Draft zonal master plan of Gurgaon’s Sultanpur National Park approved by state wildlife board

The plan allows local people residing within 3 km the of park boundary to undertake construction on their land for residential use.

The draft zonal master plan was approved at a meeting of State Wildlife Board (SWB) chaired by Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, held at the Haryana Secretariat, Chandigarh.

Sources said, “As numerous housing projects are coming up in Gurgaon, there was a dire need for a zonal master plan for Sultanpur National Park. The master plan contains listing of prohibited, regulated and promoted activities.”

In the regulated category, land uses proposed in the urbanisable zone of the notified master plan area, which governs and regulates all urbanisation within the Gurgaon-Manesar urban agglomeration within the National Capital Region (NCR) and the notified Farukhnagar Development Plan, which governs and regulates all urbanisation around Farukhnagar town forming part of the outer limit of the eco-sensitive zone of SNP will be allowed, subject to fulfillment of conditions laid down in prohibited activities.

The approved draft plan also allowed construction of tubewell chambers of dimension not more than 1,000 cubic feet. The Haryana Tourism Complex next to the SNP will however be allowed to repair/reconstruct its complex.

The Sultanpur National Park, Gurgaon, was declared a national park in 1991. To offset anthropic pressure on the park, a buffer of 5 km around SNP was declared as an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) in January 2010.

Construction of any building more than two storey (30 feet) shall not be allowed in the area falling between 300-500 mts from the boundary of SNP. Commercial mining, stone quarrying and crushing units up to 5 km from the boundary of SNP is also prohibited.

The government also banned single use plastic in any residential area located within the notified eco-sensitive zone. The draft master plan for SNP was being prepared since March 2018.

Documents related to the fifth meeting of SWB held in August accessed through RTI revealed that Moulika Arabhi, representative of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) India, stressed during the meeting that the notification of Government of India (GOI) not be diluted while approving the draft master plan. The documents show that she was assured that nothing was diluted while approving the master plan.

Burning of wheat and paddy stubble along with incineration of solid waste is not allowed inside the ESZ.

Activities including agriculture, horticulture, dairy farming, organic farming, vegetative fencing, agro forestry along with conservation and rejuvenation of natural water bodies to be promoted as per the approved zonal master plan.

The approved plan stated that considering that there are large village habitations within the ESZ, government or charitable trust run educational and health institutes shall be permitted beyond 1 km but such constructions shall not have an height more than 15 mts.