Why the Haryana government needs to act now to save Mangar Bani sacred grove
Just outside Delhi – less than an hour’s drive – is a sacred forest. Chances are you did not know that. Apparently, neither does the Haryana government.
The importance of Mangar Bani, a "centuries old” green lung for the polluted, chocking, rapidly concretising National Capital Region, cannot be overstated. Green activists have for long demanded that the state officially declare it a forest. But that has not happened so far. In a meeting held recently, the government has proposed to take a re-look at land qualified as "forest" and "non-forest" areas, and the issue of Mangar Bani is back in focus.
Situated close to the Gurgaon–Faridabad toll road, Mangar Bani has managed to stay undisturbed for centuries, as it is sacred to the local Gujjar community here. Among other riches, it is home to the dhau tree, which is in danger of disappearing from the rest of Delhi. It hosts 10 species of carnivores – including leopards, hyenas, jackals, bears and civets – 90 species of butterflies, and, according to Sohail Madan of the Bombay Natural History Society, 180 species of birds, including Long tailed nightjar, white bellied minivet, chestnut bellied sansgrouse, white bellied drongo, racket tail drongo, and indian pitta,which are hardly seen outside Mangar.
Despite the Bani having some degree of legal protection, cases of tree felling inside it have come to light. There is even a dhaba operating illegally near it. If the government were to officially declare it a forest, it would enjoy greater protection.
However, despite years of protests by environment activists and local residents, a rap from the Centre, several decisions and re-thinks later, Mangar Bani continues to suffer from an official identity crisis.
How did the 'virgin forest' survive
A major reason Mangar Bani has survived in its present shape is because locals believe it to be protected by the spirit of a sage, Gudariya Baba. According to legend, Gudariya Baba attained enlightenment in a cave inside this forest several centuries ago, and those who fell a tree or allow their cattle to graze here are cursed by the Baba –livestock die, wooden beams in houses burst into flame.
A temple dedicated to Gudariya Baba is still maintained inside the forest.
What are the threats
According to a report in the Economic and Political Weekly, “land in the area around Mangar Bani remained low-value until about six years ago, when the road connecting Gurgaon and Faridabad was upgraded in anticipation of the eventual merging of the boundaries of these two expanding cities.”
At present, the area is divided into land parcels, with ownership details murky.
Historically – from colonial times – Mangar Bani was classified as “gair mumkin pahar”, land on which agricultural, historical or animal husbandry activities were not possible. The Bani and its surrounding area used to be the common land between Mangar, Bandhwari and Baliawas villages, managed by the village panchayats.
However, over the years, big landowners took advantage of the Punjab Village Common Lands Act of 1961 to privatise the common lands too. “A few decades later, the Consolidation Act, a law meant to stop fragmentation of agricultural fields and village commons, was illegally used to accumulate large landholdings, in violation of the Land Ceiling Act,” said Chetan Agarwal, an environmental analyst.
Many individual titles have now “been sold and resold to a powerful business–politico–bureaucratic–police nexus with ostensibly no interest in agricultural activities," says the EPW report.
Citizens are desperately trying to get the last tracts of the Aravalli protected. The Haryana forest department as well as the NCR Planning Board have said that 'gair mumkin pahad' is forest land at the moment, which the Haryana government doesn't want to follow. A case is being heard in the National Green Tribunal against the felling of 7000 trees in the Aravallis for a housing project led by the sister company of Airtel. The outcome of this case may well determine the future of the last of Aravalli forest in Haryana.
Legal status
Technically, the Bani enjoys multiple levels of protection – non-forest activity is restricted on a gair mumkin pahar under the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), in 2015, the National Green Tribunal further emphasised that “fragmentation, fencing or construction on gair mumkin pahar in Mangar village was not permitted”, and the Haryana government in 2016 – after a series of delays and attempts to skirt the issue – notified Mangar Bani and a 500-metre buffer zone around it as a no-construction zone.
However, the dithering in the decision-making – at one point, Agarwal says, the Haryana government had claimed the Aravali forests, which includes Mangar Bani, were not a part of Faridabad at all, and in 2014, a sub-regional Plan of Haryana reduced the buffer by 90 per cent from 500 metres to 60 metres – has meant that lack of clarity on the issue persists.
A Times of India report of December last year states that around 500 trees were felled on a two-acre plot in the Mangar hills on a single Sunday morning, and such felling has continued. A Hindustan Times report gives similar details of illegal tree felling in the area.
Recently, in a judgment, the Supreme Court observed that mere inclusion of Koraran village in Ropar district of Punjab in the Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900 didn't make it a “forest land”. This has prompted the Haryana government to undertake an exercise to identify forest and non-forest areas falling under the PLP Act in the state.
Why it is worrisome
A green patch such as Mangar Bani has incalculable benefits for Delhi and its surrounding areas. Trees help tackle pollution, release more oxygen into the air, and act as sinks for carbon di-oxide, which caused glaobal warming.
Also, it acts as a critical aquifer to recharge groundwater for the capital and its suburbs. According to a report in the Washington Post, “In some places of Gurgaon, groundwater levels have dropped to 300 feet below the surface, from about 50 feet just two decades ago, officials said, because the recent population and construction booms have sucked its underground reservoirs dry with overuse”.
As Gurgaon, the “suburb on steroids” expands more, the stress on natural resources such as air and water in a gasping NCR will only increase.
Also, every time a tree is killed, an entire habitat – for birds, insects, climbers, bees – is destroyed. Mangar Bani is home to rich biodiversity, which it is our duty to conserve. The shrinking green space has also led to worsening man-animal conflict, as evident from frequent cases of leopards straying into human settlements in the NCR, which poses a risk to both people and animals.
So why is the Haryana government dragging its feet on the issue? As Agarwal says: "The current government has already restored the buffer from 60 m to 500 m and notified the core and buffer as a no construction zone in 2016. So it's not clear what is holding them back in declaring it a wildlife sanctuary and a forest and permanently protecting this pristine forest patch. Surely haryana can have at least one sanctuary in Faridabad district Aravallis?"
Also read: What the video of bikers trapped between two tigers says about man-animal conflict