Upholding it previous order, the National Green Tribunal earlier this week prohibited the use of interlocking tiles along roadsides and in parks and maintained that paving can only be done within permissible limits in Ghaziabad district. The order comes in response to a plea filed three year ago seeking a stop on over-concretisation of roads, parks etc in the district.
“After almost three years for the matter to be heard by the NGT the use of interlocking tiles is now prohibited. The district magistrate headed committee earlier this week submitted its policy before the NGT in which they have not only prohibited tiles along roads and in parks but also defined the limit up to which it can be used. Interlocking tiles can only be used on footpaths and that to on granular sub-base, which is a porous material,’’ explained petitioner Akash Vashishtha, conservation coordinator and policy analyst, Society for Protection of Environment and Biodiversity (SPEnBIO).
Carbon sink
The policy states that perforated blocks, fly ash and straight over brunt bricks should only be used. The hazardous effect of surface concretisation include - massive rise in temperatures and it also prevents ground water recharge.
“Soiled ground surfaces, on the other hand, absorb most of the solar radiation and the UV-B rays and acts as a major carbon sink. By concretising, the atmospheric carbon levels increase and thus, a rise in the warming,” said Mr. Vashishtha.
He added that it takes several hundred years to form a centimetre of soil. “Soil is a major storehouse of biodiversity, containing a diverse species of micro-organisms as well as macro-organisms , which play an extremely important role in nutrient cycles, soil fertility and other ecological functions. Concretisation kills all these soil organisms and thus upsets the ecology,” he noted.
