CHANDIGARH: Activists have announced a 700-kilometre-long 'Aravalli Sanrakshan Yatra' from January 24 to spread awareness about India's oldest mountain range.
The announcement comes a day after the Supreme Court extended the stay of its November 20, 2025, order in which the definition of Aravalli hills was limited to landforms with a minimum elevation of 100 metres.
Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyaan representative Neelam Ahluwalia said the group will traverse through three districts in Gujarat, 27 districts in Rajasthan, seven districts in Haryana to finally reach Delhi. She said the journey may take over 40 days to complete.
Ahluwalia added, "The Aravallis have been bleeding for decades, with hill after hill being razed to the ground and improperly discarded waste poisoning our aquifers."
"Aravallis require strict protection, not senseless definitions to exclude majority of the areas from legal protection and so called ‘sustainable mining plans’," she said.
Dr Rajendra Singh, internationally renowned water conservationist, called for the conservation of the Aravalli range. He said, the range must be declared as a ‘Critical Ecological Zone’ based on the significance of the eco-system services the range provides for millions of people living in North West India.
Singh further said that it is critical to put the voices of the people impacted by destruction of the Aravalli range at the forefront, to "conserve what is left of the range."
Kailash Meena, grassroots environmental activist from Rajasthan's Sikar district, said the yatra will highlight the fact that there is no such thing as sustainable mining, whether it be licensed or illegal.
Meena added that the ranges have been subject to severe exploitation for over 40 years, and as a result, ground water levels have fallen to 1000 - 2000 feet across many of the mining areas in the Aravalli belt.
Lokesh Bhiwani, founding member of Stand with Nature, said, "Much of Haryana’s notified forest lies within low-elevation hill systems, not meeting the 100-metre criteria. Two out of seven Aravalli districts, namely Charkhi Dadri and Bhiwani in Haryana have been decimated because of licensed mining. 360,000 hectares of Haryana’s total area underwent desertification during 2018-19 as a result of wind erosion and vegetation degradation. Experts directly link desertification to the large-scale destruction of the Aravallis by mining."
Through the 'Aravalli Sanrakshan Yatra', activists aim to highlight the ongoing struggles of all those affected by the steady exploitation of the Aravallis, as well as point out the possible consequences of the November 20 order.
Ahluwalia said, "Our demands are that the Supreme Court scraps the regressive new definition of the Aravallis given by a committee spearheaded by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change."
She noted that the SC had not assessed the situation adequately and that though the court has announced the formation of an expert panel, it is important to get opinions from a ‘High Powered Committee’ including spokespersons of communities impacted by mining, as well as conduct an independent and cumulative social-environmental impact study of the Aravallis.
"Damage done to people’s health and livelihoods in all the Aravalli districts must be part of this assessment. Liability should be fixed for the same. Like the Western ghats, the Aravalli ecosystem needs to be declared as an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA)," she added.