Despite being a forest reserve area, seven major buildings inside the JNU campus have been constructed illegally. Alarmed at the brazen construction on the fragile eco-zone, the environmentalists have said that any sort of construction on morphological area puts adverse impact on natural ground water aquifer.
JNU, the Central university was founded in 1969 and at that time no Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) law was established. However, during the construction of new buildings for School of Computational and Integrative Sciences, EIA law was fully established which came in existence in 1986.
Anil Sood, president Chetna, an organisation for environment, said that JNU land comes under the South Central Ridge (Reserve Forest) category and any type of construction is prohibited, “I have filed an RTI and asked the JNU authorities about the constructions of seven buildings. What was more shocking was the fact that the JNU higher authorities are not clear whether JNU land falls under South Central Ridge or not,” said Sood.
Soon further alleged that JNU officials are not only ignorant about the status of land, they did not seek prior approval from the agencies such as; Forest Conservation Department and Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the land owning agency.
Gopal Krishna, Environmentalist with Anti Toxic Watch Alliance (ATWA) said that massive construction on Ridge has impacted the ground water tab. “Concretization on forest area blocked the natural filling of water below the earth surface, the rain harvesting process is the only process by which the natural aquifer can revive, “ said Krishna while explaining disturbed ecological aspect. He further said that during the time of construction, tons of water extracted from ground.
The buildings under the scanner are, 24 type -III flats for staff at Paschimabad , STP in Saraswatipuram , New hostel building near Shipra hostel , Trans- Disciplinary academic building and Yamuna hostel warden flats and dinning at JNU campus. These are the buildings that have come up during last two to three years without the clearance of Environmental Impact Assessment, they added.