Local communities continue fight to protect the Aravallis from mining destruction

Over two billion years old, the Aravalli mountain range in north-western India feels like an oasis running through Rajasthan’s hot, arid landscape.

Its rolling hills, biodiverse forests and water bodies form a massive green wall protecting the rest of the country from the heat and dust that rises from the Thar Desert on the western edge of the state.

Yet despite its ecological significance, commercial mining has been degrading the Aravallis. At least 29,209 instances of illegal mining were reported between 2018 and 2023 in Aravalli districts.

Mining pressure linked to urban expansion continues to reshape the landscape. At least 65 minerals are mined across the Aravalli range, including lead, zinc and copper, as are industrial minerals used in urban infrastructure, like marble, quartz, limestone and granite.

Environmental activist Kailash Meena has felt the impact of this mining in his hometown of Neem Ka Thana, a village in northern Rajasthan. His father was a shepherd, whose livelihood was his livestock and subsistence agriculture. But marble mining in his village has made it hard to sustain these.

Mining and blasting are causing groundwater levels to fall in the area, and risk fracturing the ancient rock formations that allow rainwater to percolate underground. This is according to a submission Meena made to the Supreme Court in February about the environmental degradation caused by mining and stone crushing along the Aravalli range.

Dust generated by crushers and heavy transport vehicles settles on crops, degrading soil quality and contaminating water and air, notes Meena’s submission. Grazing lands and forest produce on which many rural households depend have gradually disappeared.

These changes have pushed some families to abandon traditional occupations such as farming, fishing and livestock rearing, the filing says. Those who continue to farm have seen their earnings take a hit.

“Villages like ours are aggrieved by the mining mafia,” Meena tells Dialogue Earth. “A lot of construction that takes place in regions like Delhi … get their materials through mining in our small eco-sensitive villages.”

Further alarming native communities and environmentalists is the central government’s proposed redefinition of what comprises the Aravalli Hills and range. “Any landform located in the Aravalli districts, having an elevation of 100 metres or more from the local relief, shall be termed as Aravalli Hills,” stated a government press release. The Aravali range, meanwhile, has been defined as all landforms existing within 500 metres of two adjoining hills of over 100 metres in height.

Environmentalists and experts say these definitions are narrow and endanger a substantial chunk of the Aravalli landscape, especially vast stretches of low-lying scrub hills, grasslands and ridges. Locals worry they might open up the Aravallis for more mining, this time legally.

The definitions had been accepted by the Supreme Court in November, but sustained criticism and protest led the court to suspend that decision just weeks later, shortly after the central government halted new mining leases in the region. With the court’s suspension still in place, activists like Meena have been submitting evidence to the court demonstrating the ill effects of mining on their communities.

“People sitting in air-conditioned rooms cannot understand the complexities of the ground realities of the Aravallis. Our voices should become a part of decision-making,” says Kusum Rawat, a 30-year-old researcher from Banswara district in southern Rajasthan that lies within the Aravallis. Further worrying her is a new gold mine discovered in the district, which is expected to result in more mining on the hills.

Rawat was among activists, researchers and community leaders who recently completed a 700-km, 38-day Aravalli sanrakshan yatra (protection procession). It passed through all the states and territories the mountain range stretches across – Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and Delhi.

Along the route, members of the procession met at least 1,000 people who shared the challenges they face living along the Aravallis. While mining-induced air pollution came up often, many also reported suffering from silicosis, an incurable lung disease caused by inhaling large amounts of crystalline silica dust, which gets released into the air during mining.

Meena’s court filings cited a study stating that more than 23,000 cases of silicosis have been identified in Rajasthan, with nearly 7,000 deaths recorded up until May 2022. It noted how the prevalence of silicosis in stone carving and sandstone mining is much higher than generally believed.

The Rajasthan state government was approached for comment on these figures but did not respond.

Kanchi Kohli, an independent forest analyst, says one of the biggest mining pressures typically comes from urban expansion, with the Aravallis being a source of raw materials for real estate and road expansions around the ecoregion. She urged governments to keep in mind the social and ecological impacts of urbanisation on important ecoregions like the Aravallis in their planning.

Across the Aravalli range, individuals and collectives are fighting the threat of even more mining arising from the government’s definitions of the ancient mountain system.

In January, the citizen-led collective People for Aravallis, who played a key role in the yatra, submitted a 638-page intervention to the Supreme Court challenging the definition of the Aravallis. It included GIS maps, field documentation, community surveys and reports on mining impacts across the Aravalli landscape. “The whole range is bleeding,” says founder of the collective, Neelam Ahluwalia.

