CHANDIGARH: On the occasion of International Mountain Day, the 'Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyaan' was launched on Thursday by environmentalists, ecologists and civil society groups in Delhi, the National Capital Region, South Haryana and Rajasthan to save the country’s oldest mountain range from 'senseless definitions and excessive mining'.
Neelam Ahluwalia, a founder member of People for Aravallis, said the move was a response to the Supreme Court judgement last month. The bench had defined an 'Aravalli Hill' as any landform with an elevation of 100 metres or more, which excluded a vast portion of the range from protection, enabling large-scale mining to take place.
"The 'Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyaan' is a people’s campaign to save one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world from being annihilated by senseless definitions and excessive mining. This initiative comes in direct response to the Supreme Court's November 20 judgment, which if implemented will wipe out North West India’s barrier against desertification, critical water recharge zone, pollution sink, wildlife habitat and negatively impact food and water security for millions of people," she said.
She also noted the rich biodiversity in the region which is now under threat. "Aravallis are home to 200+ native and migratory bird species, 100+ butterfly species, many reptile and mammal species including leopards, tigers, hyenas, jackals, neelgais, porcupines, civet cats etc. Losing more hills and forests to mining will shrink wildlife habitats and increase man-animal conflict across cities and rural areas in North West India. Trees and canopy cover of the Aravalli hills helps to preserve humidity in the atmosphere, moderate the wind velocity and thereby help in regulating the rainfall pattern. The loss of green cover with the opening up of smaller Aravalli hills for mining can negatively impact local rainfall patterns and temperature, leading to increased heat stress throughout the Aravalli belt in North West India," she said.
Kailash Meena, an environmental activist from North Rajasthan, pointed out that the mountain range was an important water recharge zone for the region, which is facing an acute water crisis.
"Due to excessive groundwater extraction, the water crisis in Rajasthan and Haryana has already reached a critical state. 88 per cent of the blocks in Rajasthan are categorised as critical, semi-critical or over-exploited. A recent study released in July 2024 has revealed that 16 out of 22 districts in Haryana extracted more than 100 per cent of the underground water in 2023 with Kurukshetra, Gurugram and Faridabad having extracted more than 200 per cent. The Aravallis act as a critical water recharge zone for North West India and must be saved at all cost to ensure water security of this region," he said.
"Ground water levels which have fallen to 1000-2000 feet across many of the mining areas in the 692 km Aravalli belt, negatively impacting water availability for drinking and irrigation, will fall further with more hills being mined," Meena added.
Meena further said, "With 90 per cent of the range being opened up for mining, most villages nestled in the lap of the Aravallis will be negatively impacted in a huge way. Mining in the Aravalli belt has already razed many hills across the range to the ground and along with it cattle grazing areas. Agricultural productivity has declined across the Aravalli belt in South Haryana and Rajasthan as a result of unavailability of water due to excessive mining."
Virender Mour, a coordinator of the Rajasthan Kisan Mazdoor Naujawan Sabha, said, "For the North Eastern districts of Rajasthan, especially Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur, Karauli, Jaipur, Dausa, Sawai Madhopur, the Aravalli mountain range is not just a landform but our lifeline for water and our livelihood as farmers are directly dependent on the good health of the range. Increasing mining in the Aravalli region and the unscientific classification of hills will result in grave environmental imbalance which will put the ecology of the entire North Eastern Rajasthan in serious danger. The biggest problem in our belt is of water shortage."