Noida: Three years after Hindon flooded dozens of villages in the city and in Ghaziabad that have extended into its original course, little has changed.Since the 2023 floods, Noida Authority and Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) have between themselves carried out more than 50 demolition drives to reclaim encroached land, but with partial success as illegal construction remains rampant in both districts.“Officials occasionally come and remove illegal structures, but as soon as they leave, encroachers occupy the same land and start fresh construction,” Sonu Yadav, a resident of Behlolpur, told TOI on Monday.Hindon Jal Biradari activist and lawyer Vikrant Sharma said encroachment on the floodplain falls into two categories — settlements built over the past 25-30 years, and newer plots that are still being cut and sold. “In old settlements — Karhera in Ghaziabad and Behlolpur in Noida, for instance — there has been practically no work done, because these areas are inhabited and it is not easy to clear them overnight,” he said.He added that both authorities share the blame for allowing these localities to come up unchecked. “The Comptroller and Auditor General, in its report, rightly pointed out that GDA, between 2017-18 and 2021-22, failed to protect Hindon floodplain and let illegal colonies come up on it,” Sharma said.A recent GDA survey found 351 illegal colonies in Ghaziabad, up from 321 in 2021, occupying 2,944 acres on the floodplain. A GDA official said the authority had proposed banning property registries and denying water and electricity connections in these colonies as a long-term fix, but the stamp and registration department pushed back, citing a manual clause that bars it from denying registry or verifying documents at the time of registration. “It is here we are losing the battle to protect the floodplain,” the official said.In rural areas, a floodplain is defined as land within 2.5km of the river’s midstream on either bank. In urban areas, this shrinks to 100m. A second yardstick uses the highest flood level (HFL) — the maximum width the river has covered during a flood in the past 100 years. Together, these parameters place roughly 850sq km across Ghaziabad and GB Nagar under the floodplain zone. In GB Nagar, this includes Chhajarsi, Chotpur, Haibatpur and Behlolpur and in Ghaziabad, it includes Karhera, Ator-Nagla, Kanawani, Suthari, Shamsher, Champat Nagar and Ferozepur.Technically, the area between a river and its embankment also counts as floodplain. Raj Kumar Vern, executive engineer of the irrigation department, said about 50km of embankment, or ‘bund’, has been built along both banks of Hindon across Noida and Ghaziabad.In Ghaziabad, however, only 8km of the river’s course is embanked. In GB Nagar, around 42km of the river’s 45km length is embanked, leaving the rest exposed to encroachment.NGT directed the UP irrigation department in the aftermath of the 2023 floods to demarcate the floodplain in both districts, but this remains incomplete. Survey of India is currently carrying out the demarcation. “NGT, in an order dated May 25, directed to resolve the issues delaying demarcation, and to submit a progress report at least a week before the next hearing,” Vern said. The tribunal is due to hear the case on Sept 1.On July 24, 2023, Hindon swelled to 201.15 metres after more than 28,000 cusecs of water was released, submerging around 200 houses and displacing over 500 residents in Behlolpur, Chotpur, Chhajarsi and Lakhnavali.Following the floods, Noida Authority stepped up its anti-encroachment drives. “Since then, we have conducted nearly 20 drives and freed about 30 acres of land worth around Rs 600 crore. However, the floodplain remains encroached, with thousands of people living there. Whenever we conduct a drive, several farmers’ groups and activists protest, preventing us from achieving the desired results,” an authority official said.In Feb this year, a residents’ group from the floodplains attempted to march from Sector 16 to the district magistrate’s office in Sector 27, demanding regular electricity connections for their homes — underscoring how difficult relocation remains when thousands still live on the land, an official said.Greater Noida Authority has taken similar action, clearing illegal settlements spread across nearly 6,000 square metres of the floodplain in Haibatpur in Jan.
