Tribune News Service

Gurgaon, February 3
Rapid urbanisation in Gurgaon has cast a shadow on the agriculture sector. It adversely affected the rural life in a big way as it has eroded the agricultural base and ruptured traditional values. It has resulted in social incongruities and criminal tendencies, especially among youngsters.

Swanky skyscrapers twinkling with sodium lights, glitzy colonies and condominiums, malls, market squares, hotels and pubs have come up at the cost of agricultural land.

Agriculture land holding in the district has shrunk. The region faces a real time threat of losing its sylvan charm and the agro-culture if the state remains oblivious to it.

Devraj Yadav, former sarpanch of Kanhi village in this district, regretted the rampant urbanisation. He said the policy makers would have to strike a balance between urbanisation and agriculture for a healthy polity.

According to statistics, in 2006, the pool of cultivable land in Gurgaon, which consists of 291 villages, was 76,615 hectares. In 2007, the total agricultural land holding was 77,184 hectare, an increase over the figure of 2006. The revenue authorities attribute this increase to heavy rainfall, which resulted in forced cultivation due to long-standing accumulation of storm water in the open areas.

However, the total cultivable land in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 was 71,040, 68,859, 70,869, 67,854, 69,544 and 75,165 hectares respectively.

Gurgaon’s total land mass is 1,91,000 hectares. If the 2013 figures are taken into account, about 48 per cent of the cultivable land has been used for urbanisation. A number of villages have become part of the urban estate now. As many as 35 villages in Gurgaon tehsil have been incorporated into the Gurgaon Municipal Corporation (MCG).

What the official records have not taken into account is the vast tracts of land, which albeit categorised under agricultural land holding, have been purchased by private builders. They can’t be expected to adopt agriculture as a vocation. Some of them have already procured licences to raise colonies.

There are many villages like Badshahpur, Islampur, Tikri, Begumpur Khatola, Begumpur, Mohammadpur, Gadholi,Wazirpur, Nathupur, Kasan, Manesar, Hyatpur, Dhorka, Harsaru, Garhi Khurd, Garhi Kalan, Dhanwapur, Daultabad, Bajghera and Dhankot where there is no land or modicum of agricultural land has been left.