New Delhi : The Supreme Court has expressed surprise at the administrative slowness regarding the 'lungs of Delhi' i.e. the Ridge area. The court was told that in May 1994, the ridge forest area was estimated at 7,784 hectares, but to date, only 103 hectares have been notified as ridge i.e. reserved forest. On this, the bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice Sandeep Mehta's bench said this is a shocking situation.

He said that, we were shown that although a notification was issued on May 24, 1994, under the Indian Forest Act, 1927 to initiate the process of declaring 7,784 hectares of the ridge as a reserved forest, the notifications issued so far cover only 103 hectares. Do it. 

The next hearing will be on 24th July

The Court said that, 5% of the total ridge area is subject to encroachment and the rate of diversion of forest land for other purposes is 5%. We consider it appropriate to direct the Central Government, the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to file their reply to the report of the Central Empowered Committee on or before July 10. The bench said that the next hearing will be held on July 24. 

Actually, Amicus Curiae's Parmeshwar had presented the status report of CEC on Delhi Ridge. It includes Northern Ridge (87 hectares), Central Ridge (864 hectares), Southern Central Ridge (Mehrauli 626 hectares), and Southern Ridge 6200 hectares. The CEC has said that since the issuance of Section 4 notification in 1994, its progress under the Indian Forest Act has been almost zero. There have been several judicial interventions from various courts, yet no concrete progress has been made in the settlement.