CHAOS IN-DEFINITION

The Aravallis are perhaps India's most litigated hill range. More than 4,000 court cases have failed to arrest their destruction. The latest dispute concerns a narrow legal definition of this geological antiquity, much of which has been obliterated by mining and urban sprawl. While the Supreme Court has stayed its own judgement accepting that definition, it must see the underlying reality and help reconcile development and national security with conservation.

- A report by HIMANSHU NITNAWARE with PULAHA ROY and PUJA DAS

THE DECISION came almost as an afterthought—but at least it came. On December 29, 2025, the Supreme Court of India stayed its own judgement, delivered barely a month earlier, which had accepted a “uniform definition” of the Aravalli hills and ranges. These are the world’s oldest surviving fold mountains, some 2.5 billion years old, whose weathered remnants now stretch nearly 700 km across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi.

Under the definition, the Aravalli “hills” were described as landforms in 34 designated districts with a minimum elevation of 100 metres above the local relief or surrounding terrain, including supporting slopes and connected features. A “range” would be recognised where two or more such hills lay within 500 metres of one another.