Referring to communities like Meena’s village, Ahluwalia adds: “These are communities with almost no carbon footprint. Yet they are the ones facing the impacts of environmental destruction.”

This long-suffering part of India hardly gets any attention, Meena notes. “In the last few years, pollution and heatwaves in north India have made headlines. But our areas have been facing these issues for 30 years now,” he says, adding that without the Aravallis, the northern areas will, like Neem Ka Thana, “have a difficult time surviving”.

With the Aravalli yatra, Ahluwalia notes, activists set out to bring local voices into the conversation through meetings and public consultations across the region. “People who depend on the Aravallis for their sustenance and live in its lap need to be consulted as to what they want before taking any decision which will directly impact their lives, health and livelihoods,” she says.

The interventions of communities and environmentalists are bearing fruit.

A Supreme Court petition filed in January by a group from Neem Ka Thana, separate from Meena’s, resulted in action from the Rajasthan state government. Authorities recognised that land designated to a private company for mining was within the Aravalli range, and ordered a stop to all activity. Mining operations had begun despite an earlier Supreme Court ruling that no mining can be allowed without the court’s approval, leading to the villagers’ petition.

In March, the Supreme Court assembled a committee of experts from fields including forestry and geology to come up with a new uniform definition for the Aravallis.

The ecological importance of the Aravalli range is undisputed, experts say.

The 100-metre definition for the range risks excluding from protection ecologically connected areas such as forests, wildlife corridors and groundwater recharge zones, Ahluwalia notes. “The idea is to open up everything for mining and make it legal.”

A report from the Forest Survey of India submitted to the Supreme Court in September 2025 observed that smaller hills in the Aravallis, located at the edge of the Thar Desert, serve as natural barriers against desertification by stopping heavier sand particles. They act as windbreaks, protecting Delhi and neighbouring plains from sandstorms.

This report was suppressed by the Ministry of Environment, K Parameshwar, the amicus curiae (who provides specialised expertise in cases) said in his report to the Supreme Court. Parameshwar noted that the 100-metre definition was not supported by several key parties involved, including the Forest Survey of India. The proposed definition was also never put up for public consultation.

The reduction of the Aravalli Hills would also jeopardise the role they play in rainwater harvesting. “There could be clear impacts on the groundwater recharge in the area which is likely to affect agriculture and access to water,” disrupting cropping patterns, says Kohli.

Government figures have found these concerns alarmist. In December 2025, environment minister Bhupender Yadav said that nearly 90% of the Aravalli landscape will be protected and that only 0.19% of the range could ever be eligible for mining under existing rules. An analysis by Down To Earth, however, notes that nearly 49% of the Aravallis would be exposed once the definition is applied.

The environment ministry was approached for comment but did not respond. However, its press release noted that because its definition of the Aravalli range protects the 500 metres of land between two adjoining hills, “it is, therefore… wrong to conclude that mining is permitted in all landforms below 100 metre height”.

In his report, Parameshwar noted that land would not be protected if it lies between hills above 100 metres but farther than 500 metres from each other.

The need to define the Aravalli range is being questioned by some citizen-led conservation groups. Jyoti Raghavan, from the conservationist group Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement, notes that the landscape is already widely understood and recognised. “When it is already accepted that this is what Aravallis are, why do we need to narrow down its definition?”

Despite the ban on the new mining leases, the lack of resolution remains a cause for worry to those directly impacted by it.

“Clean air and pure water are the necessities of life. What will happen to our future generations if we do not conserve our ecology?” says Rawat. “It is our duty.”

Raghavan, who lives near the Aravallis in Gurugram, near Delhi, notes the biodiversity loss she has observed over her years of working in the region. “The birds, the jackals and the neelgai that I used to see are vanishing right in front of my eyes,” she says.

“I am in this fight for the ones who cannot speak for themselves… the animals, the wildlife that do not have a voice.”

For communities like Meena’s, their whole lives are at stake. “We are trying to protect our livelihoods. We are trying to protect our existence. Our farms, livestock, and water have been threatened. At what cost are we mining the hills?”

Shalinee Kumari is Dialogue Earth’s South Asia editorial assistant, based in New Delhi.

This article was originally published on Dialogue Earth under the Creative Commons BY NC ND licence.

Source: Scroll
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