The Aravalli Hills, among the world’s oldest mountain systems, form a 700‑km ecological spine running from Gujarat to Delhi and shaping the climate, water, and air quality of North India. Recent Supreme Court directions on how to define and regulate the Aravallis have sparked a national debate on whether the region is moving towards sustainable protection or bigger ecological risk.
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Aravalli Hills
How Old Are the Aravalli Hills?
Precambrian origins
The Aravallis are Precambrian fold mountains, with major tectonic events dated roughly 1.8–2 billion years ago, making them far older than the Himalayas.
Their evolution involved collisions and suturing between ancient cratonic blocks, followed by multiple cycles of uplift, erosion, and rifting over geological time.
From towering peaks to eroded ridges
Continuous weathering and erosion have reduced the once high chain to today’s modest ridges, plateaus, and isolated hillocks scattered across Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi.
This long history created complex rock formations rich in minerals like copper, zinc, and marble that later drove mining and settlement patterns.
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Aravallis in Indian History and Culture
Cradle of settlements and trade
Passes and plains around the Aravallis hosted early agriculture, caravan routes, and emerging cities, influencing the rise of Delhi, Jaipur, and other regional centres.
The hills acted as a cultural corridor between western India and the Indo‑Gangetic plains, shaping migration, trade, and political boundaries over centuries.
Forts, mining traditions, and sacred landscapes
Hill forts, watch posts, and fortified settlements across Rajasthan and Haryana show how rulers used the terrain for defence and territorial control.
Traditional copper and stone quarrying from Aravalli rocks fed regional metallurgical skills, temple architecture, and later colonial‑era extractive industries.
Sacred groves, village deities, and water structures like stepwells and johads reveal how communities adapted spiritually and materially to a semi‑arid hill environment.
Geographical Spread and Key Features
Where are the Aravallis located?
The range runs south‑west to north‑east for about 670–700 km from near Palanpur in Gujarat, across Rajasthan, skirting eastern Haryana, and ending near Delhi.
Major segments include the Mount Abu region in the south, central ridges across Rajasthan, and the highly degraded but critical Delhi–Gurugram–Faridabad ridge in the north.
Peaks, ridges and river basins
Guru Shikhar on Mount Abu, at around 1,722 m, is the highest peak, with smaller ridges and rocky outcrops marking the landscape further north.
The hills act as watersheds between the Indus and Ganga basins, feeding rivers and seasonal streams that support farming and groundwater in adjoining plains.
Environmental Importance in the 21st Century
Barrier against desertification
The Aravallis function as a barrier against the eastward spread of the Thar Desert, slowing sand movement and moderating dust storms towards Haryana, Delhi, and western Uttar Pradesh.
Forests and scrub on the slopes reduce wind velocity, stabilise soils, and help curb land degradation in the Indo‑Gangetic fringe.
Groundwater recharge and climate regulation
Fractured hard rock and valley fills in the range act as natural recharge zones, allowing rainwater to percolate and replenish aquifers in Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi‑NCR, and parts of Gujarat.
Degradation of these slopes through mining and construction has already contributed to falling water tables, soil erosion, and increased flood risk in several districts.
Vegetation on the Aravallis helps moderate local temperatures, reduce urban heat islands, and maintain humidity, which matters during increasingly intense heatwaves.
Biodiversity and “green lungs” for North India
The landscape hosts dry tropical forests, thorn scrub, grasslands, and riparian habitats that support leopards, hyenas, nilgai, jungle cats and diverse birds and reptiles.
These patches form wildlife corridors linking fragmented forests across Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi, allowing gene flow and seasonal movement of species.
As “green lungs” for Delhi‑NCR, the Aravallis trap dust and filter pollutants, playing a vital role amid some of the worst urban air quality levels in the world.
Mining, Urbanization and the Crisis in the Aravallis
Decades of legal and illegal mining
Extensive legal and illegal mining of stone, sand, and minerals has flattened hillocks, created deep pits, and fragmented habitats, particularly in Haryana and Rajasthan.
This physical destruction undermines the hills’ barrier function, destabilises slopes, and permanently damages groundwater recharge structures.
