Uniform definition of Aravallis accepted by Supreme Court will be catastrophic for India’s oldest mountain range

On November 20, 2025, a Supreme Court bench passed a crucial judgement over the definition of the Aravalli Hills and Ranges. In its judgment, the bench accepted the recommendations made by a committee spearheaded by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) regarding the definition of India’s oldest mountain range. 

The new definition of ‘Aravalli Hills’ in the 692 kilometre range spread across north-west India is ‘any landform located in the Aravalli districts, having an elevation of 100 metres or more from the local relief’.

The entire landform lying within the area enclosed by such lowest contour, together with the hill, its supporting slopes and associated landforms irrespective of their gradient, shall be deemed to be part of the ‘Aravalli Hills’. Two or more Aravalli hills located within a proximity of 500 metres from each other, measured from the outermost point on the boundary of the lowest contour line on either side, form the ‘Aravalli Range’.

The acceptance of the above “uniform definition of the Aravalli Hills” by the bench will be catastrophic for this already beleaguered landscape, as it will exclude more than 90 per cent of the Aravallis, including vast stretches of low-lying scrub hills, grasslands and ridges, for the purpose of mining. Most of these areas can then be opened for mining. This would undo three decades of legal protection to these critical ecosystems, which was afforded by numerous policies including the MoEFCC’s 1992 Aravalli notification and the National Capital Region (NCR) Planning Board’s declaration of Natural Conservation Zones in the Aravallis in 2021.

Our ecological worries are predicated on considerable field evidence gathered over the last few years. The extremely dismal state of the Aravalli hills in the districts of Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat as a result of destruction caused by mining and stone-crushing has to be seen to be believed.

The State of the Haryana Aravallis: Citizens’ Report – Part 1, submitted by the People for Aravallis collective to the MoEFCC and the Haryana Government in May 2025, highlighted that out of seven Aravalli districts in the state, licensed mining operations have wiped out most of the two-billion-year-old ecological heritage of India in the districts of Charkhi Dadri and Bhiwani. Aravalli hills in Gurugram, Nuh and Faridabad districts were plundered during the time when licensed mining took place before the Supreme Court banned mining in 2009 in these three districts.

However, illegal mining still continues brazenly. In Mahendergarh district, where groundwater levels in many areas have reached a depth of 1,500-2,000 feet, licensed and illegal mining have caused immense devastation.

Over the last few decades, destruction of the Aravalli hills across the entire range has been on such a massive scale that more than 12 breaches in the Aravallis have opened up, extending from Ajmer to Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan and Mahendergarh district in south Haryana, from where dust from the Thar desert has been blowing into Delhi-NCR, adding to the pollution woes of this region.

The new definition of the Aravalli hills will lead to more hills being razed to the ground on account of mining, which will in turn result in India’s oldest mountain range losing its continuity, and more gaps and breaches being created from where the Thar desert will advance more rapidly towards eastern Rajasthan, western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi-NCR, negatively impacting the food security of this region.

Over 3,60,000 hectares — 8.2 per cent of Haryana’s total area — had already been degraded in 2018-19. Experts attribute one of the reasons for desertification to mining in the Aravallis, which is leading to massive destruction of the hills and loss of forest and green cover.

Haryana’s natural forest cover of 3.6 per cent of its land area, already the lowest in the country, could further decline as a result of the recent judgement. This is because much of the state’s notified forest lies within low-elevation hill systems, which do not meet the 100-metre criteria.

Forest cover in the Aravallis enhances precipitation and checks drought across the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi. Trees and canopy cover of the Aravalli hills preserve humidity in the atmosphere, modulate wind velocity and thereby help regulate rainfall patterns. The forests also serve as Delhi-NCR’s protective green lungs by playing an important role in trapping pollutants, regulating temperatures and contributing to overall climate mitigation. 

The Aravalli range also acts as a critical water-recharge zone, as the weathered rocks with their natural cracks allow groundwater recharge. Calculations reveal an immense potential of two million litres of groundwater recharge per hectare of the Aravalli landscape. The critical ecosystem services of the Aravalli range for millions of people living in north-western India cannot be over-emphasised.

Aquifers lying beneath the Aravallis are interconnected, and any disturbance or alteration in the pattern due to the breaking of hills for mining can significantly alter the groundwater table and its purity. Groundwater levels, which have fallen to 1,000-2,000 feet across many areas in the 692 km Aravalli belt, will fall further with many more hills being mined.

Also, more surface-water bodies will disappear, severely impacting water availability in north-west India. Agricultural productivity, which has declined across the Aravalli region in south Haryana and Rajasthan as a result of the unavailability of water due to excessive mining and because a layer of dust from stone-crushers covers the crops, will be further negatively impacted with more hills being opened for mining.

Currently, the remnant forests of the Aravallis act as a critical forest habitat and corridor, and a biodiversity hotspot harbouring more than 200 bird species and endangered mammals such as leopards, grey langurs, hyenas, jackals, honey badgers and jungle cats. The new definition of the Aravalli hills will erase many hills and forests, thereby shrinking wildlife habitats and increasing human–wildlife conflict in the region.

The MoEFCC’s new definition, sanctified by the Supreme Court, is highly regressive and needs to be scrapped if we are to leave behind breathable air and a water-secure future for our children.

Neelam Ahluwalia is the Founder Member of People for Aravallis and Ghazala Shahabuddin is an ecologist and a Visiting Professor at Ashoka University, Sonipat. Views expressed are the authors’ own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth