New Delhi: Delhi State Wetland Authority (DSWA) in a fresh affidavit has said it has received information from land owning agencies regarding Delhi’s waterbodies, which it was trying to identify and demarcate.Multiple waterbodies under DDA, the revenue department, and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have been encroached upon or have completely dried up, DSWA said.It said that in several cases, the waterbodies could simply not be traced or had considerable infrastructure built on it, thus making its revival difficult.“It has been reported by DDA that several waterbodies are either fully or partially encroached and the land has been utilised for various developmental activities. In some cases, the joint inspection reports indicate that the sites are completely built-up and the revival of the waterbodies is not feasible,” the submission, dated March 9, said.“In a few instances, the waterbodies could not be traced because of the absence of geo-coordinates or the lack of identifiable physical features. Thus, the status indicates that a significant portion of the waterbody has already been utilised for infrastructure,” the submission adds.NGT was hearing a plea on the preservation of waterbodies. In Feb last year, it directed DSWA to ascertain the area of each waterbody and compare it to revenue records to identify shrinkage.DDA has demarcated only 124 waterbodies. The revenue department and MCD have demarcated 16 waterbodies each, and DSIIDC 6.
