After SC nudge, Centre grants statutory teeth to Ridge board

The Union environment ministry has reconstituted the Delhi Ridge Management Board (DRMB) with statutory powers, as directed by the Supreme Court in November, in a move that will create one entity responsible for issuing permissions related to use of the Delhi Ridge, and monitoring and acting against encroachments and other violations that threaten the Capital’s green lung.

- JayashreeNandi Nandi

It replaces the existing Ridge Management Board, which was constituted in 1995 and reconstituted several times, albeit without statutory powers. The December 1 notification was issued under powers conferred by subsection (3) of Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. This section empowers the Central government to establish specific authorities through official gazette orders to exercise and perform certain powers and functions, including issuing directions, for protecting the environment.

On November 1l, a bench of then Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and justice K Vinod Chandran asked the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC) “to constitute DRMB by issuing notification under Section 3(3) of the EP Act,” so that it has teeth to act. In that order, the court said that DRMB needs statutory backing, and pointed out that while there were several entities looking after the Ridge, the overlapping jurisdictions made all of them sub-optimal. The court also said the DRMB thus created would focus on the removal of encroachments and also oversee afforestation.

The 2021 Master Plan for Delhi identifies the Delhi Ridge as an area measuring 7,777 hectares of land, divided into four zones: Northern, Central, South Central (Mehrauli), and Southern. The Ridge ~ often described as the city’s “green lungs” — has long been under pressure from real estate interests, construction activity, and government projects.