Natural Heritage First is a group of citizens, concerned with the depletion of our living natural resources in our city. We started with a fight to protect the Vasant Vihar Mahipal Pur ridge forest in South Delhi in 1995 when Vikram Soni and Deshdeep Sahdev filed a PIL in the Delhi High Court to stop a road being built by the DDA through this ridge forest. The defining member of the group has been Prof. Vikram Soni, who is a research scientist with the National Physical Laboratory, and a leading figure in all our campaigns. His biggest contribution has been the preparation of a knowledge base before any campaign was taken up. Distinguished senior journalist Kuldeep Nayar has been one of the pillars of this group and a public face for the movement. His contributions have pushed the authorities to listen. The group comprised of Prof. Soni, Mr. Kuldeep Nayar, Prof..Deshdeep Sehdev (of IIT Kanpur) and others were known by the acronym, CPQLW (Citizens for Preservation of Quarries and Lakes Wilderness). The PIL filed by ‘CPQLW’ led to the cancellation of the International Hotels Complex Project on the ridge. CPQLW supported by other individuals and NGOs under the banner NGO Forum raised one of the most active environmental movements in the city of Delhi. As a consequence, 223 hectares of pristine ridge forest area in Vasant Vihar- Mahipal Pur region is protected today as a Bio-diversity Park, which otherwise would have been buried under the concrete of 13 luxury hotels.

Presently, a larger group ( see below) is active in the campaign to save the Yamuna Floodplains, the ridge forest and in protecting the citizens of Delhi by seeking enlightened modifications to the Master Plan of Delhi-2021.