New Delhi : Jagdeesh Kumar, a 62-year-old resident of Vishwas Nagar, has a hard and fast routine. Each night, he takes a stroll round Jheel Park in east Delhi’s Welcome – not too removed from his house. The park, renovated in recent times, boasts landscaped paths and even an amphitheatre. However it’s lacking an important factor – the jheel (lake) it was named after.
It has been practically 4 years for the reason that lake was drained of water as a part of the Municipal Company of Delhi (MCD)’s plan to renovate and redevelop the world. Nevertheless, the ultimate process – filling it with water from a Sewage Therapy Plant (STP) has but to be accomplished. Within the meantime, the 62-acre despair lies barren, crammed with weeds, burnt grass, and rubble, performing as a playground for youngsters.
This occasion completely encapsulates the stagnancy that preservation and restoration of Delhi’s water our bodies has seen in recent times. A 2021 rely by Delhi’s State Wetland Authority (DSWA) recognized 1,045 water our bodies in Delhi. Nevertheless, a bodily inspection later discovered a lot of them have been both non-existent due to encroachments, or had dried up utterly. In April 2024, the Delhi authorities added 322 websites primarily based on satellite tv for pc imagery, including to 1,367.
In 2021, the DSWA introduced plans to inform 20 main water our bodies as wetlands, together with the Welcome jheel. This offers the water physique authorized safety, clearly demarcates its boundaries, and even permits for the creation of Built-in Administration Plans (IMP) to get funds from the Centre to guard and rejuvenate them.
A deadline of 2022 was set for the notification of the checklist that additionally included Hauz Khas lake, Bhalswa Lake, Smriti Van (Kondli), Smriti Van (Vasant Kunj), Tikri Khurd Lake and Najafgarh Jheel.
5 years on, the DSWA has not notified a single water physique as a “wetland”.
Officers, on situation of anonymity, stated it was due to the delay on the land-owning companies, notably in sharing particulars of water our bodies. “We’re merely the nodal company, however precise particulars of the water physique, together with its complete space, catchment space, its water sources for instance and the demarcation train has to solely be carried out by the land-owning companies, “ stated an official related to the DSWA. The physique was constituted in April 2019 underneath the Wetland (Conservation and Administration) Guidelines, 2017, to determine and defend water our bodies
“Detailed temporary paperwork should be ready, however companies, regardless of being given a number of reminders have didn’t share temporary paperwork or in quite a few instances, shared incomplete info,” stated the official.
For example, the Welcome Jheel, he stated, is “closest” within the course of, however MCD had but to share sure info it had been requested for. “As soon as submitted, it will likely be scrutinised after which the method of notification could be formally initiated.”
One other concern is that the DSWA hardly ever meets. The final assembly was convened in 2024, with no formal assembly happening in 2025. No assembly has to this point been scheduled in 2026. On the web site, in the meantime, one can solely entry the minutes of the conferences till September 10, 2021.
In January final 12 months, the Union atmosphere ministry informed the Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal (NGT) that work on restoring the water our bodies throughout Delhi was being coordinated amongst totally different land-owning companies. Of those, within the first section, 631 water our bodies have been to be rejuvenated within the first section by December 31, 2024. This included encroachment elimination, de-silting, and the clearing of invasive species, as per the instructions of the Delhi Excessive Court docket.
Listening to a plea looking for safety of wetlands, on April 8, the courtroom had directed the federal government to make sure all wetlands are appraised for upkeep by the tip of 2024 — a deadline it has lengthy missed.
On World Wetlands Day this 12 months, Delhi’s atmosphere minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa stated the federal government’s efforts to guard water our bodies was underway, with the method to determine and demarcate the boundaries of 856 water our bodies already full. One other 174 had seen revival and rejuvenation works accomplished to this point, the tender to guard and revive one other 22 water our bodies had just lately been floated, and detailed estimates have been being ready for 20 extra such water our bodies in Delhi, he stated.
Sirsa had additionally stated the Neeli Jheel at Asola was being thought-about as Delhi’s first ”Ramsar” web site — a delegated wetland of worldwide significance underneath a 1971 treaty signed in Ramsar, Iran.
