Rohit Kumar
NEW DELHI, Dec 22: Even as the Center rejected allegations that a revised definition of the Aravalli range would open the door to large-scale mining threatening the ecological balance in the region, lawyer and environmental activist Hitendra Gandhi has written to the Chief Justice of India requesting for reconsidering the ‘100-metre’ decision about Aravalli – that only landforms rising 100 meters or more above local terrain now qualify as “Aravalli,” which has sparked a storm. of protests.
In the letter, which has also been sent to the President of India, he said a narrow, height-based criterion could unintentionally weaken environmental protection across North-West India. The Center had earlier asserted that over 90 per cent of the ecologically sensitive region would remain protected under a Supreme Court-approved framework.
In his letter, Gandhi described the Supreme Court’s November 20 order as a significant and welcome step in recognizing the Aravalli system as an ecologically critical natural shield. But he raised concern over the operational definition adopted in the order, under which landforms with a “local relief” of 100 meters or more above their immediate surroundings are treated as the primary criterion for identifying Aravalli hills and ranges. This approach, he said, risks excluding large, ecologically integral parts of the Aravalli landscape that may not meet the numerical height threshold but remain functionally critical.
The letter emphasized that the Aravallis are an ancient and highly eroded ridge system, where ecological value is not confined to prominent peaks. Low-relief ridges, outcrops, slopes, corridors and recharge-bearing terrains play a vital role in groundwater recharge, dust and desertification buffering, biodiversity connectivity, microclimate moderation and the overall ecological resilience of the Delhi-NCR region.
Gandhi cautioned that environmental protection in India was often triggered by legal classification and land records. A narrowly framed definition, he said, could create “grey zones” where enforcement becomes uncertain, enabling land-use conversion, mining and construction in areas that are scientifically part of the Aravalli system. Such outcomes, he warned, may be irreversible.
Last month, a bench headed by former Chief Justice of India BR Gavai had declared that only landforms rising 100 meters or more above local terrain now qualify as “Aravalli.” The decision was made according to the recommendation of a committee under the Environment Ministry. It was meant to standardize the definition of Aravallis, which runs across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi and Haryana.
The Supreme Court’s November 20 order had environmentalists and activists up in arms. Environmentalists warned that it would unleash a wave of mining and real estate development. This, they said, would cause irreversible ecological havoc — accelerating desertification, crippling groundwater recharge, and dooming biodiversity in a region already gasping under pollution and water scarcity.
The government has declared that 90 per cent of the Aravalli region will remain “protected” now and cited a Supreme Court-ordered freeze on new mining leases in the region. The Union Environment minister Bhupendra Yadav said, “no relaxation has been granted” with regard to the protection of the Aravalli region and claimed “lies” have been spread on the issue.
In a post on
The three-judge bench of BR Gavai (then CJI) and Justices K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria, had asked the Environment ministry to prepare a “Management Plan for Sustainable Mining” (MPSM) for the entire Aravalli range in connection with a matter concerning its conservation and definition.
Regarding the ban on mining, the court had said a complete ban on mining might lead to illegal mining activities and thus, no such ban was imposed on the present legal mining activities that are already being undertaken in the Aravali Hills and Ranges. The court had directed that till the MPSM is finalized, no new mining leases should be granted, and once finalized, mining would be permitted as per the MPSM.
Mr Yadav citing official data had stated that mining eligibility was restricted to just 0.19 per cent of the total 1.44 lakh sq km Aravalli region, while the remaining area was “preserved and protected.” “Stop spreading lies,” he said in a post on X, responding to claims by the Congress and others that the new definition would damage the mountain system. He also said the definition to describe Aravalli range as two or more such hills located within 500 meters of each other, did not mean that areas below 100 meters are open for mining, stressing that entire hill systems, including their enclosed landforms, remain protected.
According to the Environment Ministry, the definition was standardized on the directions of the Supreme Court to remove ambiguity across states and prevent misuse that allowed mining close to hill bases. A committee set up in May 2024 found that Rajasthan was the only state with a long-standing definition, which has now been adopted by Haryana, Gujarat and Delhi with additional safeguards.
The framework mandates detailed mapping on Survey of India maps, identification of core and inviolate areas where mining was prohibited, and stricter monitoring using technology such as drones. No new mining leases would be granted until a landscape-level management plan was prepared by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education.
The government reiterated that illegal and unregulated mining remains the biggest threat to the Aravallis and said stronger enforcement measures were being put in place to protect the ancient mountain range.
Comments are closed.