By Brijesh Vijayvargia*
Aravalli Judgment: Relief and Alarm in One
SC Halts New Mines but Redefines Aravallis
Jaipur/Gurugram: A Supreme Court judgment delivered on November 20, 2025, has been welcomed by environmentalists for imposing a complete moratorium on new mining leases across the entire Aravalli range, but it has simultaneously triggered widespread alarm over the court’s acceptance of a uniform elevation-based definition that many experts fear will strip legal protection from thousands of ecologically vital lower hills and ridges. While the mining ban is seen as a major victory for conservation, the new 100-metre height criterion is being sharply criticised as a potential gateway to large-scale destruction of India’s oldest mountain range.
The ruling, which aims to bring long-sought regulatory uniformity across four states, has thus divided stakeholders: the protective directions offer hope for science-based management of the fragile ecosystem, yet the adopted definition is viewed by ecologists, water experts, and local communities as a serious setback that could accelerate desertification, worsen air and water crises, and fragment one of northwest India’s last remaining natural barriers.
On November 20, 2025, a Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice B.R. Gavai, Justice K. Vinod Chandran, and Justice N.V. Anjaria delivered a key judgment in the ongoing T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad case (Writ Petition (Civil) No. 202 of 1995). While examining I.A. No. 105701 of 2024 concerning CEC Report No. 03 of 2024, the court formally accepted the recommendations of a committee chaired by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. It adopted a uniform operational definition of “Aravalli Hills and Ranges” for the regulation of mining activities across the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi.
According to the definition now recognised by the Supreme Court, an “Aravalli Hill” is any landform situated within the notified Aravalli districts that rises at least 100 metres above the local relief, with local relief calculated from the lowest contour line encircling the landform. The entire area enclosed by that lowest contour—whether actual or notionally extended—including the hill itself, its supporting slopes, and all associated landforms irrespective of gradient, is deemed part of the Aravalli Hills. Furthermore, two or more such hills lying within 500 metres of each other, measured from the outermost points of their respective lowest contours, together constitute an “Aravalli Range”.
Alongside this definition, the court issued a significant protective direction: no new mining leases are to be granted anywhere in the Aravallis until the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, through the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), prepares and notifies a comprehensive Management Plan for Sustainable Mining (MPSM) for the entire Aravalli landscape stretching from Gujarat to Delhi. The plan is expected to demarcate no-go zones for mining, identify ecologically sensitive and restoration-priority areas, and conduct a thorough assessment of cumulative environmental impacts and the overall ecological carrying capacity of the region.
Neelam Ahluwalia, founder member of People for Aravallis—a collective of citizens, ecologists, researchers, and environmentalists working to protect the Aravalli ecosystem across four states—described the judgment as a mixed outcome. She welcomed the complete moratorium on fresh mining leases and the mandate for a science-based management plan, calling these steps critical for long-term conservation. However, she expressed deep concern over the court’s acceptance of the 100-metre elevation criterion. In her view, this threshold excludes a large number of lower hills that are ecologically integral to the range. Their potential exposure to mining, she argued, would break the continuity of India’s oldest mountain range, creating additional gaps through which dust storms and the advancing Thar Desert could more easily reach eastern Rajasthan, western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and the Delhi-NCR region. Even the low, scrub-covered hills, she emphasised, play vital roles in conserving biodiversity, retaining soil moisture, trapping heat, and helping regulate regional climate. The learned amicus curiae, Mr Parameshwar, had similarly cautioned the court that adopting the uniform definition would endanger the entire ecology of the Aravallis, but this submission was not accepted.
Ecologist Pia Sethi explained that the forest and canopy cover of the Aravallis preserve atmospheric humidity, moderate wind velocity, and contribute significantly to local rainfall patterns through evapotranspiration. Opening lower hills to mining, she said, risks disrupting precipitation cycles and intensifying heat stress across northwest India.
Environmentalist Tanuja Chauhan underlined the role of Aravalli forests as the green lungs of the densely populated Delhi-NCR region, converting carbon dioxide into oxygen, trapping airborne pollutants, and moderating urban temperatures. With cities such as Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, and Ghaziabad already ranking among the world’s twenty most polluted, any further loss of Aravalli cover, she warned, would raise ambient dust levels, deteriorate air quality, and increase the frequency of extreme weather events.
Globally recognised water conservationist Dr Rajendra Singh of Rajasthan highlighted the critical groundwater recharge function of the Aravallis. The region’s highly fractured and weathered rocks allow rainwater to percolate deeply, contributing an estimated two million litres of recharge per hectare. Disturbing lower hills through mining, he cautioned, would disrupt interconnected aquifers, lower water tables, and compromise water purity in the already water-stressed states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, southern Haryana, and Delhi-NCR.
Ecologist Dr Ghazala Shahabuddin pointed out that the Aravallis constitute a recognised biodiversity hotspot and wildlife corridor, supporting more than 400 species of native trees, shrubs, grasses, and herbs; over 200 native and migratory bird species; more than 100 butterfly species; at least 15 reptile and 15 mammal species—including leopards, striped hyenas, golden jackals, nilgai, porcupines, and small Indian civets—as well as numerous insects and amphibians. Shrinking the protected area through the new definition, she said, would reduce habitat, fragment corridors, and heighten human-wildlife conflict.
At the grassroots level, Kailash Meena, who has led community resistance against illegal mining, described how rural populations depend on the Aravallis for cattle grazing and the collection of medicinal plants used to treat both human and livestock ailments. In areas where mining has already been rampant, villages have witnessed sharp declines in livestock numbers and the disappearance of valuable plant species. He cited the example of Ramalwas village in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri district, once renowned for the bone-healing plant “Harjor” (Cissus quadrangularis), now surrounded only by bare hills, dust, and rubble after years of quarrying.
In Haryana, where the Aravallis are already among the most degraded sections of the range, the implications of the new definition are particularly severe. Large parts of the hills in districts such as Mahendergarh, Charkhi Dadri, and Bhiwani have been reduced to ground level, creating more than a dozen breaches through which Thar Desert dust now freely enters Haryana and Delhi-NCR. Dr R.P. Balwan, retired Conservator of Forests (South Circle, Haryana), observed that Haryana’s natural forest cover stands at a mere 3.6 per cent—one of the lowest in the country—and much of the state’s notified forest lies in low-elevation hill systems that do not meet the 100-metre criterion. Under the new definition, these areas would lose their status as protected Aravalli landscape and could be opened to mining, effectively undoing three decades of judicial safeguards and further diminishing the state’s dwindling green cover.
While the Supreme Court’s adoption of a uniform definition is intended to provide regulatory clarity across multiple states, a wide range of environmentalists, ecologists, water experts, and local communities maintain that the 100-metre elevation threshold risks exposing substantial and ecologically vital portions of the Aravalli range to irreversible damage.
*Senior journalist
