For the first time in the history of Haryana, a northern Indian state bordering the national capital of Delhi, a first-of-its-kind grassroots democratic exercise has taken place before the assembly elections. Rural and urban stakeholders from 17 out of 22 districts covering 77% of the state, along with diverse experts in the fields of ecology, agriculture, waste and water management, urban planning, and sustainable architecture, have contributed to creating a green vision of development based on principles of ecological wisdom, sustainability, and social justice.

Map of 17 out of 22 districts covering 77% of the state of Haryana, from which rural and urban stakeholders along with diverse experts in the fields of ecology, agriculture, waste and water management, urban planning, and sustainable architecture, who contributed to creating a green vision of development based on principles of ecological wisdom, sustainability, and social justice.

The Haryana Green Manifesto 2024 (Green Manifesto) is a critical response to the escalating environmental crisis in our state. Haryana has the lowest forest cover in India, a mere 3.6% as compared to the national average of 21%. In May and June 2024, we experienced extreme heatwaves, with temperatures touching 50° Celsius. Our state has the dubious distinction of having 8 out of the 50 most polluted places in the world.

Unsegregated, mixed waste is dumped everywhere, creating toxic landfills across Haryana with no regard for their negative impact on our natural ecosystems, surface water bodies, and groundwater aquifers. Many seasonal streams, ponds, lakes, and rivers have been built up on or dried up. Out of the water bodies that remain, most are choked with plastic, untreated sewage, and industrial effluents. 16 out of 22 districts in Haryana extracted more than 100% of the underground water in 2023.

Polluted village pond.

The Aravalli Range, a 670 km-long mountain range in northwestern India, is our only barrier against desertification, critical water recharge zone, pollution sink, and wildlife habitat. But the Aravallis are being razed to the ground by mining and real estate development and poisoned as a result of waste dumping. Groundwater levels have fallen to 2000 feet in many villages in South Haryana where mining is rampant, adversely impacting agriculture and water security.

The rural population is suffering from various lung ailments, including the killer Silicosis disease, as a result of pollution caused by blasting the hills and dust from the stone crushers. Industrial waste has been illegally burned in villages in the Nuh district for more than 12 years. Cattle in the villages and wildlife living in the Aravallis have been dying from drinking the waste water that flows out of chemical effluent, and the villagers are suffering from skin diseases and breathing ailments.

Mining operations destroying the Haryana Aravallis.

Faced with this dismal situation, we created the Green Manifesto to protect and restore the state’s highly degraded and polluted natural environment. The Green Manifesto clearly  describes the issues and spells out the citizens’ demands for safeguarding and increasing Haryana’s abysmally low forest and tree cover, conserving natural ecosystems of the state, improving surface water and groundwater availability, implementing climate resilient agriculture, and reducing air pollution. Our goal is to help create an environment in which future and current human generations and our voiceless flora and fauna can thrive.

To protect the essential ecosystem services provided by the Aravallis, the main demand in the Green Manifesto is to legally designate the Aravallis as a ‘Critical Ecological Zone’ where no destructive activities and commercial projects are allowed. Rural citizens have also demanded that all legal and illegal mining and stone crushing activities near human habitation and wildlife-sensitive zones, as well as illegal dumping and burning of chemical waste from industries, must be stopped immediately. Villagers whose agricultural lands have been adversely impacted should be given compensation and allotted good-quality farm land in the same or adjoining village.

Discussion with Kuldeep Singh, Sarpanch, Dokadeena village, and Meet Maan, an active farmer in Charkhi Dadri district, talking about how they have created a village pond and revived their bani (sacred forest).

To reach a target of 10% native forest and tree cover in 4 years, as recommended by ecologists, it is crucial to revive Haryana’s legacy of having a bani (sacred forest) in every village with the involvement of local communities, to bring back traditional native trees of Haryana that are disappearing, and to manage invasive species.

Haryana’s food and water security is under huge threat. 3,64,154 hectares — 8.24% of the total geographical area of the state — has degraded, negatively impacting our food security. Considering that this region is highly climate sensitive, with 95% of our state’s 22 districts having a high and medium climate risk score, the key demands from the farming community voiced in the Green Manifesto are to: (a) promote crop diversification as a key climate change adaptation strategy, and (b) to restore soil and its microbial diversity by providing incentives to farmers to transition from synthetic chemical-based agriculture to natural farming practices that improve soil and land health.

Women farmers in Jind running Keet Pathshala (school to teach farmers how to co-exist with insects) talking about how their vegetable crops are thriving without the use of insecticides.

To ensure water security the Green Manifesto asks to designate and protect all wetlands in Haryana, implement water recharge, revive all water bodies across the state, and strictly enforce a ‘Polluter Pays Principle’ to ensure that no untreated sewage and factory effluents are discharged into water bodies. The Green Manifesto also demands that Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) are made operational with high efficiency in all our villages and small towns and that a plan is implemented that mandates the utilization of 100% recycled grey water and sewage water before fresh water is allowed to be used in Haryana.

To clean our air and make our urban areas livable it is critical to strictly adhere to a ban on the burning of waste and to enforce all waste management rules. In addition, we must ensure a massive scale-up of integrated public transport systems in key urban areas, reduce the use of personal cars by increasing tax on the purchase of 4-wheel vehicles, implement congestion pricing to reduce vehicles on the road, develop cycling and walking tracks to encourage non-motorized travel across urban areas, and develop a ‘Livability Index Framework’ for all towns and cities, with a plan to improve the index points by 10 points every 3 years. Urban areas must be developed in a methodical and ecological manner based on their carrying capacity, water, and land resources.

The Green Manifesto demands that ecological planning and design thinking be made the foundation of all development policies, projects, and plans in Haryana. Furthermore, communities, civil society, and independent experts should not only be included, but be made central, to all local and state level decision-making processes.

We hope to see citizens’ demands included in the manifestos of all political parties contesting the Haryana assembly elections this year.