After traveling 700 kilometers across India’s oldest mountain range, the ‘Aravalli Sanrakshan Yatra’ reached Delhi on Monday, stressing its demand for the complete scrapping of a “regressive” definition of the endangered mountain range proposed by a committee spearheaded by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Environmentalist Neelam Ahluwalia said that the Aravallis have been “bleeding” for decades due to deforestation, licensed and illegal mining, and real estate development that has razed hills and poisoned aquifers. The ancient range requires strict protection rather than “senseless definitions” designed to exclude the majority of its areas from legal safeguards, she said.
The movement’s core demands include the inclusion of spokespersons from mining-impacted communities in the Supreme Court-appointed ‘High Powered Committee.’ Furthermore, the activists are seeking a directive for an independent, cumulative social and environmental impact study across states to ascertain the widespread damage to forests, rivers, and agriculture. They argue that liability must be fixed for the harm caused to public health and livelihoods. One of the demands also is that the entire range across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi be declared a ‘Critical Ecological Zone’ given its vital role as a climate regulator and wildlife habitat.
Members of the ‘Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyan’—a broad coalition of ecologists, community leaders, and civil society groups—commenced this journey on 24 January from Gujarat. To symbolise the unity between rural and urban citizens, members combined soil collected from across the range with Delhi’s soil and planted native Sagar Gota medicinal sapling. Kusum Rawat of the Adivasi Samanvay Manch Bharat described the ceremony as a reiteration of their promise to safeguard the mountain range as a lifeline for clean air and water security.
Throughout the march, activists like Kailash Meena engaged with rural communities whose sustenance depends on the range, capturing the scale of destruction where mining has decimated cattle grazing areas over the last four decades. Supporting this, Bhil adivasi leader Sadhna Meena stated that the continued denudation of the Aravallis directly violates the right to livelihood guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution, threatening the very survival of communities that have inhabited these landscapes for generations.
Anjali Shreshth, a young law student from Jharkhand, said he was shocked to see the scars of mining on the Aravalli landscape across the 37 districts of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana during the journey. “ Two out of seven Aravalli districts, namely Charkhi Dadri and Bhiwani in Haryana have been decimated because of licensed mining.”