Why in news:

• In a significant move to compensate for the destruction of tropical rainforests in Great Nicobar, the state government of Haryana has notified 24,353 hectares of Aravali land in five districts as protected forest.

Key Points:

• This effort is part of a massive project that involves constructing an international airport, a shipping port, a power plant, and a township over 160 square kilometers of land in Great Nicobar, which will result in the loss of almost a million trees.
• The compensatory afforestation plan, which was submitted to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change earlier, aims to revive the Aravalis in Haryana's districts of Gurgaon, Nuh, Rewari, Mahendergarh, and Charkhi Dadri.
• The state government will receive Rs 3,000 crore for the project, which is five times higher than its entire annual forest budget of Rs 600 crore.
• The notified Aravali land is spread across 13 villages in Gurgaon, 34 villages in Rewari, 68 villages in Nuh, 54 villages in Mahendergarh, and four villages in Charkhi Dadri. The largest chunk of Aravalis to be covered under the Forest (Conservation) Act is in Nuh, with 11,118 hectares, followed by Mahendergarh (6,556 hectares), Rewari (3,582 hectares), Gurgaon (2,500 hectares), and Charkhi Dadri (596 hectares).
• According to forest officials, the revival plan will involve improving soil texture and fertility, putting up stone walls to mark the boundary of protected hills, and creating water harvesting structures and check dams. A targeted plantation drive will also be carried out, with 200 saplings per hectare to be planted wherever needed.
• The notification of Aravali land under the Forest (Conservation) Act will not only boost Haryana's recorded forest area but also provide a green cover to the Aravali forests. The state is home to around 1 lakh hectares of the Aravalis, of which 45,000 hectares are already notified under the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) and the Aravali Plantation.
• The decision to carry out compensatory afforestation in Haryana was made due to the state's low forest cover, which stands at just 3.6% of its total area. Over the decades, large areas of the Aravali hills have been lost to rapid concretisation and mining.
• While the project has been welcomed by environmentalists, concerns have been raised about the effectiveness of compensatory afforestation in replacing the lost biodiversity of the Great Nicobar forests. It has further been pointed out that the project's success will depend on the implementation of the revival plan and the protection of the notified Aravali land from encroachment and other non-forest activities.