Chandigarh, April 10: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a show-cause notice to the Haryana Government and the Union Ministry of Environment over alleged illegal mining on forestland designated as protected in the Aravalli hills. The tribunal has also ordered a complete stop to all mining and stone crushing activities in the area until August 7.
The directive came from a bench led by NGT chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava, following a petition filed by residents of Rajawas village in Mahendergarh district. The tribunal questioned how 25 percent of a 506.33-acre protected forest patch was auctioned for stone crushing operations. Petitioners were granted four weeks to submit their detailed response.
Satyanarayan, the nambardar of Rajawas and one of the petitioners, said the village had been directly impacted by the auction and lease granted to a private firm. “We are very relieved that in the hearing on April 4, the Honourable Bench accepted our intervention. This is about our health, farming, and quality of life. Our main prayer is that the ‘protected forest’ in Rajawas should not be subjected to environmentally destructive activities like mining and stone crushing,” he said.
According to the plea, one-fourth of the protected forestland was auctioned for mining operations, which the villagers claimed could endanger the already fragile ecosystem. The 506.33-acre tract in Rajawas had been notified as protected under afforestation efforts meant to compensate for the diversion of forestland in the Great Nicobar Island.
On June 20, 2023, the Haryana Government had declared the Rajawas forest as protected under the Forest (Conservation) Act. Yet, on the same day, the Mining Department reportedly auctioned 25 percent of the land. A private firm was granted a 10-year lease on August 4 to extract up to 1.4 metric tonnes of stone annually, using three stone crushers. The department has claimed it was unaware of the forest’s protected status at the time of auction.
Environmentalists have raised concerns about the contradictory approach of the Centre. “Not just Haryana but even the Centre is responsible,” said Neelam Ahluwalia, founding member of People for Aravallis, a citizens’ collective. “The land is part of compensatory afforestation efforts in exchange for clearing forests in the Great Nicobar Island. On one side, we’re losing dense evergreen forests, and on the other, their supposed replacement in Aravallis is being destroyed.”
The petition also pointed to the environmental consequences, including the falling water table and disruption of local flora and fauna. Activists and villagers alike have called for immediate corrective action, urging that compensatory afforestation areas not be compromised under any circumstances.
