Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary, Faridabad
About Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary
History
Etymology
The sanctuary gets its name from the contiguous Asola village near Tughlaqabad in the Delhi NCR.
Protected status
Legal protected Status of southern ridge was uncertain till 1986 when community lands of the villages of Asola, Shapur and Maidangari (4,707 acres (1,905 ha)) were notified during 1986 and the lands of Bhatti (2,167 acres (877 ha)) were notified in 1991 as a sanctuary.In 2011, Supreme Court of India has mandated that all states must define an Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) around the forests to limit the adverse aspects of human impact on the environment. In 2017, Government of Delhi had notified 15.55 sqkm SEZ. A January 2019 plan by Government of Haryana envisages notification of 12.17 sqkm (1,217 ha) area as SEZ, of which 11.82 sqkm falls in Faridabad (100m to 1000m zone covering Anangpur, Mangar bani, Badhkhal, Pali, Mewal, Ankhir and Mohtabad) and 0.35 sqkm in Gurugram (100m zone covering Bandhwari, Gwal Pahari and Balola). The limits of ESZ on Harayana side end along the northern side of MDR137 Gurugram-Faridabad State Highway. The southern side of this highway already has 12.33 sqkm of protected forests (6.825 sgkm in Faridabad and 5.51 sqkm in Gurugram) which are not included in this ESZ. The limit of ESZ is only 100 m in certain places to exclude highly urbanised areas, such as from Surajpur to Badkhal and also around Amanpur.Earlier this area had a history of illegal mining for red badarpur sand and stone which were in hot demand for building activity and construction. Thus the area came to be known as Bhatti mines. Several large open and deep pits across sanctuary, are the abandoned mine pits, have now turn into lakes.