The Delhi government has declared approximately 673.32 hectares of the Central Ridge area as a “reserved forest” under Section 20 of the Indian Forest Act of 1927 — a decision approved by Lieutenant-Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu and Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. This declaration has been described as completing “an important process that had remained pending for more than three decades,” and the Chief Minister has indicated that the remaining Ridge areas will also be notified soon. Simultaneously, the Delhi Development Authority has announced the phased revitalisation of 77 water bodies across the capital, signalling a renewed policy focus on urban ecological restoration.
These announcements are significant for multiple reasons. Delhi’s Ridge — a forested spur of the ancient Aravalli mountain range running through the city — is the capital’s primary green lung, providing ecological services including air purification, groundwater recharge, temperature regulation, and biodiversity habitat in one of the world’s most densely populated and polluted urban agglomerations. Despite repeated directions from the National Green Tribunal (NGT), courts, and environmental authorities, the formal legal protection of the Ridge had languished for decades, leaving it vulnerable to encroachment, construction, and degradation. The reserved forest status, once officially notified, provides the strongest legal protection available under Indian forest law — making any diversion of the land for non-forest purposes subject to the stringent procedural requirements of the Forest Conservation Act of 1980.
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Background: Delhi’s Ridge and Its Environmental Importance
Five Important Key Points
- The Delhi Ridge is a 7,784-hectare forested landmass comprising five stretches — the Northern, Central, South-Central, Southern, and Nanakpura Ridge — and represents the northernmost extension of the ancient Aravalli range, which is among the world’s oldest geological formations dating back over 1.5 billion years.
- The newly notified 673.32 hectares of the Central Ridge, which lies along Sardar Patel Marg and includes areas adjacent to the President’s Estate, has been classified as “reserved forest” under Section 20 of the Indian Forest Act of 1927, which provides the strongest legal protection against diversion for non-forest purposes.
- The NGT had, in a January 2021 order, stressed an “urgent need” to protect the Ridge and directed the finalisation of the Section 20 notification within three months, and in a July 2025 order noted that the process was being “unnecessarily delayed,” illustrating decades of bureaucratic and political inertia.
- The Delhi government has now granted reserved forest status to a cumulative 4,754.14 hectares of Ridge areas, including 4,080.82 hectares of the Southern Ridge notified in October last year, with remaining areas to be notified in an expedited process.
- The DDA’s simultaneous announcement to revitalise 77 water bodies — beginning with six in northwest Delhi within 30 days, followed by 48 more within 60 days and 23 larger ones within 90 days — through dredging, desilting, and catchment clearance reflects a comprehensive approach to Delhi’s urban ecological restoration.
Legal Framework: The Indian Forest Act and Reserved Forest Status
The Indian Forest Act of 1927 distinguishes between three categories of forest land: reserved forests (Section 20), protected forests (Section 29), and village forests (Section 28). Reserved forest status is the most stringent classification, under which a wide range of activities — including clearing, burning, quarrying, and even the collection of certain forest produce — are prohibited without explicit government permission. The process of constituting a reserved forest under Sections 4 to 20 of the Act involves issuing a preliminary notification, inviting claims from persons with rights over the land, adjudicating those claims, and then issuing the final notification under Section 20.
The Forest Conservation Act of 1980 (now replaced by the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 2023) adds an additional layer of protection by requiring prior approval from the Union government for any diversion of forest land to non-forest purposes. This means that once the Delhi Ridge areas are notified as reserved forests under Section 20 of the 1927 Act, any attempt to divert them — for roads, construction, or other infrastructure — will require approval from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, subject to conditions including compensatory afforestation.
The Thirty-Year Delay: Governance Failure Analysis
The fact that the Central Ridge’s reserved forest notification took more than three decades is a case study in governance failure in urban India. Multiple factors contributed to this delay. First, Delhi’s unique administrative structure — where land is managed by a multiplicity of agencies including the DDA, the Forest Department, the Archaeological Survey of India, and the Ministry of Defence — creates jurisdictional confusion and accountability gaps. Second, the Ridge has been subject to competing claims: parts of it have been used for institutional purposes, including the construction of government buildings, IIT Delhi, and various diplomatic enclosures. Third, powerful real estate and construction interests have historically resisted the formalisation of forest status, which would freeze land available for development.
