NGT directs Delhi, Haryana to prepare environment plan for Najafgarh lake

The controversy over declaration of Najafgarh Jheel (lake) as a water body, falling both in Delhi and Gurgaon in Haryana, led the National Green Tribunal on September 18 to direct both the governments to prepare an environment plan to prevent encroachments and construction in the area.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice A K Goel asked the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to steer the proceedings for preparation of Environment Management Plan with the assistance of Central Pollution Control Board.

CPCB may coordinate as a nodal agency. Such plan may be prepared within three months. Action taken report may be filed before the next date by e-mail, the bench said. The matter has been posted for next hearing on January 27, 2021.

The tribunal noted that according to a report received from the District Magistrate, Gurgaon, is to the effect that there is no entry of water body in the revenue record and the area is partly government land partly private. Counsel for Haryana stated however that there is a large water body in existence and a management plan is under the state's consideration.

In view of the fact that there is a large trans-boundary water body which partly falls in Delhi and partly in Haryana, it will be appropriate that an Environment Management Plan is prepared jointly by the State of Haryana and NCT of Delhi, the NGT said. The order came on a plea by NGO Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) seeking execution of NGT's 2017 order to expeditiously decide the issue.

The plea alleged that the NCT of Delhi and the Haryana have failed to take necessary action. It claimed that even though three years have passed since the Haryana government assured the tribunal to declare the lake as water body, further steps have not been taken so as to check encroachments and constructions.

The NGO, in its plea through advocate Aakash Vashishtha, had sought direction to the Delhi and Haryana governments to declare Najafgarh lake as a water body/wetland. According to the applicant, there is serious threat to the water body because of continuous encroachment and constructions in the submergence zone of the lake.

After claiming there was no natural lake in the Najafgarh area, the Haryana government had earlier taken a U-turn by telling the NGT that it had been accepted as a water body. INTACH had alleged that the large-scale construction work done in the floodplain of the Najafgarh nallah and the lake had drained the area.