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Aravalli 100-metre rule explained: What does the SC ruling mean and why has it triggered protests?
The Aravalli ‘100-metre rule': The Supreme Court of India has established a uniform definition for the Aravalli Hills and Ranges. This move aims to regulate mining activities and protect the ecologically sensitive region. A comprehensive management plan will guide future mining leases. The court's decision follows extensive consultations and aims to strengthen environmental safeguards across the Aravalli landscape.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India, in a series of orders passed between November and December 2025, accepted a uniform, scientifically grounded definition of the Aravalli Hills and Ranges for regulating mining and underscored the ecological sensitivity of the hill system.
The court adopted the “100-metre above local relief” criterion with contour-based mapping and directed the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to prepare a landscape-wide Management Plan for Sustainable Mining before any new leases are granted. The Centre has clarified that the framework does not weaken environmental safeguards but strengthens them through mandatory Survey of India mapping, identification of core and inviolate zones, and tighter enforcement against illegal mining.
The clarification and court orders have come amid sustained protests and political criticism over the so-called “100-metre rule” and concerns about which landforms are covered under the new definitions.
Why did the Supreme Court examine the definition of the Aravallis?
The court was considering the recommendations of a committee constituted by it on May 9, 2024, and further directions issued on August 12, 2025, to evolve a uniform and legally defensible definition of the Aravalli Hills and Ranges.The exercise was undertaken specifically in the context of regulating mining activity and incorporating the views of the concerned state governments, following decades of disputes and varying interpretations across states on what constitutes the Aravalli landscape.
The committee was led by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and comprised forest secretaries from Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat, along with representatives of the Forest Survey of India, the Central Empowered Committee and the Geological Survey of India.
In its orders, the Supreme Court emphasised that the Aravalli range serves as a critical ecological barrier against desertification, functions as a major groundwater recharge zone and supports biodiversity, and that unregulated mining in the region poses a serious threat to the environment.
Why has the decision triggered protests?
Despite the official clarifications, environmental groups and political parties have protested the adoption of the 100-metre criterion, arguing that it could leave out lower hillocks and ridges that they consider integral to the Aravalli ecosystem, particularly for groundwater recharge and ecological continuity. Concerns have also been raised that areas falling outside the mapped contours could face increased pressure from mining or development, especially in regions affected by rapid urbanisation.What did the MoEFCC-led committee find and recommend?
The committee found that only Rajasthan had a formally notified definition for regulating mining in the Aravalli region. That definition was based on a 2002 state committee report using the Richard Murphy landform classification, which identified all landforms rising 100 metres above local relief as hills and prohibited mining on both the hills and their supporting slopes. Rajasthan has followed this definition since January 9, 2006.During consultations, all the concerned states agreed to adopt this criterion of “100 metres above local relief” for regulating mining across the Aravalli region, while unanimously agreeing that the framework needed to be made more objective, transparent and conservation-centric.
The committee clarified that all landforms enclosed within the lowest binding contour encircling hills of 100 metres or more, irrespective of their individual height or slope, must be excluded from the grant of mining leases. It further stated that where two such hills lie within 500 metres of each other, all landforms within that zone are to be excluded from mining.
The committee explicitly noted that it would be incorrect to conclude that mining is permitted in all landforms below 100 metres. To strengthen safeguards, it recommended a scientifically robust method to determine local relief, explicit protection for hill ranges, mandatory marking of Aravalli hills and ranges on Survey of India maps, identification of core or inviolate areas where mining is strictly prohibited, and detailed measures to prevent illegal mining while allowing only sustainable activity where permissible.
What are the official operational definitions approved by the court?
Under the operational framework accepted by the Supreme Court, Aravalli Hills are defined as any landform located in the Aravalli districts that has an elevation of 100 metres or more from the local relief. The local relief is determined with reference to the lowest contour line encircling the landform.The entire landform within that contour, whether the contour is actually or notionally extended along with the hill, its supporting slopes and associated landforms, irrespective of gradient, is deemed to be part of the Aravalli Hills.
An Aravalli Range is defined as two or more Aravalli Hills located within a proximity of 500 metres from each other, measured from the outermost boundary of their lowest contour lines.
A detailed technical procedure is prescribed to identify the land between such hills, and all landforms within this zone, including hills, hillocks and supporting slopes, are to be treated as part of the Aravalli Range.
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Source: EconomicTimes
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