greater noida local farmers recount that akbarpur bil the ushaped marsh once dotted with lotus ponds in greater noida that is also known as the dadri wetland used to be a habitat for myriad birds and small animals today when you walk through the parched expanse you wonder about the veracity of their recollections but soon you see remnants of the lush past and wonder if the national green tribunals ngt professed aim of restoring at least part of the expanse ever be possible a dozen deer blackbuck and nilgai welcome you at the heart of the dead wetland there are barely any birds despite it being december the peak migratory season locals say in past winters the area would be alive with the cackle of avians ever since the canal which used to flow from chitrata village was blocked there is no water here and everything has withered away the area has also been extensively leveled with landfill i think they were planning to build a road through the marshes said farmer jagdish like his neighbour ranjit jagdish brings his herd of buffaloes to graze in the arid grounds everyday there is no water to bathe the buffaloes here so we do it at home a private university complex which is embroiled in litigation at the ngt currently borders the wetland on one side the other side has been engulfed by a humungous realestate project locals said it was its developer that had the wetland filled and was about to begin constructing a road through it when the ngt stopped all construction within 500 m of the wetland the damage to what remains of the wetland today though seems irreversible the only way we can reverse the damage is by opening the blocked canals so that once again the lowlands become marshy and the local ecology is restored said greater noidabased environmentalist vikrant tongad with real estate projects having rendered the land barren what use is it to us now even we want to sell our land and leave said jagdish on monday ngt ordered the formation of a highlevel committee by december 5 to investigate the hows and whys of dadris real estate boom which it claimed had brought down the marshlands width from 72 ha in 2009 to 327 ha now its report is expected by december 18