Protection of the Aravalli Range is Critical

Jun 01, 2025
By Kailash Meena

If you were an alien or a space traveller some three billion years ago, the only discernible feature you would have seen which defined the northern margins of the landmass we call India would have been the Aravalli Mountain range. The 1800-million-year-old Aravalli ecosystem comprising some of the oldest geological features on the planet holds the distinction of being one of the oldest mountain ranges on Earth with its origins dating back to the Proterozoic Era.

Source: People of Aravallis

The Aravalli range supports forests, water bodies, wildlife, famous forts, temples and archaeological cave paintings of historical importance. The landscape of the Aravallis, its geology, geography, forests, soils and water have defined the history, culture and environment of Northwest India for eons and remains an integral part of the future of this region as this range has a pronounced impact on the biodiversity, microclimate, air quality and the hydrological status of this entire belt. But the Aravallis now struggle to survive the greed, pettiness and the extreme short-sightedness of politicians and corporations.

The Aravalli Mountain System is under highly stressed conditions due to anthropogenic activities, and it needs urgent attention to save our country’s ecological and geological heritage. Recent scientific studies/research have exposed the severe unrepairable environmental damages that have taken place due to ongoing land use changes in the Aravallis. The studies reveal that the continuous destruction of these fragile hill ecosystem is causing significant irreversible biodiversity losses, land /soil degradation and a decline in vegetation cover.

The Aravalli Range extends for over 692 km starting in Gujarat and passes through Rajasthan and Haryana on its way to Delhi and acts as a natural barrier preventing the Thar Desert’s westwards expansion towards the Gangetic plains and influences the climate and biodiversity of Northwest India. 12 breaches in the Aravallis have opened up extending from Ajmer to Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan and the Mahendragarh district in Haryana from which more dust from the Thar desert is blowing into Delhi-NCR. India’s National Capital Region and Northwest India will become a desert if the Aravallis are not preserved. This demands an immediate urgent need for comprehensive conservation and protection strategies to stop these damaging trends.

Aravalli hills also act as a critical water recharge zone for entire Northwest India from where they pass. With their natural cracks and fissures, the hills have the potential to put 2 million litres of water per hectare in the ground every year. The groundwater aquifers under the Aravalli hills hold immense quantities of water and act to release it slowly. These aquifers are interconnected and any disturbance or alterations in the pattern can significantly alter the groundwater table. Natural ecosystem of the Aravallis are a critical wildlife habitat & corridor and a biodiversity hotspot with 400+ species of native trees, shrubs, grasses and herbs; 200+ native & migratory bird species, 100+ butterfly species, 20+ reptile species and 20+ mammal species including leopards, hyenas, jackals, neelgais, porcupines, mongoose, civet cats as well as other wildlife like insects, amphibians etc.

Destruction of Aravalli range at an alarming rate

The Aravalli Mountain Range of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana are damaged beyond repair due to mining and construction activities. The mountain range has been a hidden treasure for miners as it is rich in minerals and natural resources such as rose-coloured quartz, zinc, copper, lead, rock phosphate, gypsum, marble, soapstone, silica sand, Badarpur sand for construction industry. The mining mafia carries out the illegal quarrying of rocks with complete disregard to environmental norms for obtaining building materials to feed the hungry ever-expanding real estate industry in the National Capital Region of Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad.

The Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee revealed in 2018 that out of the 128 hills of Alwar district in North Rajasthan that were sampled from a total of 2269, it was observed that 31 hills have vanished from the time the Survey of India topographic sheets were prepared in 1967-68. The Committee recorded that illegal mining was prevalent in as many as 15 districts of Rajasthan with some of the worst affected areas being Alwar and Sikar.

 

 

 

 

Citing satellite images of 2008-2010, the Central Empowered Committee report, states that the extent of illegal mining in terms of percentage area exceeds 100% in many cases, especially in respect of smaller mines allotted for minor mineral. The Committee recommended that the Haryana and Rajasthan Government should stop all mining activities immediately outside of the legally sanctioned mining lease areas and identify and prosecute those involved in such activities. This was never implemented with the vigour it requires.

