Natural stormwater drain in Goyla Khurd filled, encroached, NGT told

A natural stormwater drain in Goyla Khurd, southwest Delhi, is completely filled and encroached upon by private properties, with officials concerned unable to locate the drain, a joint committee headed by the district magistrate (southwest Delhi) told the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
The report, dated November 8, says two separate inspections of the area were carried out last month: on October 3 by the Naib Tehsildar, Delhi Pollution Control Board (DPCC) and Delhi Jal Board (DJB) officials, while a second inspection by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) was undertaken on October 19. Officials said that they were unable to find the drain on the ground in either inspection.
“There exists no drain on the site at present…. in the Khasra No. 38…which is now bifurcated in plots of different sizes and bearing hoarding indicating the ownership of the land,” the report said, adding that a detailed analysis by CPCB, using Google Earth images, revealed that a drain existed on the ground in 2022.
The joint committee was constituted by NGT in July to check the ground situation of the natural drain, on a petition by Goyla Khurd’s Shyam Kunj RWA, which alleged a natural drain in the village—forming a part of the Najafgarh drain (Sahibi river)—had been encroached completely. The petition said that the drain was around 450 metres long and 15 metres wide, contending the encroachment led to waterlogging in the area in monsoon.
“As per the latest images, the open drain now stands covered. Also, some constructions of boundary wall in the initial part of the drain was observed by CPCB members,” the report said, asking the tribunal to reach out to the Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) department to also share their opinion on the matter.
In its inspection on October 19, a team of three CPCB officials said they observed display boards indicating private ownership over the location of the drain.
“RWA representatives informed that earlier, the part of land used to carry the excess rainwater in the rainy season through the stated encroached open channel and the excess water used to flow into the Najafgarh drain. However, after the encroachment and closure of water inlet to that area, there is frequent waterlogging in Shyam Kunj colony in the rainy season,” CPCB said, asking for the tribunal to look into land records as they were beyond the pollution body’s purview.
The Najafgarh drain, which is nearly 51 kilometres long, is the last leg of the old Sahibi River, which originates in Rajasthan. The drain, meant to be a stormwater channel, originates at the Najafgarh lake near Dhansa in southwest Delhi, traversing its way across south, central, west and northwest Delhi before entering the Yamuna near Wazirabad.