Delhi makes last ditch attempt to save extinct water bodies
New Delhi Apr 24 PTI The Delhi government is conducting an extensive ground truth survey to collect data on 258 extinct water bodies in the capital as part of its one final effort to save them There are 1043 water bodies in the capital All have been allotted unique identification numbers while 1014 have been mapped on the GIS platform The Wetland Authority of Delhi constituted in 2019 is now making rapid strides to notify at least 20 of them under Wetland Conservation and Management Rules 2017 by January next year according to officials These include Sanjay Lake Hauz Khas Lake Bhalswa Lake Tikri Khurd Lake Welcome Jheel Daryapur Kalan and Sardar Sarovar Lake Once notified the water bodies will be protected against encroachments dumping of garbage discharge of untreated wastewater and effluent from industries and setting up and expansion of industries etc In March the Wetland Authority of Delhi had received a request from land-owning agencies to delete 258 extinct water bodies from the official list of 1043 as these have gone extinct over the years due to large-scale encroachment negligence and degradation According to officials private buildings have come up in place of 62 water bodies 52 are now being used to provide public services 37 are untraceable 14 have been encroached upon by educational institutes 11 have been turned into parks and recreational centres 6 are being used for commercial services and unauthorised colonies have come up on 5 A technical committee is now reviewing the request for the deletion of water bodies from the official list they said At a meeting held on March 28 the panel proposed to conduct a survey to ascertain the level of degradation of these water bodies and prepare a Red Document — which will include those that cannot be saved — and a Green Document listing the ones which can be reclaimed and restored The water bodies that cannot be revived will be deleted from the list However all efforts will be made to restore the water bodies even if theres a five percent chance of doing so an official said Field teams have been constituted for ground truthing These will collect crucial information such as the historic spread of these water bodies their capacity how they went extinct who was responsible what has come up in their place etc a member of the technical committee said on the condition of anonymity One of the teams has already surveyed a cluster of eight to nine extinct water bodies in north Delhi district The reports are being compiled The process is going to take some time another member of the panel said The panel is likely to ask the encroachers to compensate for the loss of water bodies by providing alternate land for the development of wetlands The purpose is to discourage further encroachment of wetlands in Delhi Those responsible should be penalised a panel member said We will also try to remove the encroachment wherever feasible If a structure has come up on a part of a wetland we will try to remove it It could be our last attempt to salvage some of the extinct wetlands he said PTI GVS RCJ
New Delhi Apr 24 PTI The Delhi government is conducting an extensive ground truth survey to collect data on 258 extinct water bodies in the capital as part of its one final effort to save them There are 1043 water bodies in the capital All have been allotted unique identification numbers while 1014 have been mapped on the GIS platform The Wetland Authority of Delhi constituted in 2019 is now making rapid strides to notify at least 20 of them under Wetland Conservation and Management Rules 2017 by January next year according to officials These include Sanjay Lake Hauz Khas Lake Bhalswa Lake Tikri Khurd Lake Welcome Jheel Daryapur Kalan and Sardar Sarovar Lake Once notified the water bodies will be protected against encroachments dumping of garbage discharge of untreated wastewater and effluent from industries and setting up and expansion of industries etc In March the Wetland Authority of Delhi had received a request from land-owning agencies to delete 258 extinct water bodies from the official list of 1043 as these have gone extinct over the years due to large-scale encroachment negligence and degradation According to officials private buildings have come up in place of 62 water bodies 52 are now being used to provide public services 37 are untraceable 14 have been encroached upon by educational institutes 11 have been turned into parks and recreational centres 6 are being used for commercial services and unauthorised colonies have come up on 5 A technical committee is now reviewing the request for the deletion of water bodies from the official list they said At a meeting held on March 28 the panel proposed to conduct a survey to ascertain the level of degradation of these water bodies and prepare a Red Document — which will include those that cannot be saved — and a Green Document listing the ones which can be reclaimed and restored The water bodies that cannot be revived will be deleted from the list However all efforts will be made to restore the water bodies even if theres a five percent chance of doing so an official said Field teams have been constituted for ground truthing These will collect crucial information such as the historic spread of these water bodies their capacity how they went extinct who was responsible what has come up in their place etc a member of the technical committee said on the condition of anonymity One of the teams has already surveyed a cluster of eight to nine extinct water bodies in north Delhi district The reports are being compiled The process is going to take some time another member of the panel said The panel is likely to ask the encroachers to compensate for the loss of water bodies by providing alternate land for the development of wetlands The purpose is to discourage further encroachment of wetlands in Delhi Those responsible should be penalised a panel member said We will also try to remove the encroachment wherever feasible If a structure has come up on a part of a wetland we will try to remove it It could be our last attempt to salvage some of the extinct wetlands he said PTI GVS RCJ
