NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the central empowered committee (CEC) to decide the fate of the proposed mega ‘Aravali Zoo Safari Project’, which has been billed by Haryana govt to be the world’s biggest zoo-safari spread across 10,000 acres of afforested land in Gurgaon and Nuh districts in the eco-sensitive Aravali Hills.Haryana’s senior additional advocate general Lokesh Sinhal told a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi that the state wanted to commence work only on 3,500 acres and that too is contingent upon the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEF& CC) approving a detailed project report (DPR).“No work has been started on the ground,” he said. On Oct 8 last year, SC stalled the project on a petition jointly filed by five retired Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers and NGO ‘People for Aravalis’ , who through advocate Shibani Ghosh had alleged that the project would spell doom for the already damaged crucial Aravali range.Amicus curiae and senior advocate K Parameshwar flagged three issues — impact of the project on water table of the area, species and afforestation, and sourcing of animals. “All these three issues raise sufficient doubt that the project should not be implemented,” he said.The bench said since no work has commenced yet on the ground, it would be ideal that the entire project and its feasibility, both from environmental and ecological aspects, is examined threadbare by the CEC and report be given to the court. “If the CEC opines that the project is ecologically and environmentally harmful, then that is the end of it,” the court said, adding that the interim stay on the project would continue till further orders.The petitioners had said, “The proposed zoo safari entails large-scale construction of permanent structures and facilities, including administrative blocks, research and laboratory centres, guest houses, staff quarters, animal enclosures, hotels, restaurants, recreational and commercial establishments, as well as extensive infrastructure facilities such as roads, electrical and communication networks, and firefighting systems.”“Large-scale development of this scale within the Aravali region would inevitably result in severe and irreversible ecological damage to an already fragile ecosystem, which is home to rich floral and faunal diversity,” they said, and alleged that the zoo-safari project is being funded with the compensatory afforestation funds, which is impermissible.The petitioners said a project primarily aimed at revenue generation through large-scale commercial and recreational activities in this eco-sensitive region is bound to undermine the ecology and hydrology of the Aravali region.