Degradation of Aravallis is also evident in the loss of forest cover. There are many reports which give us the magnitude of forest loss during the different period of times for example, during 1972-75, the Aravalli districts in Rajasthan recorded 10,462 sq. km of area under various categories of forest. By 1981-84, the forest cover reduced to 6,116 sq. km. (Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies RGICS, Delhi, 2018).

Severe air pollution caused from stone crushers and blasting during mining are having many negative impacts:

  • Many rural people across the Aravalli range are suffering from lung related ailments like Asthma, COPD, Silicosis – the deadly killer disease. If a comprehensive & honest health survey of the residents of the region is done, a high percentage of Silicosis cases will be found. In villages like Dholera in Nangal Chaudhary in Mahendergarh district in the lap of the Aravallis, where all the dust from the surrounding stone crushers blows, people have been extremely sick as a result of air pollution for many years and some are on oxygen support all day and night. The burden of medical expenses is crippling the rural people. In the long term, these pollutants will adversely impact the health of young children that reside in this belt. As their immunity weakens with age, the air pollution will damage their lungs too.
  • Crop productivity has declined in this belt with a layer of dust from the stone crushers covering the produce.
  • Extensive mining has resulted in irreversible changes in the ecosystem of the Aravallis. With the mountains being mined and destroyed, the streams that used to flow from the mountains have drastically reduced and dried up in many areas. Blasting and drilling activities puncture the water aquifers beneath the Aravalli mountains. In several areas, mining is being done below the water level. Ground water levels have fallen to 1500-2000 feet in many villages across the Aravalli belt. The chemicals used in heavy blasting penetrate deep into the earth, polluting ground water sources and lead to the spreading of waterborne diseases. This is severely impacting the water security across the range.

  • Heavy blasting is also compromising the structural integrity of homes in the region, with cracks forming
  • in the roofs, walls and foundations of villagers’ dwellings living in the lap of the Aravallis.
  • With the forests and hills disappearing, there is no place left for the cattle to graze. The villages in the Aravalli belt are seeing a major fall in the livestock numbers.

Aravallis need a conservation plan

Legally designate the entire Aravalli range as a “Critical Ecological Zone” based on its significance for the eco-system services it provides to Northwest India and take the following steps to ensure their protection:

1) Stop all legal and illegal mining activities and stone crushers near human habitation and wildlife sensitive zones so our wildlife and rural communities are able to live peacefully without the adverse health and safety impacts from blasting and mining and our lifeline for clean air and water security is kept safe for our future generations and our voiceless wildlife and biodiversity for whom Aravallis is home. Take strict action against government officials who have the responsibility to stop illegal mining activities and do not take action in blatant violation of NGT and Supreme Court orders.

2) Strictly prohibit all activities in the Aravallis that pose a threat to the environment such as unsustainable infrastructure development, construction & zoo safari projects, mining, waste dumping & landfills, polluting industries like waste incineration plants and others.

3) Mandate use of alternative building materials in construction of roads and buildings to save what is left of our precious Aravallis in Haryana, Rajasthan & Gujarat.

  • Revise building bye laws to ensure renewable materials are accepted as valid and preferred options to remove the current hierarchy of ‘kuccha’ and ‘pucca’
  • Devise and implement a policy to give offsets in house tax and others for sustainable material choices in construction to encourage and motivate people and institutions to use low embodied energy material in construction.

Potential avenues for sourcing alternative construction materials are as follows:

  • Utilise recycled materials such as crushed concrete, reclaimed asphalt pavement, recycled aggregates from construction and demolition waste.
  • Use industrial by-products like fly ash, blast furnace slag etc and natural alternatives such as bamboo, hempcrete, rammed earth as substitutes for traditional construction materials.
  • Use prefabricated construction techniques that require fewer raw materials and can be more resource efficient.
  • Incorporate bio-based materials like timber, straw bales cork into construction projects to reduce reliance on non-renewable resources.

4) Scrap the ecologically detrimental zoo safari project planned in 10,000 acres of the Aravallis in Gurugram and Nuh districts as it is seeking to commercialise the Haryana Aravallis.