Welcome, a Jheel of neglect
On PR’s go to to the Welcome jheel on February 3, locals stated the water physique exists merely on paper. “I keep in mind it final had water in 2022 and even then, this was soiled water. This water was drained out on the pretext that the lakebed will likely be cleaned, dug up and made deeper. Your entire space was beautified, however water was by no means launched,” stated Jagdeesh Kumar. The lake fills up with rainwater within the monsoon months, however the water hardly ever lasts.
“Because it’s not sufficient water, the lake finally ends up drying once more in two or three days,” Kumar added. “Inexperienced areas and lakes in east Delhi are a rarity and this web site may very well be a breath of contemporary air, if solely it had water.”
Amardeep Singh, a resident of Dilshad Backyard, stated the jheel was dry when he final visited in 2024. “It’s the identical now. The park is now identified extra for kite-flying, as kids come right here and use the dry lake mattress as an area to run with kites.”
An MCD official, on situation of anonymity, stated that, though the horticulture division had accomplished its portion of labor within the Welcome lake undertaking, the STP had not but turn out to be absolutely operational as a result of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) had diverted the untreated water meant for it to a different undertaking.
“The lake’s building was accomplished a couple of 12 months and a half in the past, the STP had additionally been commissioned, and the lake had additionally been crammed with water, however due to the diversion, the STP will not be operational,” the official stated. The DJB didn’t reply to PR’s requests for remark.
Consultants stated the shortage of progress on notifying wetlands within the Capital has wider implications. “5 years is a major period of time to inform any wetland and that is the state of affairs within the Capital, the place there are a thousand eyeballs on each undertaking,’ stated activist Paras Tyagi, who runs the Cycle India, a non-governmental organisation primarily based within the Capital, and has been preventing to guard an area water physique in his village in southwest Delhi’s Budhela.
He objected to building of a group centre of the Delhi authorities’s Sahitya Kala Parishad on the practically 1.5 acres broad web site and the difficulty is in courtroom proper now. “It’s considerably ironic {that a} dry water physique is being notified as a wetland and water our bodies which have water are usually not being protected by the DSWA. Making certain a water supply, notably by way of handled water, will not be a tough process,” Tyagi added.
Manu Bhatnagar, the principal director of pure heritage division, Indian Nationwide Belief for Artwork and Cultural Heritage (Intach), who has beforehand labored on the revival of Hauz Khas lake, stated the plan for Welcome Jheel concerned utilizing a major space of the undertaking web site for phyto-remediation.
“Even that was accomplished, however for one purpose or one other, they’ve didn’t launch STP water right here,” Bhatnagar stated, including, “Whereas 5 years is a very long time, we additionally should see that the Wetland Guidelines require specifics, such because the contour degree, highest flood degree (HFL) and for wetlands to not have any encroachments in a hard and fast radius. At quite a few city water our bodies, it’s robust to outline the basin, the catchment space and even the HFL.”
No response had been obtained from Sirsa until the time of going to print.
The rejuvenation of the Welcome Jheel was funded by way of numerous central and state schemes and the revamped web site was inaugurated in February 2022, forward of the final Lok Sabha elections. The lake’s restoration was deliberate again in 2012 by the then East MCD, with ₹22 crore allotted to it underneath Trans-Yamuna Space Improvement Board. Within the first section, ₹7 crore was allotted for an STP. This was adopted by an amphitheatre, administrative blocks, and a landscaped footpath.
In June 2022, the MCD introduced it is going to rejuvenate 21 ponds and water our bodies throughout town underneath the Amrit Sarovar Mission of the Union authorities for which ₹47.66 cr have been sanctioned. Though the physique stated that work on 18 of the websites is full, numerous these places like Welcome, Aya Nagar, and Ghazipur, amongst others, are mendacity dry.
A second official stated the remaining water our bodies underneath the mission, the place water is lacking, will probably see progress quickly. “We’re additionally anticipating some water to replenish throughout the monsoon interval.”
