PROTECTING ARAVALLI HILLS

Mandating uniform safeguard across Aravalli Hills, the Supreme Court said uncontrolled mining poses a 'great threat to ecology of the nation'

- TDG NETWORK

The Supreme Court of India, in its order dated 20 November 2025, accepted the recommendations of the Committee constituted under the leadership of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) to frame a uniform, scientific definition of the Aravalli Hills and Ranges for regulating mining.

Emphasising that uncontrolled mining poses a “great threat to the ecology of the nation,” the Court directed strict safeguards and imposed an interim moratorium on new mining leases until a comprehensive Management Plan for Sustainable Mining (MPSM) is prepared.

The Committee—comprising representatives from Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, the Forest Survey of India, Geological Survey of India, and the Central Empowered Committee—recommended adopting a uniform criterion of landforms rising 100 metres above local relief, along with protection of supporting slopes and clusters of hills within 500 metres as part of the Aravalli Range. These definitions ensure scientific clarity, objective mapping, and landscape-level conservation.

M/O EF&CC COMMITTEE REPORT FINDINGS

The Committee, constituted by MoEF&CC pursuant to Supreme Court directions had extensive consultation with State Governments in which it emerged that only Rajasthan has a formally established definition for regulating mining in the Aravalli definition which was based on the 2002 Committee Report of the State Government relying on Richard Murphy landform classification which Identified all landforms rising 100 m above local relief as hills and based on that, prohibiting mining on both the hills and its supporting slopes. State of Rajasthan has been following this definition since 9th January, 2006.