New Delhi: The forest and wildlife department has issued an SOP on the morphological ridge, asking land owning agencies to check the E-Van Lekh portal to ascertain if their projects fall in the area or not. Delhi environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa has said the SOP clarifies the boundary of the morphological ridge.The morphological ridge area falls outside the notified ridge forests but has similar features, such as the Aravalli outcrop and vegetative cover. It has also been granted the same level of protection as the ridges following a 2011 Delhi High Court order. The court said that land outside the notified ridges that have morphological features conforming to the ridge should be given the same protection.For carrying out any construction on the ridges and the morphological ridge, obtaining permissions from the Ridge Management Board, Central Empowered Committee, and the Supreme Court are mandatory.The SOP, dated Sept 24, says that any area in the NCT of Delhi can be checked on the E-Van Lekh website to ascertain if it falls in the Morphological Ridge area. “The SOP can also be accessed on the e-vanlekh portal, i.e., https://evanlekh.eforest.delhi.gov.in,” the SOP said. It added that any agency can simply upload KML files on the website, which will then automatically show if the project is within the morphological ridge or not.Delhi has five ridges — Northern Ridge, Central Ridge, South-central Ridge, Southern Ridge and Nanakpura Ridge — spread over around 7,784 hectares. These are declared ridge reserve forest areas.The Southern Ridge is the most extensive. It spread over 6,200 hectares. The Central Ridge covers 864 hectares, while the South-central Ridge spans across 626 hectares, and the Northern Ridge occupies 87 hectares. The Nanakpura Ridge is around 7 hectares.Amit Aggarwal, secretary of United Residents Joint Action (URJA), has written to the Ridge Management Board and the Central Empowered Committee, asking for a wider involvement of institutions and aware citizens for the upkep of the morphological ridge. He asked for the inclusion of “IITs, NGOs, and citizens of Delhi to study and present a white paper on the protection and preservation of the morphological ridge”.
