NGO Interventions to Save the City's Lungs
Ranjit Sinha

The Ridge is being destroyed systematically. That is no secret. What remains one is the NGO interventions to save the last major lungs of the city.

This may well be because the task is an enormous one and the NGO efforts have been (i) sporadic and (ii) on a limited scale. But nonetheless the voluntary sector is not merely concerned, but has indeed intervened to protect the Ridge by:

q	Setting up an NGO Ridge Network which meets once a month to discuss what action needs to be taken;
q	Taking up the responsibility to monitor the Northern, Central and Southern Ridge;
q	Organising Ridge Patrol Units; these are sought to be created and are expected to play a somewhat more activist role in the demolition of illegal structures.

The above plans will appear meaningful if the nature of the problem is understood. On paper 7,785 hectares of the Ridge need protection. But what is the reality? Most depressing since major parts of the Ridge have been taken over by buildings set up government departments and private institutions.

The Northern and Central Ridge are being monitored by Kalpavriksh, the Central Ridge by Srishti and the Southern Ridge by Development Research and Action Group (DRAG). Much of the Northern Ridge has converted into a park; parts of it have been encroached upon by the Hindu Rao Hospital, DESU and the police. Large areas of the Central Ridge have been usurped by the CRPF wireless station, petrol pumps, a school, an army camp, SITE station and an army shooting range, to mention a few. The Southern Ridge has all but disappeared: walks conducted by DRAG indicate that pockets remain near Lalkot (behind Adam Khan’s tomb), Sanjay Van or Kishangarh (behind Qutab Hotel) and the Jahanpanah city forest (near Chirag Delhi; much of it is used as a vast toilet facility by residents of colonies surrounding it); tiny portions of the Southern Ridge can also be spotted in other areas such as Vasant Vihar, near the Indian mountaineering Federation office, and so on.

The Ridge has been declared a protected forest and a reserved forest at various stages and clearly the buildings that have taken up al but small parts of the Southern Ridge have violated its special status.

How has this happened? To answer this question we have to determine the government agency/agencies that have parcelled out the land to all and sundry. Since the sixties the following have been in charge of the Ridge: The Delhi Development Authority - DDA (Under the Ministry of Urban Development, MUD); The Central Public Works Department (Under MUD); The New Delhi Municipal Committee - NDMC; The Land and Development Office - L&DO (Under MUD); The Forest Department of the Delhi Administration (DA).

Since December 1992 the management of the entire Ridge has been handed over to the DDA, but buildings began to be set up, in particular on the southern portion of it, nearly three decades ago. Hence the “sell out” job, and the pretext and means by which it was performed can be fully appreciated only after the agencies involved in it are identified.

The NGO members of the newly appointed Lt. Governor’s Committee (see box) on the Ridge have been requested to check this out. It will take a lot of digging to obtain the information but it is vital if the NGO Ridge Network is enabled to ensure that the Central Ridge does not go the way of the Southern Ridge, or the Northern Ridge for that matter (given the DDA’s penchant for parks).

Clearly NGO monitoring of the Ridge needs to be stepped up. This can be done in several ways: (i) Regular visits to the Ridge by members of NGOs; preliminary steps to involve the people living in colonies located around the Ridge in conserving it have been initiated. (ii) Ridge patrol units, with the help of the authorities, to remove illegal structures.

The speedy identification of a building that is being constructed will go a long way to curb this illegal practice. Members of the public who spot any such activity can now report it to the Development Commissioner (Ph: 239773), the Deputy Conservator of Forests (Ph: 2923561) or the Ridge Monitoring Cells of Srishti (Ph: 649881) and DRAG (Ph: 602383).

So far, the authorities have been notified about an illegal construction, or the media contacted, after it has been completed. At that stage it becomes very difficult, if not impossible, judging by the number of such structures, to demolish it. The strategy now is to “nip the illegal building in the bud”. The monitoring by members of the NGOs and the activities of the Ridge patrol units, ought to ensure this.

The other thrust is to collect details of the flora and fauna of the area covered by the monitoring groups of each NGO as also develop a list of encroachments. This task has been done by Kalpavriksh in its publication, but it is due for an update.

Fresh documentation has already been initiated by Development Alternatives: A rough map of Sanjay Van has been prepared which is being used for mapping the existing vegetation of the area; an information pamphlet in being prepared in collaboration with Kalpavariksh and WWF.

The Ridge is being used to provide environmental education to school children. The Conservation Society of Delhi has taken a lead in this regard. Development Alternatives has organised a training programme on environmental education for school teachers. The nature trail exposed the teachers to the various types of disturbances in the area - logging, grazing, waste disposal - and trained them in techniques that will enable students to monitor such a forest area.

Another possibility being considered is the adoption of patches of the Ridge where the NGO, in concert with its members of school children, can plant saplings; these will require regular care for a couple of years after which they will come up on their own. The horticultural department of the DDA, or the Delhi Administration’s forest department can provide the saplings.