Asola

August 10, Ravi

PETITION

To,

The Chief Minster

Govt. of NCT of Delhi,

Secretariat

New Delhi

August 9, 2001

Hon'ble Madam,

Delhi based NGOs and concerned citizens, actively working towards the conservation of Delhi's natural heritage, are deeply concerned at the recent reported moves to denotify the Asola and Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary, which is also a Reserve Forest under the Indian Forests Act 1927, for the purposes of garbage dumping.

We feel that the 6200 ha Sanctuary has been constantly eyed by urban planners as empty land, reflecting their narrow and short term thinking. The forest which is a major part of the 7777 ha of the Delhi Ridge, is the green lung of the city, providing it with a multi layered canopy of the scrub forest kind, and buffering the city from the deserts sand of Rajasthan, besides being host to a wonderful ecosystem of birds, insects and small mammals. Denotifying this will amount to destroying the last remaining portion of the Delhi Ridge, and will also violate various Supreme Court directives.

While recognizing the need for Delhi to find viable and sustainable solutions to its growing waste problem, the Forum condemns the move to sacrifice one part of the environment while trying to improve another.

Besides, landfills have a huge potential to contaminate groundwater, destroy the surrounding environments owing to waste toxicity and defile the forest owing to the associated activity surrounding the landfills. Not only are synthetically lined landfills, as are being suggested very expensive, but are extremely expensive to construct and operate. In India they have never been used for municipal waste. Besides they have a limited life of thirty years and leak later.

The landfill will kill the nascent forest which has only just begun to come back to life after years of efforts, since it was notified as a Sanctuary in 1991 and later as a Reserve Forest in 1996 by the Hon'ble Supreme Court after concerted citizen' action. The pits proposed for land filling are currently green and lush with vegetation. It is a forest in the making.

The deep pits in the Bhatti area are ideal rainwater harvesting areas, and it is an irony that while the Delhi Government is escalating efforts to increase rain water harvesting, some of the largest areas of its potential are now being turned into a garbage dump. Delhi's waste, which is a mixture of industrial, toxic household, and medical waste, will contaminate the groundwater, and the surrounding areas.

Managing waste in Delhi needs creative solutions like large scale composting plants on existing landfill sites, promoting recycling of plastics and metals, and involving communities in collection schemes. Destroying the forest will only result in a choked and desertified Delhi, a situation that is not retrievable ever. Instead of thinking of short-term solutions, which

Delhi's citizens oppose, the Government should think of creative and longer-term strategies.

We urge the Delhi Government to help Save the Delhi Ridge Forest, the Asola Sanctuary of which the Bhatti Mines are an integral part. We hope for your help in this.

Thanking you

Yours faithfully,

Signed:

Name Organization phone/email

August 7, 2001, Ravi

MINUTES OF THE MEETING

Subject: Denotification of Asola Wild Life Sanctuary (AWLS), Delhi

Date: 7th August 2001

Venue: India Habitat Centre

Present:

Ms. Bilenda Wright, WPSI, Ms Payal Narain, WPSI, Ms Bindia Sangal, WPSI, Mr. Deepak Narula, Trees for Life, Mr. Duunu Roy, Hazards Centre, Mr. Hari Dang, Sustainable Development, Mr. Manu Bhatnagar, INTACH, Mr. Pradeep Malhotra, Kalpavriksh,Mr. Radha Kamath, Independent Mr. Ravi Agarwal, SrishtiMr. Suresh Rohilla, Independent,Ms. Usha Srinivasan, Free the Trees Campaign,Ms.Arshiya Sethi, IHC,Mr Sangeet Kumar, Indian Express,

Minutes:- Ravi Agarwal briefed the members on the situation of Bhatti Mines and issue connected to it. This was followed by a discussion among the members and the following actions were decided.

The Delhi ridge has been under constant fire for the past four years, which some project or the other being planned on it. The Vasant Kunj Hotels, the Dhaula Kuan Flyover, the DVP 220 KV power line, the Bear Sanctuary, the Peripheral Expressway are all some of the mega projects we have managed to ward off so far. This time it is landfills. There seems to be a trend to denotify such areas for other uses, and as pointed out in the meeting this is now happening around the country.

The Ridge has had extra protection owing to the Supreme Court's and the High Court's interest in it. But owing to there not being a final notification on many of such areas, denotification of supposedly notified areas is taking place.

Hence though it may be important to give viable at\alternatives in this case, for garbage management to ward of the pressure, the attempts to protect the ridge should not be dependant on these alternatives alone. Basically this is not open area waiting to be absorbed by the urban planner.

1. Give alternative suggestions to the Delhi Government for waste management in lieu of denotification of the AWLS.

2. IHC to organize a debate with concerned officials on "Why Delhi Ridge Again" on September 10, 2001. IHC

3. Awareness generation Programme among school children, media and common citizens on AWLS. A kit on Delhi ridge for school children to be prepared. Volunteers sought.

4. More new articles will be sent to Media for coverage. IHC to help. Deepika Sodhi.

5. Prepare a history of attack on the Delhi Ridge in the past four years. Ravi Agarwal

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