The NGT’s repeated interventions — in 2021 directing a three-month timeline and in 2025 noting “unnecessary delay” — reflect a broader pattern where judicial and quasi-judicial bodies are forced to substitute for failed executive action on environmental governance. This pattern, observed across India from the Aravalli mining bans to the coastal regulation zone notifications, raises fundamental questions about the state’s capacity and political will to implement environmental regulations that impose costs on politically connected interests.
Urban Ecology and Climate Change
Delhi’s Ridge is not merely an amenity; it is critical ecological infrastructure. The Ridge serves as a carbon sink, absorbing carbon dioxide and mitigating the urban heat island effect that makes Delhi’s summers increasingly extreme. It provides habitat for over 100 bird species, several reptiles, and significant populations of plants, making it a biodiversity island in an otherwise highly urbanised landscape. The groundwater recharge function of the Ridge — which allows rainwater to percolate and replenish the aquifers that supply much of Delhi’s water — is particularly important in the context of declining groundwater tables across the National Capital Region.
Climate modelling suggests that the loss of urban green cover — including forests, parks, and water bodies — significantly amplifies urban heat islands, with surface temperatures in densely built areas sometimes 5 to 10 degrees Celsius higher than in adjacent forested areas. Delhi’s summer temperatures have been setting records in recent years, and the preservation and restoration of the Ridge is one of the few cost-effective adaptation measures available to the city.
Water Body Restoration: The DDA Initiative
The DDA’s plan to restore 77 water bodies addresses a parallel ecological crisis. Delhi once had hundreds of natural water bodies — ponds, lakes, and baolis (stepwells) — that served as rainwater harvesting structures, groundwater recharge zones, and habitats for aquatic biodiversity. Urbanisation, encroachment, and pollution have destroyed or degraded the vast majority of these. The restoration plan, which involves dredging, excavation, desilting, clearance of catchment areas, strengthening of embankments, plantation drives, and fencing, is a welcome initiative, though its success will depend on execution quality, maintenance post-restoration, and prevention of re-encroachment.
Comparative Analysis and Way Forward
Several global megacities offer instructive models for Delhi. Singapore’s approach to integrating urban water bodies into a coherent blue-green infrastructure network — including the ABC Waters Programme — has transformed degraded waterways into vibrant ecological and recreational assets. Berlin’s Tiergarten forest, managed as a statutory protected area within the city, demonstrates how reserved forest status can be sustained in a dense urban environment. London’s Green Belt policy, which has statutory protection against urban sprawl, offers a planning framework analogy.
For Delhi, the immediate priority is to ensure that the reserved forest notification for the Central Ridge is formally gazetted without further delay, as the approval alone has limited legal force without the official gazette notification. The remaining Ridge areas must be notified under an accelerated timeline. The NGT’s directions must be treated as binding mandates rather than advisory opinions. The DDA’s water body restoration must be linked to comprehensive watershed management planning that addresses the root causes of degradation — encroachment, industrial effluents, and solid waste dumping.
Relevance for UPSC and SSC Examinations
This topic is relevant for UPSC GS-III under Environment — conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment; GS-II — Government policies and interventions, regulatory and quasi-judicial bodies (NGT); and GS-I — urbanisation, urban governance. It is also relevant for the Essay paper on environmental themes.
For SSC CGL and CHSL, this covers Environment and Ecology — forests, biodiversity, urban ecology; and Indian Polity — NGT, environmental governance.
Key terms: Indian Forest Act 1927, Section 20 Reserved Forest, Forest Conservation Act 1980, Van Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan Adhiniyam 2023, National Green Tribunal, Aravalli Range, urban heat island, DDA, compensatory afforestation, blue-green infrastructure.