Environmentalists have written to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the Haryana government asking for the project for a safari in the Aravallis to be cancelled in its current form. A representation sent by Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement, an organisation working towards protecting the Aravallis, to the Union Ministry and the Haryana government on Thursday, stated that the “zoo safari project in its current avatar is seeking to commercialise the Aravallis and should not be allowed” in an area which serves to regulate the climate of the NCR, is a “barrier against desertification”, and acts as a water recharge zone. The representation noted that the focus of creating the safari park is not the conservation of the Aravallis but revenue generation for the state, as is evident from the Expression of Interest document floated by the Haryana Tourism Corporation for the project last year. The document stated that the government of Haryana proposes to set up an Aravalli safari park on an estimated area of around 10,000 acres in a contiguous patch of land in the Aravalli hills in Gurgaon and Nuh, with the proposed areas “mostly under the ownership of urban local bodies and local communities”. The scope of work section of the document proposes designing and developing “animal habitats including animal cages”, creating physical infrastructure, services and utilities like road networks for electric vehicles, pedestrians and animals, recreational infrastructure like children’s parks and botanical gardens, an “eco village” and an “entertainment park”. The representation from the environmentalists stated: “With the aim of the Haryana government being to increase the number of tourists coming to the Aravalli safari park, the resulting increase in human presence, vehicular traffic, construction, water usage, waste generated will have a negative impact on the fragile Aravalli ecosystem, which is being ravaged by illegal mining in this belt.” Last year, a report of a joint committee formed on the order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had found instances of illegal mining activity in the Aravallis in Haryana. The representation also questioned the setting up of a safari with cages and enclosures in an area that is already rich in wildlife including leopards, striped hyenas, and many bird species. Ghazala Shahabuddin, ecologist, who contributed to the representation, said, “With Haryana having so little of its area under forest cover…I don’t think this is at all advisable because you will be ruining what is left of the Aravallis along with its ecosystem services and values. We have already ruined a lot of what we have…the forest and the aquifer.” Following his visit to the safari in Sharjah last year, Haryana CM M L Khattar said the proposed safari in the state would include a large herpetarium, an aviary, four zones for big cats, area for herbivores, an area for exotic animal birds, an underwater world, nature trails, visitors, tourism zones, botanical gardens, biomes, etc.
