Aravalli, saved from the axe

The Supreme Court's decision to keep in abeyance its earlier order allowing mining in parts of the Aravalli hills and range has brought them back from the brink-for now.

- 

A precious piece of natural heritage that runs nearly 700 km southwest from Delhi to Gujarat, via Haryana and Rajasthan, has received a reprieve. A new high-level committee of domain experts is to be constituted to examine several questions arising from recommendations made by an earlier panel, on the basis of which the court had allowed mining in some parts of the hills in November.

Evidently, the most contentious recommendation of that committee-convened by the Environment Ministry-relates to defining the Aravalli hills as landforms at least 100 metres high, and the range as hills separated by 500 metres. The Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, suo motu took note of a "significant outcry among environmentalists," who feared a fresh assault on the hills due to the ambiguous definition, putting large tracts at risk of renewed mining.