIGHTING DILUTIONS IN FOREST CONSERVATION AMENDMENT BILL 2023
The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill 2023 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 29th March, to amend the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. In May 2023, Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement sent below submission to JPC.
ARAVALLI BACHAO GROUP’S WORK IN 2024
GROUND TRUTHING DONE WITH HARYANA GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS OF ILLEGAL MINING SITES IN THE ARAVALLIS IN MAHENDERGARH AND CHARKHI DADRI DISTRICTS
A Member of Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement (ABCM) as Independent State Committee Member along with other members of ABCM and Haryana government officials from Forest, Mining and State Pollution Control Board undertook a ground truthing exercise over 3 days in February 2024 of illegal mining areas in the Aravalli hills and forests in Mahendergarh and Charkhi Dadri districts as part of the illegal mining case in NGT: Application No. 362/2022 Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement Versus Union of India & Ors. In Mahendergarh district, 23 areas of illegal stone and sand mining were documented and 3 locations were identified in Charkhi Dadri districts.
Aravalli Bachao 