After more than a year the Chandigarh Administration mooted a proposal to declare Sukhna Lake as wetland, the higher authorities on Tuesday finally decided to move forward with the due process of law and also, request the neighboring governments of Punjab and Haryana to regulate the construction activities around the man-made water body.
Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator VP Singh Badnore while presiding over the second meeting of Wetlands Authority, Chandigarh at Punjab Raj Bhawan here on Tuesday emphasized on the ecological importance of declaring Sukhna as a wetland.
At the meeting attended by the senior officers of Chandigarh Administration, representative of Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change and representative from Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, officers from Haryana and Punjab, it was unanimously decided to declare Sukhna Lake as Wetland under Wetland (Conservation and Management) Rule 2017.
“It has been decided to move forward to declare Sukhna Lake comprising 565 acres as Wetland under Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017 and catchment area falling within the jurisdiction of union territory of Chandigarh as zone of influence, after following due process of law,” said a senior officer of UT Administration,
He said that it has been further decided that since the part of the catchment areas also falls within the administrative boundary of Haryana and Punjab, a request shall be made to neighboring State Governments to take similar action to regulate the activities as prohibited or regulated in their respective part of the Sukhna catchment which is essential for maintaining proper health of the Sukhna Wetland.
During the meeting, UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore urged the officers representing Government of Punjab and Haryana to join hands with Chandigarh Administration in the effort to conserve Sukhna Lake since state of Haryana and Punjab are also beneficiaries of this effort.
Debendra Dalai, Chief Conservator of Forests, UT Chandigarh apprized about the ecological role of wetland, boundary delineation of Sukhna Wetland spreading over 565 acres and catchment area of Sukhna Wetland spreading over 10395 acres as finalized by Survey of India that includes 2525 acres of Haryana and 684 acres of Punjab as well.
Dalai also made a detailed presentation on the recommendations of the technical committee enlisting the activities to be prohibited or regulated both in the wetland as well as in the catchment areas. The activities proposed to be prohibited or regulated or promoted as recommended by the technical committee were unanimously agreed by all the members present at the meeting.
Notably, the large scale urban development, in the past one decade, by neighboring states of Punjab and Haryana in the area falling in catchment of Sukhna Lake and Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary has posed a long-term threat to the water bodies and forest covers here.
In the past, Punjab Government’s housing project ‘Tata Camelot’ proposed to come up in the periphery of the city had come in line of fire for being a threat to the skyline of the city. In 2017, the Delhi High Court had struck down the environmental permission for the ‘Tata Camelot’ township in Chandigarh, saying it falls within the catchment area of the Sukhna lake.
The Sanctuary and Sukhna Reserve Forests in the city has a large number of mammals and avian species.