Government fails to define Aravallis despite over a year’s effort

The duty was to specify the Aravallis, an past scope of weathered hills rambling crossed 4 States, from the outskirts of Delhi to Gujarat. Despite 3 committees labouring implicit the task for implicit a year, equipped with outer imagery and expertise from aggregate institutions, the Union authorities could not determine connected azygous method criteria to specify the range.

It was lone aft the Supreme Court warned of initiating contempt proceedings against elder officials of the Environment Ministry that a caller sub-committee was formed successful August 2025, which past gave up trying to specify the Aravallis and focussed alternatively connected evolving a explanation that would “balance” ecological information and the Centre’s 2019 National Mineral Policy that encourages mining of captious minerals for the “nation’s economical growth”, according to a 2,000-page affidavit by the Union Environment Ministry, submitted to the Supreme Court, which was perused by The Hindu.

Mining dangers

The definition of the Aravalli range has sparked an biology and governmental firestorm implicit the past week, with charges that the government’s last explanation lone protects hills higher than 100 metres from mining. That leaves the remaining hills — which marque up the immense bulk of the 700 km scope spanning from Haryana to Gujarat, with the bulk of it successful Rajasthan — unfastened to the dangers of mining and degradation.

Editorial | Debate connected what is Aravalli reveals distrust of govt connected ecological issues

Under occurrence from biology activists and warring a societal media tempest which alleged that immense tracts of the Aravalli ranges whitethorn beryllium opened for mining, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav has stressed that nary caller mining licenses would beryllium awarded until a elaborate Management Plan for Sustainable Mining (MPSM) covering the full Aravalli scope is prepared by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, successful enactment with the Supreme Court’s bid connected November 20. According to this directive, the program indispensable demarcate areas wherever mining indispensable beryllium perfectly prohibited, and place zones wherever constricted and highly regulated mining whitethorn beryllium permitted.

Uniform definition

It was amerciable mining, the hacking of the slopes of respective hills, that triggered petitions successful the past decades, and led to judicial involution successful the archetypal place. To assistance determine connected a azygous explanation for the Aravalli hills, the Supreme Court constituted a Committee successful 2024, comprising representatives from the Environment Ministry, the Forest Survey of India, State Forest Departments, the Geological Survey of India and the Central Empowered Committee of the SC. This Committee was tasked with creating a scientifically grounded, nationwide explanation of the Aravallis. After constituting 2 sub-committees of its own, and facing a rap from the apical court, the Committee yet submitted its findings successful October 2025, aft which the SC passed an order connected November 20, 2025.

Perusal of the Committee’s documents showed that portion the Forest Survey of India successful 2010 had a criteria for defining the Aravalli hills successful Rajasthan, based connected the slope — and importantly, not connected the tallness — the Committee was rather acrophobic that areas that were “not Aravalli” not beryllium included.

“It is again reiterated that utilizing lone elevation and slope arsenic criteria to demarcate the bound of the Aravalli Hills and Ranges whitethorn pb to inclusion errors, arsenic a important portion of Hilly country autumn wrong the identified districts is non-Aravalli. In plain terms, not each areas of Aravalli person Hilly terrain and not each Hilly terrain successful these 34 districts are needfully Aravalli successful presumption of its Geological illustration and extent,” it noted.

Slope and elevation

The archetypal technological effort to specify the Aravallis — till past lone recognised arsenic a geographical entity — and delineate it from different hilly terrain successful Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Haryana came successful 2010, erstwhile the Supreme Court asked the FSI, affiliated to the Environment Ministry, to delineate the ranges successful Rajasthan. Mining had been banned successful the State and determination were respective petitions by mining companies that the livelihoods of workers were successful peril.

Under this definition, which was circumstantial to Rajasthan, the Aravalli hills were those that had a slope greater than 3 degrees. The mean elevation of the authorities was taken to beryllium 115 m and to this, a azygous 100-metre wide buffer was added connected the downhill broadside to relationship for slope stability. The level areas, tabletops, depressions and valleys falling wrong this buffer were besides included successful the Hills. However determination was nary accusation presented connected the fig of hills included nether specified an exercise.

Until specified an exercise, ‘core’ hills were defined arsenic an elevated landform with a slope of 30 degrees oregon more, and a comparative relief, oregon emergence supra the section crushed level, supra 300 m. To relationship for smaller hills that are often successful the vicinity of halfway hills, those greater than a 17 grade slope and a 100 quadrate km country astir specified hills, were deemed ‘hill areas’.

Technical sub-committee

A method sub-committee of the main Committee, chaired by the Director General of the FSI, and including representatives from the Survey of India and the Geological Survey of India, successful 2024 started connected an workout to specify the ‘hills’ for each of the Aravallis beyond Rajasthan.

This workout for the archetypal clip relied connected modular resolution-maps prepared by the Survey of India. Even the FSI, the records show, concurred that the slope was not the sole determining criteria.

“The Survey of India (SoI) and the Forest Survey of India (FSI) were not successful statement with the attack of hard… based solely connected slope and section relief,” a study of the Committee noted. “They emphasised that different section and determination morphometric parameters whitethorn besides request to beryllium considered. Since the quality of Hills varies crossed antithetic terrains, it whitethorn not beryllium applicable to use azygous criteria of slope and alleviation crossed the full region. This reflection was further substantiated during the elaborate slope and relief-based investigation carried retired by the Technical Sub-Committee.”

‘Take a argumentation decision’

Despite six meetings from May 2025 to August 2025, these experts could not hold connected a azygous definition.

On August 12, 2025, the Supreme Court said that if “...recommendations were not submitted by the adjacent date, the members of the Committee constituted successful presumption of our bid dated 09th May, 2025, would beryllium liable to beryllium proceeded against for having committed Contempt of this Court…Basically, what is required to beryllium done is to instrumentality a argumentation determination with respect to the explanation of Aravali Hills and Ranges…we bash not recognize arsenic to wherefore a play of much than 2 months is required for arriving astatine a argumentation decision, which tin beryllium taken by the Secretary of the MoEF&CC by taking connected committee the representatives of each the State Governments…We are lone funny successful protecting the precious Aravali Hills and Ranges,” the bid noted.

It was pursuing this that the Committee started to absorption connected getting the views of States and getting a explanation that would enactment sustainable mining. “...the Aravalli-Delhi strategy has been identified arsenic having important imaginable for captious minerals specified arsenic tin, graphite, molybdenum, niobium, nickel, lithium, and uncommon world elements (REEs)...In this context, the Committee was of the considered sentiment that portion the ecological and biology integrity of the Aravalli Hills and Ranges indispensable stay the foremost priority, it is arsenic indispensable to germinate a model that enables systematic, scientific, and environmentally sustainable exploitation of critical, strategic, and atomic minerals located wrong the region. Such a balanced attack would guarantee that the country’s strategical and developmental interests are not compromised,” the study noted.

It added: “The Committee aft elaborate deliberations felt that considering the wide variability of the elevation from Average Mean Sea Level (ASML) of Aravalli Hills and Ranges, the elevation with notation to section relief, arsenic already being followed by Rajasthan and agreed to by different States, whitethorn beryllium much due and nonsubjective criteria for conservation and absorption of Aravalli Hills and Ranges.”