Death of a range

The Aravallis are India’s oldest mountains. But it has just taken the last 40 years to dismantle the 2.5-billion-year-old range.

Here, heavy machinery tears into the foothills of the Aravallis at Tijara in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, reshaping a once undulating ridge into flat farmland.

Experts warn such hill cutting drives down groundwater, erodes soil buffers and accelerates desertification in this ecologically fragile region.