Real‑estate pressure and infrastructure
Rapid expansion of cities like Gurugram, Faridabad and Jaipur, along with highways and industrial corridors, has encroached upon ridge forests and natural drainage lines.
Environmental assessments warn that unchecked degradation could worsen dust storms, intensify heatwaves, and deepen water stress across North India.
The Supreme Court’s New Aravalli Ruling
Redefinition of what counts as Aravalli
In November 2025, the Supreme Court accepted a uniform, elevation‑based definition of “Aravalli Hills and Ranges” proposed by the Union government, to guide regulation and planning.
The Court endorsed a zonation approach that identifies core or “inviolate” ecological areas where mining must remain prohibited, and other mapped areas where activity may be permitted under safeguards.
Ban on new leases and demand for a scientific plan
The bench directed that no fresh mining leases should be granted in the Aravalli landscape until a Management Plan for Sustainable Mining (MPSM) is prepared for the entire range.
It tasked the Environment Ministry, with technical support from the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, to develop this scientific, region‑wide plan.
Why Environmentalists Are Alarmed
Narrow definition, broad exclusions
Conservation groups argue that the adopted definition is too elevation‑centric and risks excluding lower ridges, foothills, and degraded slopes that still function as ecological corridors and recharge zones.
Analyses suggest that such reclassification could strip protection from large tracts previously treated as Aravalli areas, particularly in already stressed parts of Haryana and Rajasthan.
Fear of renewed mining and construction
Once lands fall outside the notified Aravalli category, they may become more vulnerable to real‑estate projects, roads, and expanded mining, potentially undoing earlier conservation gains secured through court orders.
Activists warn that weakening the hills’ continuity may accelerate desertification and dust intrusion into Delhi‑NCR, compounding air‑quality and health crises.
How the Judgment Could Shape the Future
Short‑term impacts
In the immediate term, the bar on new leases and insistence on an MPSM are likely to slow fresh large‑scale mining approvals and push states toward more scientific mapping and regulation.
Tighter compliance for existing legal mines, if enforced, could reduce some illegal extraction and improve reclamation practices, though enforcement remains a key challenge.
Long‑term scenarios: protection vs fragmentation
The long‑term outcome hinges on how broadly “core/inviolate” zones are defined and how seriously ecological sensitivity, groundwater stress, and wildlife corridors are factored into mapping.
A science‑driven, precautionary approach could lock in large conservation belts and prioritise restoration; a minimalist, development‑centric approach could instead deepen fragmentation and ecological decline.
What Needs to Happen Next
Rethinking the Aravallis as one system
Experts argue that policy should treat the Aravallis as a continuous ecological system spanning Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi, not as isolated hill patches.
This implies protecting ridges, foothills and connecting lowlands, banning mining in groundwater “dark zones”, and restoring scrub forests and native grasslands in degraded corridors.
Aligning urban planning with ecology
Urban and regional plans for Delhi‑NCR and Aravalli‑side cities must integrate ridge conservation, green buffers, and nature‑based solutions for water recharge and dust control into zoning and building rules.
Combining the Supreme Court’s framework with ambitious state laws and community‑led restoration initiatives will decide whether the Aravalli Hills remain North India’s environmental lifeline or fade into scattered rock mounds.
Call to Action
For the Aravallis, policy reform now needs to move from court‑driven firefighting to proactive ecological planning grounded in science and local realities. Legislatures in Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, and Delhi should adopt a common Aravalli Conservation Act that recognizes the entire range—ridges, foothills, and connecting lowlands—as one ecological unit, with legally mapped no‑go “inviolate zones” for mining and real estate, mandatory groundwater-stress-based bans, and clear restoration targets tied to budgetary allocations and time‑bound milestones.
At the same time, urban planning laws and building codes must be amended to hard‑wire ridge protection, minimum green buffers, and nature‑based solutions like urban forests and recharge parks into every master plan touching the Aravalli belt, especially in Delhi‑NCR. Citizens, resident welfare associations, and local panchayats need statutory roles in monitoring compliance, reporting violations, and co‑managing restored commons, so that the Aravallis are not just protected on paper but actively defended on the ground as North India’s shared environmental lifeline.
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