NAJAFGARH JHEEL TO NALA — HOW DELHI AND GURUGRAM RUINED THEIR SECOND-LARGEST WATERBODY
The Author of this blog is Mr. Jitesh Kadian, , Research Scholar, Faculty of Law, JNU, Haryana-NCR
Introduction
The Najafgarh jheel is
the second largest water body in Delhi NCR after the Yamuna. But due to
encroachment, sewage, canals, and negligence, it has shrunk from 220 km2 to just 7 km2. Whether it’s flooding every monsoon or dipping groundwater levels
in the summer, Gurugram has a problem. And Delhi is hardly any better, with groundwater
reserves predicted to run out by 2020-21. Shrill alarm bells haven’t been able
to wake the Haryana and Delhi governments from slumber.
And while the Narendra
Modi government may have promised ‘Nal se Jal’ for every household by 2024,
time is running out for India’s capital region. The one thing that could have
helped — the Najafgarh jheel — is now dismissively called the Najafgarh nala.
The Najafgarh jheel is the second-largest waterbody in the area after the
Yamuna river, and has been feeding Delhi NCR for decades. But you won’t
recognise it anymore — it resembles nothing more than a waterlogged nala. Once
spread over 220 sq. km., the Najafgarh jheel has now shrunk to just over 7 sq.
km.
A dire situation
How did we get here?
In just four years,
2014-18, groundwater extraction in Gurugram increased by 308 per cent,
according to government records. In 1974, you had to dig an average of 21.6
feet to get water. Now, you have to dig 91.8 feet. In Delhi, groundwater
resources of seven districts have been categorised as over-exploited — and the
South Delhi extraction rate stands at 243 per cent. There are three intertwined
solutions to this — reviving water bodies, catching rainwater and recharging
aquifers. Water bodies are the catchment areas for rainwater. They also
safeguard settlements from inundation by floods. And they are also the
fountainhead of aquifer recharge. A legion of city planners and lawmakers,
clearly egged on by avaricious developers, chose to turn a blind eye to this
crucial information. That led to the ruin of Delhi and Gurugram’s biggest
natural water reservoir, rainwater catchment area and groundwater recharger — the
Najafgarh jheel.
Jheel to canal
The Najafgarh jheel
used to be an immense wetland lying in Gurugram and Delhi. It was fed by the
Sahibi river and floodwaters from Gurugram, Rewari, Jhajjar and north-west
Delhi.
Old records indicate
that the jheel was spread over 220 sq. km. Its existence was recorded as far
back as 1807. It played a vital role in the agrarian economy by supporting
irrigation, animal husbandry and fishing. In 1865, the government of the
North-West Province started excavating an irregular channel from the eastern
end of the jheel to the Yamuna. This was done to drain the jheel and create
more cultivable land.
The Najafgarh jheel’s
wetlands hosted innumerable migratory and resident birds, including the
endangered Siberian crane, pink-headed ducks and greater flamingos. To date,
wild animals and reptiles endemic to the region and several species of birds
are sighted here. In addition, the jheel was a recharge source for the
surrounding aquifers.
After the floods of
1964, when the Najafgarh jheel spread to 240 sq. km., widening of the irregular
channel or the Sahibi river canal resulted in the drainage of the jheel. The
construction of a supplementary drain in 1977 to carry excess flood discharge
to the Yamuna was the last nail in the proverbial coffin, and sealed the fate
of the Najafgarh jheel.
A recipe for disaster
The water of Najafgarh
jheel now comprises largely of sewage from the drains of the surrounding urban
sprawl, with the bulk of it being disgorged from the Badshahpur drain flowing
through Gurugram. And the Sahibi river canal? It is now the Najafgarh nala, which
has its own share of wastewater being emptied into it by a multitude of drains
on the Delhi side. The pollutants from the jheel are leaching into the soil and
contaminating the aquifers. The jheel’s ability to recharge aquifers has been
severely compromised. As a result, the water woes of the residents of
south-west Delhi and Gurugram have intensified because they have limited access
to piped water and are heavily dependent on groundwater. Add to this, Delhi
constructed an embankment on its side of the jheel after 1964, depriving its
arable lands of the regular inundation and recharge cycle. But the foremost
threat is reclamation of land in the Najafgarh jheel for building purposes.
There is rampant construction in the Najafgarh basin in contravention to
current environmental norms. It poses a threat to life and property apart from
destroying a fragile ecosystem. In fact, the recent spell of rain in August
resulted in seepage and flooding in the basement of several residential
colonies near the jheel in Gurugram. Sold as prime waterfront properties, the
developers invariably omit mentioning that their tall concrete structures sit
atop soft wetland soil with near-empty aquifers underneath. This, coupled with
a high-intensity earthquake — the area is a seismic zone — could be a sure
recipe for disaster.
Whose lake is it
anyway?
Not only land tussles
and encroachment, the jheel is also locked in several legal tussles.
The Najafgarh jheel
falls under the purview of several government bodies. While the NCT (National
Capital Territory) government has earmarked Najafgarh jheel in its 2021 Master
Plan, no work has been done to demarcate the area of the jheel in Haryana.
Concerned about the
dismal state of the jheel, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage
(INTACH) had filed a petition with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2014
drawing attention to its imminent extinction owing to human apathy. It further
said that unless the NGT intervened, the land area of the waterbody was in
danger of falling into the hands of unscrupulous real-estate dealers, and the
illegal construction can be used as a fait accompli to avoid/deny the revival
of the jheel. This matter was disposed of in 2017 in view of the statement
issued by the Haryana government that the lake (Najafgarh jheel) in question is
indeed a waterbody and it was trying to approve it officially. However, even
after two years, when no steps had been initiated to notify the jheel as a
wetland, the INTACH filed another petition in 2019 in the NGT.
The NGT sought a
status update and action report from both the Delhi and Haryana governments. In
a subsequent hearing in October 2019, Haryana filed a report saying that there
was a doubt about whether the Najafgarh jheel was a private land or a wetland.
This doubt was based on a 2005 revenue record. But there is a 1983 gazette
notification showing the area to be a lake. To ascertain facts, the NGT sought
early revenue records prior to settlement. Since then, the hearing at the NGT
has been extended several times because the Haryana government has not filed
its report.
The Delhi government’s
position on this matter is more sympathetic. It is currently planning to rent
land from the farmers on the Delhi side to the north of the embankment and
inundate it. Most of the decisions in favour of environmental causes in Delhi
has been due to court orders (initiated by activists and NGOs rather than mass
movements) forcing the hands of the government.
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