Forest department starts demolition of illegal telecom towers in protected Aravalis

Gurgaon: The Haryana forest department on Thursday began dismantling illegally erected mobile towers in protected stretches of the Aravalis. Weeks of inspections and notices translated into on-ground action that officials say will continue until all unauthorised telecom infrastructure is removed from forest land.The demolition drive is underway in Mewla Maharajpur, Pali, Bhadkal and Mohatabad villages, where cranes and heavy machinery were deployed under police protection to remove tower structures erected in Punjab Land Preservation Act-notified areas.Besides dismantling the towers, officials said concrete bases will be removed and areas disturbed by access roads will be restored wherever feasible. Forest officials said the current exercise marks the beginning of a phased demolition drive that will be extended to all identified violations. Divisional forest officer Jhalkar Uyake told TOI, “The drive has started and will continue. Towers erected without statutory permissions inside protected forest land will be removed in phases.”The action comes weeks after TOI reported that around 15 mobile towers were identified inside protected Aravali forests in Anagpur, Pali, Mewla Maharajpur, Lakkarpur, Mangar and Ankhir and that the forest department was preparing to issue notices to telecom operators.According to the department, the violations go beyond the tower structures themselves. Field inspections found reinforced concrete foundations, equipment platforms, electricity connections and tracks carved into the hills to allow maintenance vehicles, resulting in permanent alteration of the natural terrain and increased human intrusion into ecologically sensitive forest patches.

Officials said mobile towers have emerged as another form of commercial encroachment in the Aravalis, alongside farmhouses, scrap yards, roads and other unauthorised developments. Many of these installations were reportedly set up through agreements with private landowners without verifying whether the sites fell within PLPA-protected land, where any construction requires prior approval from the forest department.The department documented the coordinates, foundation sizes and access routes of each installation during its survey before identifying them as violations. The ongoing drive is expected to continue over the coming weeks as inspections cover additional forest patches, particularly in ridge areas where more unauthorised installations are suspected. Officials said the action sends a clear message that commercial infrastructure, irrespective of its nature, cannot come up inside protected forests without statutory clearances.