India, June 6 -- Environmental activists in Gurugram are up in arms against the Haryana government's "Matri Van" urban afforestation initiative in the Aravallis, as they alleged the drive was replacing natural and indigenous species of trees with others for replacing natural forest with a park-like space in the guise of compensatory afforestation.

As many as 60 members of city-based Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement (ABCM) on Friday staged a protest at the project site behind the Koliwale Baba Mandir and Sun City, Sector 54, and demanded an immediate halt to the afforestation activities being carried out in an "unscientific manner".

The initiative, spreading across 750 acres in the Aravalli hill region along the Gurugram-Faridabad Road,...