District-wise plan to demarcate mining areas in Aravalli Range in the works: Environment Minister

The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) will, in the coming days, prepare a district-wise report on which hills meet the criteria to be considered part of the Aravalli Range, but strictly for the purposes of mining, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said at a press briefing on Monday (December 22, 2025).

Under fire from environmental activists and a social media storm alleging that vast tracts of the Aravalli Range may be opened for mining, Mr. Yadav stressed that no new mining licenses would be awarded. In line with a Supreme Court order of November 20, a detailed Management Plan for Sustainable Mining (MPSM) covering the entire Aravalli Range would be prepared by the ICFRE, he added.

The plan must demarcate areas where mining must be absolutely prohibited, identify zones where limited and highly regulated mining may be permitted, map sensitive habitats and wildlife corridors, evaluate cumulative ecological impacts, determine ecological carrying capacity, and articulate restoration and rehabilitation measures, according to the Supreme Court order.

The court modelled this plan on the Saranda forest management plan of Jharkhand, emphasising that any mining in the Aravalli Range must proceed only under scientific oversight, along with transparent environmental safeguards.

Though the issue of deforestation, mining and associated stone quarrying has been an environmental issue in the courts for years, a uniform definition of what constituted the Aravalli Range of hills, applicable across all the States and Union Territories where the Aravalli Range is found, remained elusive.

A committee of experts, consisting of representatives of the Union Environment Ministry, recommended that all States agree to adopt the aforementioned uniform criterion of “100 metres above local relief” for regulating mining in the Aravalli region, as had been in force in Rajasthan since January 9, 2006.

The Aravalli Range has also been defined as all landforms that existed within 500 metres of two adjoining hills of 100 metres or more. All landforms existing within this 500 metre zone, irrespective of their height and slopes, are excluded for the purposes of grant of mining lease, an explainer from the Environment Ministry states. However, the government doesn’t yet have a figure on how many hills are included under this definition.

A 2010 report by the Forest Survey of India (as per media reports; this is not a public document) calculated that only 8% of about 12,000 hills are above 100 metres, and therefore potentially open to mining. Mr. Yadav did not provide a figure but said that only 237 sq. km. of the 147,000 sq. km. of the Aravalli Range is open to mining. “The allegations that the Aravalli is open to being ransacked for mining is completely false, and [they are] lies spread by Opposition parties,” the Environment Minister added.

Apart from being nearly two billion years old and India’s oldest mountain range, the Aravallis serve as an important ecological barrier in preventing the desertification of the Indo-Gangetic plains. They help arrest the eastward spread of the Thar Desert into Haryana, Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh, and play a major role in recharging groundwater, stabilising climate, and supporting biodiversity.