Capping more than a month of public outcry and environmentalist's dissent, authorities have finally caved in, saying the proposed plan to cut a highway through the Aravalli Biodiversity Park has been put on hold.
It was in end-October that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), in consultation with the Gurgaon Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) came up with plans to cut a road through this restored forest-cum-public park. The proposal was to build a mutli-lane highway that will provide a quicker access between the national highway connecting New Delhi with its affluent satellite city of Gurugram and the under-development Southern Peripheral Road.
Initial plans suggested that the highway would cut through the park, however, after an uproar in newspapers and social media, authorities quickly clarified that the road will only pass through one corner of the park. “But the damage will be done, the previous ecological balance of the park will be gone,” pointed out activist Vijay Dhasmana. “Many migratory birds have been spotted in the park since it was restored from what was a mining dump. You can imagine what will happen once the park is criss-crossed by a highway with heavy traffic,” commented another activist.
With protests continuing and environmentalists pointing out how important the green lung in particular is, and the entire Aravalli ranges in general is, to the ecological and climatic balance of the entire national capital, and keeping in mind how strict Supreme Court has been regarding real estate and commercial encroachments in the ranges, it was but natural for NHAI and GMDA to backtrack, at least for now.
In a letter sent to the GMDA, Yashpal Yadav, municipal commissioner of Gurugram asked the planners to reconsider the proposed road, as it was not part of the latest master plan. Yadav also pointed out how the plans were made by GMDA with NHAI without taking the municipal corporation into confidence. The corporation had spent crores of public money in reclaiming the site into the present biodiversity park five years ago.
For NHAI and GMDA, it seems prudent to retreat for now considering the uproar, and wait for further developments before making the next move. The road through the park was to link up with two other roads—the southern peripheral highway which was to act as a bypass for Gurugram traffic, as well as a third road, Nelson Mandela Marg, with speedy access between South Delhi and Gurugram. Perhaps once those two are in place, perhaps there would be lesser resistance to cutting a road through the park, goes one logic.
