Jahanpanah , meaning the “Refuge of the World” was the fourth city of Delhi founded by Mohammed bin Tughlaq. Though there are hardly any remnants of the new city built by Tughlaq worth mentioning , the forest itself is the much needed “Green Lungs” in the midst of the gasping populace living in the adjoining areas.
It was on 10.04.1980, through
a notification by the Development Department Delhi Administration in Delhi
Gazette, Jahanpanah City Forest was declared as a protected forest area under
Section 29 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 and the boundaries of Jahanpanah City
Forest were demarcated.
Jahanpanh Forest , covering an
area of 435 acres, is full of rich and some very rare Flora and Fauna, but unfortunately the jungle and its
denizens themselves are at the receiving
end and chocking and gasping due to the apathy of the very populace it
provides fresh oxygen .
Though several writs have been
filed on various dates over the years , and though the Hon’ble Supreme Court had also recorded
on behalf of the various stakeholders like DDA, Horticultural Department and Delhi
Police against felling of healthy trees, clear the forest area of any
unauthorised encroachments, against dumping of garbage and plastics, against
any activity of criminal or unlawful
nature that can endanger the flora and fauna
in the forest , there had been
activities of exactly the same nature against which all those writs were
filed in the court .
Call it the lackadaisical
attitude on the part of the custodians
of the forest combined with apathetic attitude and lack of general awareness of the public , the forest
is on its way to dying a slow and painful death .Incidents of unauthorised
felling of trees, a major fire in 2013
destroying a portion of the forest, rampant encroachment by breaching the boundary
walls surrounding the forest and rampant dumping of malba and plastics giving a
sleepless night to the “ Friends of Jahanpanah Forest“
A contempt petition was filed
in Supreme Court of India in 2003 by Friends of Jahanpanah City Forest against
the official stake holders of the above forest and upon the final hearing , the
Hon’ble court made the following order
for constituting a committee with the representatives of DDA, Ministry
of Environment and Forest , Delhi ,
Suptd. Engineer ( DDA) Civil, besides other official depts to look after the
welfare of this forest.
Mr. S.M Agarwal , IES ( retd),
President , Friends of Jahanpanah City Forest , GK-II was also made a member of
the monitoring committee to look after the welfare of the forest. Still , at
his age of 92 yrs , he has been ceaselessly working and coordinating with the
various officials / stakeholders to look after the health of this forest.
Though as we all know, it is an uphill task to battle the united forces of people within the system with vested interests where large amount of
funding is involved , Mr. Agarwal has managed to save the public exchequer
quite an sizable amount of money that
the officials would have expended towards commercialisation in the forest in
the garb of beautification and automation and various other schemes that would
have completely destroyed the only GREEN LUNGS in our back yard.
To assist Mr. Agarwal In his
battle to save this forest , a group of like mined people consisting of lawers,
businessmen, retd. IAS officers and govt officials, educationists etc who were a regular visitors at Jahanpanah
formed a group with a specific purpose and named it SAVE JAHANPANAH FOREST
, once again headed by Sh. S.M. Agarwal .
Save Jahanpanah Forest
group engages in various cleaning and
plantation drives inside the forest besides engaging with the various stakeholders whenever required or called for to discuss the various
initiatives the officials want to undertake in the forest.
Comments
Post a Comment