Gurgaon: Nearly three acres of protected Aravali land in Behrampur village were freed from encroachment on Thursday.In one of the biggest anti-encroachment drives in the area in recent years, the forest department demolished 11 illegal structures, including under-construction buildings and a boundary wall.The demolition was carried out on the land, which is notified under sections 4 and 5 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) and which also forms part of the Aravali Plantation, where non-forest activities are prohibited without statutory approvals.Using earthmovers, officials pulled down freshly built brick structures and boundary walls that had come up on the protected land. By afternoon, heaps of broken masonry, twisted steel reinforcement bars and construction debris lay scattered across the site. Several reinforced concrete columns with exposed steel rods remained standing after the walls around them were demolished, indicating that the buildings were still under construction. Police personnel were deployed during the operation.Divisional forest officer (DFO) Surender Dangi told TOI, “We have freed nearly three acres of encroached land by demolishing 11 illegal structures, including under-construction buildings and boundary walls. Encroachments and unauthorised non-forest activities will not be allowed, and similar action will continue wherever violations are identified.”Thursday’s action marks the latest chapter in a years-long battle to reclaim encroached Aravali land in Behrampur, one of the most vulnerable stretches of Gurgaon’s protected hills. In 2023, TOI reported that around 35 acres of the Aravali Plantation, just off Golf Course Extension Road, had been cleared of trees, levelled and fenced behind nearly 10-foot-high boundary walls. Satellite imagery showed that an area covered with dense vegetation in 2017 was transformed into flattened compounds with sparse greenery by 2023. Construction activity, including the use of earth-moving machines, was also documented.The report prompted the forest department to conduct a survey. In 2024, officials confirmed that more than 35 acres were illegally occupied and announced plans to restore the land after removing unauthorised construction. They also issued notices for any new structures raised in the protected area. A few structures were also demolished in 2024. Thursday’s demolition is among the first major enforcement actions in Behrampur since that survey.The Aravali Plantation project, launched in the 1990s to restore degraded Aravali hills across six Haryana districts, was subsequently brought under the ambit of the Forest (Conservation) Act following Supreme Court directions, making diversion of the land for non-forest use illegal without prior approval.Ecologist Sunil Harsana, who has documented encroachments in the area for several years, said Behrampur lies along an important wildlife corridor connecting the Gurgaon Aravalis with the Asola Bhatti landscape. “These hills are far more than vacant land. They support groundwater recharge, biodiversity and wildlife movement. Every illegal boundary wall, road or farmhouse fragments the landscape and weakens the ecological integrity of the Aravalis. Reclaiming encroached land is an important first step, but it must be followed by ecological restoration and long-term protection,” Harsana told TOI.Conservationists said Thursday’s operation sends a strong message but cautioned that isolated demolitions would not be enough. They called for continuous surveillance, restoration of reclaimed land through plantations and legal action against repeat offenders to prevent fresh encroachments in one of NCR’s most ecologically significant landscapes.
