Kamal Ghorui
Gurgaon: Citizens campaigning for the protection of Aravali hills on Sunday urged Centre to push for Unesco Biosphere Reserve status for it to “ensure long-term protection”.Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement (ABCM) also called for a comprehensive plan to restore the entire 76,000 sq km landscape, instead of what they described as fragmented “definition-led” approaches tied to mining.
Biosphere Reserve status would mean marking the entire range as the learning site for sustainable practices within the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR). These demands were reiterated at a ‘Sunday Baithak’ organised by ABCM behind Suncity in the forest area in Gurgaon, where parents, senior citizens, students and environmental volunteers from across NCR gathered for poetry readings, discussions and role-plays on policy and court decisions. “Recognising the power of community-based action is so important,” said Akshay Khurana, who works on zero-waste initiatives, adding, the range should be declared a protected Unesco biosphere. One of the prominent appeals at the event read, “No defining away our ecosystems.”Participants collectively read out a charter of demands that included a complete halt to mining across the Aravalli biosphere by Jan 26, a pause on all construction activity until air quality improves to AQI 50, stricter emission norms for coal-fired power plants, a ban on waste-to-energy plants, free public transport to reduce private vehicle use and substantially higher taxes on private transport to fund public mobility.Participants also discussed the Supreme Court’s Dec 29 order keeping in abeyance its earlier direction of Nov 20 that accepted a Union environment ministry panel’s recommendation to classify only landforms at least 100 metres above local relief as Aravali hills, along with their slopes and adjacent land.
