Why India wants to build its own great wall, of trees

The man who shaped the country’s destiny provides the symbolic moorings as India takes up its most ambitious environment regeneration project, the groundwork for which began this February — to build a green wall approximately 1,400km long across four states, stretching from the north to the west.Joining Porbandar in Gujarat, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, and Rajghat in Delhi, his final resting place, the green wall will be a continuous stretch of green areas — some natural forests, some built through plantations, and restored agriculture and pastureland — and water bodies between these two points, cutting across rocky and semi-arid plains of Rajasthan and Haryana.ARAVALIS CRITICAL BUT PLUNDERED & DEGRADEDThe government project envisions building this wall along the Aravalis, the environmentally critical but severely degraded ancient hill range. Aravalis are the original green wall, acting as a barrier between India’s northern plains and the Thar desert. But decades of plunder of the hills — predominantly through stone mining and extension of urban areas surrounding Delhi — have blown huge holes in the Aravalis.This has opened gaps whose consequences we are already seeing, in increasing dust pollution and more frequent dust storms in Delhi-NCR and the plains of Uttar Pradesh, and in the Thar advancing eastwards, speeding up what is referred to as ‘desertification’ of north India.This has dire consequences because it upends the ecological balance of the north and west, destabilises India’s largest urban area in Delhi-NCR, and accelerates climate change that has been manifesting over Delhi as freak weather patterns and events. In the last two years, for example, Delhi has seen floods, a record-breaking cold wave, and an almost 50 degrees C summer peak. 119106124 medium nocaption119140748 medium nocaption119140968AFRICA DOING IT BUT GOING IS TOUGHFor the green wall to, then, be effective, it has to be not just a continuous stretch but give the Aravalis impenetrable fortification. For this, the project has laid out an ambitious roadmap of a green wall that has an average width of 5km, factoring in foothills and buffer areas either side of the Aravali ranges.It draws inspiration from the African Union’s ‘Great Green Wall’, which runs 8,000km across the width of the continent from Dakar (Senegal) in the west to Djibouti in the east. The purpose of the initiative launched in 2007 was to create a dense tree line along arid plains that keeps the Sahara desert from advancing. Progress has been slow and funding a huge challenge. In its second decade, only around 25% of the African green wall has been completed. medium nocaption119106065The Indian green wall’s project area is 1.15 million hectares (mha) in the four states, which it proposes to reforest by 2027. In land area terms, the area to be covered is 11,500 sqkm, about nine times the size of Delhi. The green wall is part of the bigger environmental target of restoring 26 mha of degraded land by 2030 and creating an additional 2.5-3 billion tonnes of carbon sink. India has 97.85 mha of degraded land, which is 30% of the country’s total geographical area. Space agency Isro’s desertification and land degradation Atlas of India shows Gujarat, Rajasthan and Delhi are among states and Union Territories with more than 50% of their areas under desertification and land degradation.The Aravali restoration plan also has an economic offshoot that govt hopes will open up livelihood opportunities for local communities in jobs around afforestation, agri-forestry and water conservation.The other big challenge that the green wall will help tackle is depleting water tables in the north and west. As natural harvesters of rainwater, the Aravalis recharge aquifers. But their degradation, coupled with huge population pressure in this region — particularly the NCR, which has become a migration magnet — has left millions of residents vulnerable to water scarcity. medium nocaption119106200LATE START, MEETING DEADLINE WILL NEED URGENCYWell before the groundwork started, the challenges for a project of this scale have been apparent. The Aravali green wall was planned in 2019 ahead of the global climate summit’s 14th edition (COP14). But it could not take off due to the multiplicity of authorities involved in the implementation of the project.In February this year, the Haryana government brought all stakeholders to the table at a ‘partnership summit’ in Gurgaon and gave a presentation to Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav. “The project will prove a milestone in reversing the ongoing degradation of Aravalis and enrich the ecosystem,” Yadav said.The project will be implemented through a common secretariat for coordination with the environment ministry as nodal body. Politically, at least, this should now be smooth with all four states having BJP governments. Its estimated cost is Rs 7,500 crore. The Centre will pitch in with 78% of the cost and the states 20%. The remaining 2% will come from international agencies.The main stumbling block may be finding contiguous land patches. The Aravalis are deeply fragmented. In vast swathes, ownership rights lie with private individuals and custody of the land is with revenue departments instead of forest departments. This has over the years led to many farmhouses, banquet halls coming up in protected Aravali areas, trees being cleared and hills flattened to build access roads.Haryana has already taken up restoration of 66 water bodies in Gurgaon, Faridabad, Rewari, Mahendergarh, Charkhi Dadri and Bhiwani under the project. However, the state’s parallel plan to set up an Aravali Zoo Safari have led to concern among activists about the project and the Aravalis being compromised because of organised tourism.Asked about it, Vivek Saxena, principal chief conservator of forests and member secretary, Haryana Biodiversity Board, told TOI, “The recent debate and criticism of the project by some retired bureaucrats, including forestry personnel, raising doubts is without understanding the spirit and proposed integrated approach and initiatives for Aravalli landscape restoration.