{"id":62069,"date":"2025-12-18T18:17:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T12:47:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=62069"},"modified":"2025-12-18T18:19:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T12:49:49","slug":"supreme-court-aravalli-boundaries-mining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/18-12-2025\/supreme-court-aravalli-boundaries-mining","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Clarifies Aravalli Boundaries, Regulates Mining"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/ Environment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Supreme Court, in a recent order, settled on a uniform definition of the Aravalli hills and ranges, and paused the grant of fresh mining leases across Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Gujarat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Significance of the Aravalli Range<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Aravalli Range, stretching over approximately<strong> 692 kilometres (430 miles)<\/strong> in a northeastern direction, traverses the Indian states of<strong> Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Haryana<\/strong> before culminating in <strong>Delhi<\/strong>, is the oldest mountain range in India.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Rajasthan<\/strong> accounts for nearly <strong>two-thirds<\/strong> of the mountain range.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It acts as a <strong>critical ecological barrier<\/strong> preventing the eastward expansion of the <strong>Thar Desert<\/strong> into Haryana, Rajasthan, and western Uttar Pradesh.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Aravallis support water-recharge systems and are the source of rivers such as the<strong> Sabarmati and Luni.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The region is <strong>rich in minerals<\/strong> including sandstone, limestone, marble, granite, lead, zinc, copper, gold, and tungsten.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Actions taken against mining<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In May 2024, the Court prohibited the grant and renewal of mining leases across the Aravalli range and directed the <strong>Central Empowered Committee (CEC)<\/strong> to conduct a detailed review.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The CEC in its 2024 report recommended:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Absolute prohibition of mining<\/strong> in ecologically sensitive zones such as protected habitats, water bodies, tiger corridors, aquifer recharge areas, and the National Capital Region.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Strict regulation<\/strong> of stone-crushing units.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>A moratorium on new leases and renewals <\/strong>until mapping and impact assessments are completed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The uniform definition of the Aravalli Hills and Ranges.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>New Definition of the Aravallis<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Any landform that is at an <strong>elevation of 100 m or more<\/strong> above the local relief will be considered as part of Aravalli Hills along with its slopes and adjacent land.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>By this definition<strong> 90% of the Aravali Hills<\/strong> will not be counted as Aravalli anymore.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Area excluded:<\/strong> The ministry\u2019s list of 34 Aravalli districts across four states left out many districts with an established presence of Aravalli.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background has-fixed-layout\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Aravalli Green Wall Initiative<\/strong><br><br>&#8211; In 2025, the Union Government launched the Aravalli \u2018Green Wall\u2019 project.<br>&#8211; The initiative aims to expand green cover in a <strong>five-kilometre buffer <\/strong>around the Aravalli range.<br>&#8211; It covers<strong> 29 districts<\/strong> across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi.<br>&#8211; The project seeks to restore <strong>26 million hectares<\/strong> of degraded land by 2030 and strengthen ecological resilience against desertification.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Accepting the 100-m height definition, the SC has asked the ministry to develop a <strong>Management Plan for Sustainable Mining<\/strong> with the help of Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) for the Aravalli Hills under the new definition.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/how-is-the-aravalli-range-to-be-protected-explained\/article70408703.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Context<\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Supreme Court, in a recent order, settled on a uniform definition of the Aravalli hills and ranges, and paused the grant of fresh mining leases across Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Gujarat.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>Significance of the Aravalli Range<\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Aravalli Range, stretching over approximately 692 kilometres (430 miles) in a northeastern direction, traverses the Indian states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Haryana before culminating in Delhi, is the oldest mountain range in India.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Rajasthan accounts for nearly two-thirds of the mountain range.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">It acts as a critical ecological barrier preventing the eastward expansion of the Thar Desert into Haryana, Rajasthan, and western Uttar Pradesh.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/18-12-2025\/supreme-court-aravalli-boundaries-mining\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62069"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62072,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62069\/revisions\/62072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}