The Supreme Court on Monday put on hold its own November order that accepted a new definition of the Aravalli Hills, The Hindu reported.
A vacation bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices JK Maheshwari and AG Masih ordered that a new committee be set up to conduct a survey and study the hills. It said that clarifications relating to the definition it had approved were necessary, Bar and Bench reported.
The matter will be heard next on January 21.
The court had taken suo motu cognisance of the matter amid concerns that the changed definition of the Aravallis could lead to unregulated mining and severe environmental degradation.
The 700-km Aravalli mountain range stretches diagonally from southwest Gujarat, through Rajasthan, to Delhi and Haryana. Its highest point is Guru Shikhar in Mount Abu, which rises to an elevation of 1,722 metres.
Under the government’s new definition that had been accepted by the Supreme Court in November, an Aravalli hill is any landform that rises at least 100 metres above the surrounding terrain. An Aravalli range is formed by two or more such hills located within 500 metres of each other, including the land between them.
However, environmentalists have warned that defining the Aravallis solely by their height could leave many lower, scrub-covered but ecologically important hills vulnerable to mining and construction. Experts say these smaller hills are crucial for preventing desertification, recharging groundwater and supporting local livelihoods.
On Wednesday, amid the criticism, the Union environment ministry directed states not to grant new mining leases in the Aravalli Hills. The ban on new mining leases is to preserve the integrity of the landscape and applies to the entire Aravalli range, the ministry had said.
The Congress described the government’s directives as a “bogus attempt at damage control that will not fool anybody”. The “dangerous 100m+ redefinition” had remained unchanged, party leader Jairam Ramesh said on social media.
On December 22, the Union government denied that the redefinition weakens environmental safeguards, stating that over 90% of the Aravalli region remains protected.
On Wednesday, the Congress asked the Union government why it was “pushing through a fatally flawed” redefinition of the Aravallis, despite opposition from key expert bodies and advisers to the Supreme Court.
Ramesh shared on social media a report by The Indian Express that said the Supreme Court’s acceptance of the government’s new definition of the Aravalli hills contradicted the recommendations of its own Central Empowered Committee.
Also read: The slow destruction of Delhi’s forgotten spine
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