A year after Haryana's EMP submitted to NGT said it will notify Najafgarh as a wetland, state officials said they have prepared a re-assessment plan

GURUGRAM: The Haryana government intends to reassess the status of Najafgarh Jheel with a two-year action plan that puts on hold implementation of the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) directed by the NGT, and as a result, at least a delay in notifying the area as a wetland.

State officials said on Sunday that the government will submit a report for the two-year assessment plan within 10 days to the inter-ministerial committee formed by the Union environment ministry. The committee will likely submit the report before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on July 31.

The committee was formed after NGO INTACH filed a petition before the NGT in 2018, seeking declaration of Najafgarh as a wetland and measures for conservation. The NGT had then asked both the Delhi and Haryana governments - as the 4,740 hectare-water body is divided among the states - to prepare separate EMPs

A year after Haryana's EMP submitted to NGT said it will notify Najafgarh as a wetland, state officials said they have prepared a re-assessment plan.

Over the next two years, this plan will aim at draining water from the submerged area in Najafgarh because officials believe most of the region is under wastewater released from Gurugram . It involves creating a 6km-bundh near the water body, installation of gates and pumps around to it to divert wastewater to the Jhajjar drain, and connecting the Najafgarh drain to the Badshapur and Dhanwapur drains.

After this exercise, expected to take at least two years, the state will study how much area in Najafgarh is still under water. The EMP will be implemented on the areas that are naturally submerged, officials said.

"We will be submitting a report within a week or 10 days to the inter-ministerial committee. We had a meeting on Wednesday in Delhi regarding the same. It has been observed that 10 years back, the submergence area in Najafgarh used to be 100-150 acres, now it has expanded to 2,000 acres. We are trying to identify the reasons. This area is not a natural wetland as it gets flooded because of the wastewater of Gurugram . We will try to manage this issue," said Virender Singh, engineer-in-chief of the state's irrigation department.

Singh is the nodal officer for assessing Najafgarh's status as a wetland.

"Najafgarh is not a natural wetland and thus the state government does not think that it needs an EMP at present," he added.

When asked if the Haryana government was planning to withdraw the EMP, he said that no such decision had been taken yet. "After the assessment, if we find that 20-30 acres is still getting flooded, then we will have an EMP," the nodal officer added.

The Najafgarh jheel spanning across 4,740 hectares - 2,600 in Delhi and 2,140 in Haryana - is a key habitat for migratory and resident birds. Nearly 300 bird species are spotted in the jheel every year. It acts as a large aquifer to recharge groundwater of neighbouring areas, including Gurugram . Many creeks from the Aravallis also flow into the water body.

Experts said on Sunday the move by the Haryana government could not just delay the EMP, but also completely do away with the need to declare it as a wetland.

"This plan of Haryana clearly indicates that it doesn't have any intention of declaring Najafgarh area as a wetland or implementing the EMP. This is a concern... The area is not suitable for construction," said Vaishali Rana Chandra, a Gurugram -based environmentalist.

Both the Delhi and Haryana governments last year submitted their EMPs for Najafgarh jheel's conservation to the NGT, which was hearing the INTACH petition.

They had expressed the intent to declare it as a wetland under the Wetland (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017, which would give the two governments powers to introduce conservation measures and prohibit activities such as encroachments, disposal of waste, etc.

Haryana's EMP had noted that the water body was useful for a range of reaons - as flood buffer, carbon sink and biodiversity hotspot, among others.

The Delhi EMP had also pointed out that the jheel was a "critical natural infrastructure for the region" and provided "habitat to numerous plant and animal species".

The Haryana EMP had been prepared by the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB). The government in March this year made the irrigation department the nodal agency for assessment of Najafgarh as a wetland, with the state's pollution board no longer a part of the exercise.

Ritu Rao, a research scholar at the Teri School of Advanced Studies who is working on urban water-bodies sustainability, underscored the need to protect wetlands. "Wetlands can be natural or man-made, inland or coastal, permanent or temporary... These wetlands are critical for buffering floods, treating wastewater, recharging groundwater, moderating microclimate and sustaining the biodiversity of a region," she said.

See Source

---