New Delhi: Discard the Aravallis Zoo and Safari Project, restore community rights, and implement conservation and ecotourism in the true sense — these are the demands raised by the National Alliance for Climate and Ecological Justice (NACEJ), as submitted to Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav and Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini via a letter on September 8, against the Haryana government’s plan to redevelop a chunk of the Aravalli hills.The government of Haryana has earmarked 10,000 acres of the Aravallis in the districts of Gurugram and Nuh for a zoo and safari park. The move will mean a lot of infrastructure development in the scrub and dry deciduous forests in these areas. Environmentalists have also raised concerns regarding the impacts that this could cause on local communities. Feeding this safari project will be funds allocated under the compensatory afforestation scheme for the deforestation that will occur with the construction of the several heavily-criticised projects in the Great Nicobar island in the Bay of Bengal. Impacts on people, ecologyThe NACEJ is a pan-India forum of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), comprising grassroots movement activists, ecologists, climate scientists, environmental researchers and lawyers. On September 8, the forum wrote to Yadav, the Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, as well as Haryana chief minister Saini. “We hereby call upon the Government to immediately cancel the proposed Aravalli Zoo Safari Park in Haryana, in its current form. We also urge you to take urgent measures for effective conservation of the fragile Aravalli ecosystem, uphold community rights and the Forest Rights Act,” the letter said.The rights group presented its reasons for making these demands through what it called a position paper, written with inputs from leading conservationists, ecologists, environmental scientists across India, on the Aravalli Zoo and Safari Park Project. The Aravallis in Bhondsi in Gurugram district. Photo: By arrangementThe paper highlights several impacts that the project could have on the ecology, environment and local communities that reside in and around the proposed 10,000 acres of the Aravalli range in Gurugram and Nuh districts in Haryana. The paper dwells, for instance, on the social impacts that the project will cause – which is primarily the exclusion of villagers from their common lands which they have depended on for centuries for fuel, fodder for their livestock and more. Therefore instead of a zoo and safari park, authorities should initiate ecotourism activities with the local communities and native wildlife at its centre, the paper said.According to the paper, the state of Haryana already has an excellent model of restoration in the 400 acres of the Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Gurugram “which has restored the native ecology of the Aravallis and has given the state of Haryana national and global recognition along with tourism potential”. “We urge the Government of Haryana to identify best practices from this model and launch an ecotourism initiative that promotes native wildlife and local culture,” the paper read.Both the paper and letter addressed to the Union environment minister and Haryana chief minister also request the governments to focus on “genuine conservation and restoration”. “Instead of a commercial park, the government should commission an independent study by leading conservationists to create a science-based conservation plan for the Aravallis, focusing on restoring its ecological services,” they read.The letter also urged the governments to restore community rights by reversing the suspension of community rights in the region and properly implement the Forest Rights Act, 2006. “Recognizing community forest rights and empowering local communities to manage their forests sustainably is a more effective and just approach to conservation.”‘Abandon this project’The rights group’s primary recommendation is that the governments “completely abandon the current zoo safari proposal, as its commercial nature is fundamentally incompatible with the conservation needs of the fragile Aravalli ecosystem”.“The extensive construction planned in the zoo safari in 10,000 acres of the Haryana Aravallis – including hotels, clubs, roads, entertainment parks, landscaped gardens etc. – will involve clearing vegetation, destroying micro-habitats, and disrupting the region’s aquifers,” Neelam Ahluwalia, Founder of People for Aravallis, a civil society group advocating for conservation of the Aravalli range spread across four states in North West India, said in a statement.This will put immense pressure on an already severely depleted groundwater table in both Gurugram and Nuh districts, she said. “The influx of tourists will also lead to increased waste generation, pollution, and noise, further disturbing the fragile ecosystem. This is particularly alarming in a region already struggling with illegal construction, rampant illegal mining and mixed waste dumping and burning,” she noted.