An Overview of Aravalli Hills

The Aravalli Range is one of the most ancient mountain ranges in the world. It extends for about 650 kilometers from Delhi to Gujarat, playing the following vital ecological functions.

Acting as a natural barrier against the desertification of the Indo-Gangetic plains.

• Supporting groundwater recharge
• Regulating local climate

Sustaining biodiversity and forest ecosystems

Still, Aravallis face acute ecological pressure because of large-scale illegal mining, urban expansion, deforestation, and falling levels of groundwater.

Defining the Issue: Aravalli Hills

In November 2023, the Supreme Court of India ordered a uniform definition of the Aravalli hills and ranges and stayed new mining leases until a sustainable mining plan is developed. Core elements shall include:

• Aravalli Hills: A landform within the districts of Aravalli that rises at least 100 meters above the local relief
• Aravalli Range: Two or more such hills situated within 500 meters of each other

Mining is forbidden in "core" and "inviolate" areas, except for the extraction of critical, strategic, and atomic minerals in very limited cases. Environmentalist opponents argue that this definition could:

Exclude interconnected valleys, plains, and scrub forests

• Weaken enforcement against illegal mining
• Fragment the ecological continuity of the Aravalli landscape
• Definition of, and Use of, "Strategic Exemptions"

India's environmental governance is being progressively subjected to executive discretion rather than transparent rule-based processes. Working under this paradigm:

The projects that relate to national defense, security, or strategic considerations shall be exempted from public consultations and full EIA.

Exemptions are allowed through office memoranda, project-specific clearances, and post-facto approvals.

The EIA framework allows for such exemptions when the Central Government invokes security concerns, but clearly stated, binding criteria on what would constitute “strategic” are still lacking.

Overview: Key Legal and Policy Developments

Forest Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2023 expanded exemptions for

Strategic linear projects: roads, railways, power lines.

Mining exploration in forest areas

Certain lands notified as forest after 1980 or converted earlier that are excluded from protection

Governmental authorities may now collect geological data during exploration prior to formal mining proposals, thus lowering the threshold for project approval.

Collectively, these changes reduce environmental oversight and expand executive discretion.

Relevance of Aravallis to the Debate

The Aravalli region is assumed to hold strategic and critical minerals including:

• Base metals
• Tungsten
• Rare earth elements

Lithium is relevant to the green energy transition.

Although access to minerals is crucial for defence and energy security, experts caution that weakened safeguards, together with strategic exemptions, could result in irreversible ecological damage.

Environmental and Governance Concerns

 

• Opacity - Decisions are often veiled from public and parliamentary scrutiny
• Post-facto regularisation: Environmental harms are addressed after approvals.

Erosion of environmental jurisprudence: Prior scrutiny replaced by after-the-fact clearance

• Climate contradictions: India's climate commitments versus unchecked mineral extraction by Maitrei Chhetri

The Supreme Court itself has acknowledged the Aravallis's role in preventing desertification and maintaining groundwater; yet, regulatory dilution persists.

Way forward

Resolving national security, development, and environmental protection for India needs: 

• Clear legal definitions of "strategic projects" Binding criteria for exemptions coupled with judicial oversight
• Cumulative impact assessments, not project-specific clearances.
• Public disclosure of alternative considerations: imports, recycling, substitution Landscape-level conservation planning for the Aravalli region. 
• A judicially enforceable test for invoking strategic exemptions Conclusion The Aravalli discourse underlines the larger governance challenge of choosing executive discretion over rule-based environmental decision-making in India. Without transparent safeguards, exemptions enunciated for strategic reasons run the risk of becoming a short-cut that damages ecological security, climate goals, and people's confidence. A rules-based framework is necessary to ensure that national interests are advanced without hurting environmental integrity.