A day after the Supreme Court on Wednesday extended its order keeping in abeyance its November 20 directions that accepted a 100-m definition of the Aravalli hills and ranges for mining regulation, environmental activists expressed deep dissatisfaction with the process adopted by the Apex Court and the government. They demanded a participatory and transparent process that includes communities directly impacted by mining and announced the launch of a 700-km ‘Aravalli Sanrakshan Yatra’ to spread awareness and save India’s oldest mountain range.
Leading activists, including internationally renowned water conservationist Dr Rajendra Singh and environmentalist Neelam Ahluwalia, said it was disappointing that during the January 21 hearing, the Bench “only wanted to listen to the Amicus Curiae and senior advocate Kapil Sibal representing a Bihar MP”, while intervention applications submitted by people directly affected by mining and conservationists working in the Aravalli region were not accepted in the Court’s suo motu matter.
“Why were intervention applications by people impacted by the destruction of the Aravallis and conservationists not accepted by the Bench? What is the logic in accepting only one intervention application in an ongoing suo motu matter?” the activists asked. They demanded that the Supreme Court recall its November 20, 2025 judgment entirely and scrap what they termed the “regressive” new definition of the Aravallis proposed by a committee led by the Ministry of Environment.
Addressing media persons, Dr Rajendra Singh said, “We will not allow any further destruction of the Aravallis. This government believes in ‘hum do, hamare do’. If the Aravallis are to be saved, people will have to fight for it. These mountains are essential to our civilisation and Sanatan Dharma. Who do natural resources belong to — a government for a few years or communities living here for hundreds of years?” He appealed to young people, especially Generation Z, to join the movement.
Singh said the ecological integrity of the Aravalli region must be protected at all costs. No land should be excluded for mining unless it is conclusively proven that it has no role in watersheds, wetlands, wildlife habitats, forest regeneration, erosion control, groundwater recharge, or climate regulation. “Environmental protection cannot be diluted by arbitrary definitions or claims of ‘sustainable mining’,” he said, demanding that the Aravalli range be declared a Critical Ecological Zone.
Activists also demanded that the newly constituted High Powered Committee must include representatives of mining-affected communities and called for an independent, cumulative social and environmental impact assessment of the entire range across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi. This study, they said, must assess damage to hills, forests, rivers, groundwater, agriculture, wildlife, and people’s health and livelihoods caused by mining, real estate expansion, encroachments, waste dumping, and burning. Liability for this destruction must be fixed, and like the Western Ghats, the Aravallis should be declared an Ecologically Sensitive Area.
“Through the ‘Aravalli Sanrakshan Yatra’, we want to highlight that there is nothing sustainable about mining, which is an extractive operation causing negative social and environmental impacts. So called ‘licensed and regulated mining’ across the Aravalli range flouts all norms and has caused huge destruction. Both licensed and illegal mining in the Aravalli belt over the last 40 years has already razed many hills across the range to the ground, and along with it, several cattle grazing areas. The Aravallis need strict protection, not diluted definitions,” Ahluwalia said, trashing the Environment Ministry’s Aravali Green Wall Project.
Notably, on December 29, the Supreme Court put in abeyance its November 20 order defining Aravallis as landforms rising above 100 metres following widespread protests by experts and citizens, who warned that the definition would expose ecologically sensitive areas to mining.
The Aravalli Sanrakshan Yatra will begin in Gujarat on January 24 and pass through three districts in Gujarat, 27 districts in Rajasthan, and seven districts in Haryana before reaching Delhi. The 40-day journey will engage rural communities dependent on the Aravallis and highlight the devastation of North-West India’s lifeline for clean air and water.