Baba Ramdev buys chunk of Aravalis

Yoga guru Swami Ramdev has reportedly bought huge tracts of land in the ecologically sensitive Aravali hills. Revenue officials and residents of Manger village, a valley close to the Gurgaon- Faridabad border, said trusts run by Ramdev have bought over 200 acres of land. Middlemen are also said to be negotiating with property owners to buy more than 1,000 acres of land in the area.

Portions of this land fall under the Punjab Land Preservation Act, under which land cannot be used for “non-forest activities”. A senior revenue official of Faridabad confirmed that land deals have become hectic in the past few months, pushing up prices in the region. Forest department officials also confirmed the development.

Ramdev’s spokesman, S K Tijarawala, denied that any of the Yoga guru’s trusts was buying huge patches of land in the area. “I have got this cross-checked. We have bought only 12 acres of land in Manger in the name of Divya Yog Mandir trust. The rest is all rumour. Property dealers may be behind this propaganda to push up prices,” he added.

Tijarawala said the trust did not have any specific plan at present on how to develop the land. “But our land is all clear and legal,” he added.

Sources said the yoga guru had been scouting for a chunk of land within an hour’s drive from the IGI Airport. Manger is all set to get good road connectivity from the airport when the Gurgaon-Faridabad road is widened to four lanes within two years. This link road joins with the Delhi- Gurgaon expressway. Property dealers operating in the region confirmed that Ramdev’s trusts had been actively buying land in the area.

“A couple of organizations run by Swamiji are buying land in different names. We have no clue what exactly is being planned. Since the mining activities have stopped in the entire Aravalis, land deals have become our only source of living,” said a property dealer who has an office on Gurgaon-Faridabad road.

Though prices have indeed shot up in the area, locals are not celebrating. They had sold almost all their land way back in the 1980s. “The locals owned nearly 5,000 acres of the hills. None knew what was in the store. We sold our patches of land to all those who came to buy at very low price. Now, the land is being resold to big players at very high rates. We have heard that many dealers are negotiating with the current owners on behalf of Swamiji,” said Nainu, a resident of the tiny Manger village.

Nainu, who claimed to be the first villager to have sold ‘hill land’ to outsiders, added that locals started selling land at Rs 2,500 per acre in 1982-83.