The Centre’s new definition of the Aravalli hills will be applied only to mining and not other sectors, including real estate or development projects, Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav said on Monday, as activists escalated their criticism of the move that they said would further endanger the fragile range.
“This definition related to the Aravalli hills is applicable only for mining purposes. It will be used solely in the context of mining. Mining is permitted only in 277.89sqkm out of the 143,577sqkm of the Aravalli area,” Yadav said as he addressed a press briefing on the notification for a successive day, amid the swirling pushback.
A central government panel in November defined landforms rising at least 100 metres above the local relief as Aravalli hills, a definition the Supreme Court accepted during a November 20 hearing. “Local relief” means the elevation difference between the hill and its surrounding base area. The definition also defines the Aravalli range as two or more hills within 500 metres of each other.
{{/usCountry}}A central government panel in November defined landforms rising at least 100 metres above the local relief as Aravalli hills, a definition the Supreme Court accepted during a November 20 hearing. “Local relief” means the elevation difference between the hill and its surrounding base area. The definition also defines the Aravalli range as two or more hills within 500 metres of each other.
{{/usCountry}}Environmentalists and opposition parties have criticised the definition, alleging it will free up vast chunks of the mountain range for exploitation.
The government has sought to rebuff this criticism by arguing the definitions apply only to 0.19% of the Aravallis and that the exemption for mining is also controlled by the Supreme Court.
Yadav on Monday also stressed that mining was banned in the National Capital Region (NCR).
“Let me clarify that mining is not allowed in NCR. The region means Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad and the surrounding areas,” he said.
To be sure, NCR spans a 100km radius around Delhi, covering over 55,000sqkm and encompassing several cities and towns.
The two-billion-year-old Aravalli hills, India’s oldest fold-mountain range, cover a 700km stretch from the eastern edge of Gujarat to Delhi, passing through Haryana and Rajasthan. The mountains are critical to the region: they are a natural boundary to the Thar desert, essentially a wall that keeps Delhi from desertification, serve as a natural water recharge facility and provide green cover in an otherwise arid region.
The hills are also home to a remarkably diverse ecosystem, with a wide range of native vegetation, birds, insects, reptiles and mammals.
Yadav argued that within the fraction of the Aravalli area that will be open for mining, the Supreme Court had ordered against allowing fresh leases.
“This decision states that no new mining leases will be granted. The court, in its decision, specifically stated in paragraph number 38 that the committee recommends that to ensure sustainable mining in the Aravalli hills and range, no new mining leases will be granted except in the case of critical strategic and atomic minerals. So, there is no question of any new mining,” he said.
Large swathes of the hills have also been chalked out as reserves or wildlife sanctuaries, he said.
“The Aravalli region already has designated areas, including protected areas. Because the Aravalli region has four tiger reserves, 20 wildlife sanctuaries, and areas where the government has undertaken tree plantation programs, whether under the Green India Mission or CAMPA, there will be no mining in these areas in the future after this decision.
The ministry’s defence came as Hitendra Gandhi, an advocate, wrote to the Chief Justice of India on Saturday appealing that the Supreme Court consider placing the issue before a bench to clarify or refine the definitional framework of Aravallis.
He submitted that he has “constitutionally grounded concern that a single-threshold relief test may inadvertently cause large-scale legal derecognition of ecologically connected Aravalli landscapes, thereby enabling land-use conversion pressures (mining / construction / fragmentation) in areas that remain, in scientific and ecological terms, part of the Aravalli system.”
Senior Congress leader Sachin Pilot said the party would protest the definition in Jaipur on December 26.
“To my mind, the only incentive could be to oblige few people who make money in the mining sector. Whoever may be involved – there should be a judicial probe as to who started it, who is doing and behind all this,” he said.
“All the four states where the Aravalli exists -- Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi -- are ruled by BJP,” he added.