Aravalli activists to SC panel: Visit all mining-affected districts before report
The Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyaan (AVJA), a coalition of environmentalists and activists, has urged the Supreme Court-appointed High-Powered Committee (HPC) not to submit its report on the Aravalli hill range without visiting all 64 districts through which the range passes. The group made the demand at a press conference on Tuesday, stating that the committee had not yet visited any mining-affected villages to understand the ground reality.
AVJA co-founder Neelam Ahluwalia said the committee should seek an extension of the August 31 deadline from the Supreme Court. “Our biggest demand from this committee is that they need to write to the Supreme Court and get an extension on the August 31 deadline to submit their report. Without meaningful consultations with the rural communities in all the 64 districts in the five States of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, no decision should be taken which will decide the fate of India’s oldest mountain range,” she said.
Ms. Ahluwalia also expressed concerns about the public hearings held by the HPC. She said that affected villagers would not be able to reach hearings held at urban centres, and that the committee must visit villages instead. She alleged that the mining lobby was present in full force at hearings in Alwar, Ajmer, and Udaipur, and that civil society members and villagers who spoke about the negative impacts of mining were threatened later. She also claimed that information about the hearings had not been widely publicised in local newspapers, radio, panchayat offices, or other government offices. Even village sarpanches, she said, did not know the timings or venues of the public meetings.
Ms. Ahluwalia dismissed the notion of sustainable mining in the Aravallis. “When the committee was conducting the public hearings, there was a lot of talk about sustainable mining. But there is no sustainable mining happening in the Aravallis. Unless they go to the ground, how will they know this? Even we requested them to visit the areas but they said they didn’t have time,” she added.
Rekha Yogi, 36, from Jodhpura village in Rajasthan’s Kotputli-Behror district, described her community’s ordeal. She said villagers waited at their village from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on August 8, but committee members did not come. “Jodhpura villagers are suffering from various breathing-related health issues arising out of mining and stone-crusher activities of a cement plant, including asthma and bronchitis, as well as skin diseases. In the last four years, we have lost 45 people in our village to various illnesses,” she said.
The HPC was constituted by the Supreme Court earlier this year to conduct an independent review of the Centre’s report on the definition and delineation of the Aravalli hill range. The court had kept in abeyance its earlier judgment that had accepted a government expert panel’s definition restricting the Aravallis to hills with an elevation of 100 metres or above, and hill clusters, slopes, and hillocks located within 500 metres of each other. The committee is chaired by the Director General of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), with an officer of the rank of Director in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) as member secretary.
As per the Supreme Court order constituting the HPC, the committee is tasked with comprehensively evaluating a report dated October 3, 2025, on the basis of which the earlier judgment was delivered. The AVJA’s demand underscores the need for on-ground consultation, as the decisions taken by the committee will have far-reaching consequences for the environment and the communities living in the Aravalli region.
