A recent judgement by India’s apex court may be the proverbial final nail in the coffin for the Aravalli range.
The Supreme Court last week accepted the recommendations of a Union Environment Ministry panel about which landforms should be considered part of the range.
Only landforms at a height of 100 metres or more above the local relief, including their slopes and adjacent land, would be counted as part of the range, the Centre proposed.
The Aravallis at 2.5-billion-years-old are India’s oldest mountains. In the last four decades though, they have been severely mined, deforested, and urbanised. According to critics, the recent judgement of the apex court will only hasten this process.
The death of the Aravallis will be the death of Delhi too. The range acts as a barrier to the winds sweeping from the Thar Desert and protect the fertile Indo-Gangetic Plain from desertification. The hills also regulate groundwater, influence climate and support biodiversity, all of which could be lost once the range itself is destroyed.