GURUGRAM: A proposal by Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF) to set up a landfill site on 92 acres in the eco-sensitive Aravalis has been shot down by the Union environment and forest ministry. Reportedly, the corporation planned to build the landfill as an alternative to the defunct solid waste treatment plant at Bandhwari "The proposal has been dropped," states an RTI response (a copy of which is with TOI).In 2015, MCF had identified the 92-acre land in Gothra Mohbtabad village on Faridabad-Gurgaon road to build the landfill for solid waste. Since the area falls under the restricted zone where no non-forest activity is allowed, the corporation requested the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change to exempt the land from Section 4&5 of Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) 1900.However, green activists and villagers opposed the move after the ministry, in an RTI reply in 2016, said the process for exemption from Section 4&5 of PLPA was in progress.Aseem Takyar, who filed the latest RTI application, said, "The decision of the ministry is a major setback for the Haryana government that was aggressively working on setting up a landfill site in the environmentally sensitive Aravalis. I am happy that the ministry has come up as saviour of the Aravalis."According to Jitender Bhadana from Save Aravalis, an environmental NGO, who took up the matter with the ministry and brought together residents of 20 villages located in the vicinity of the proposed landfill site, said, "I am glad that the ministry took a decision keeping in mind the importance of eco-sensitive Aravalis. It will save 25,000 trees from cutting in the only forest left in India's most polluted city, Faridabad."A letter written by Bhadana to the ministry in 2016, states the 92-acres landfill was planned at a site declared as critical water recharge zone by the Central Ground Water Board."There are five abandoned mining pits which are filled with rain water and are natural recharge for the entire area. Aravali hills are important for water security and are catchment of several lakes (including Badkal Lake). Setting up a solid waste plant at the critical groundwater recharge zone will only expose the groundwater to leaching of various toxins and hazardous pollutants in contravention of Section 7 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and Section 24 of the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974," states the letter.The Bandhwari waste treatment plant has been lying defunct for the past four years. A petition was filed by Vivek Kamboj from Haryali (an environmental NGO) in the National Green Tribunal nearly one-and-a-half-years ago, demanding reallocation of the plant. More than 1,600 tonnes of mixed solid waste is dumped there every day.

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