Geological Survey of India opposed new 100-m rule as early as 2003
Despite restrictions, illegal mining has continued in the Aravalli region
The new definition of the Aravalli range, which was accepted by the Supreme Court, had earlier been refuted by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) when the Rajasthan Government adopted an approach that demarcated no-mining areas only above 100 m from ground level.
In a 2003 letter to the Rajasthan Government’s Mines Department, the GSI said maps prepared by the committee marked only hill peaks rising more than 100 metres above ground level as hills or ranges, while excluding the slopes on which the stability of hill ranges depends. It was advised to include the slopes of the hills above ground level as part of the Aravalli hills/ranges,” the GSI said.
The Supreme Court, in its order dated February 19, 2010, also noted that satellite imagery of the entire Aravalli range in Rajasthan should be undertaken and that the exercise should not be confined to peaks or parts of hills above 100 metres from ground level.
The Central Empowered Committee (CEC), in its report, said the Rajasthan Government had adopted the Richard Murphy (1968) landform classification, under which hills are classified as a geomorphic class with local relief of more than 100 m.
“While this works well for broad classification, experts in geology say it cannot be fully relied upon for micro-level and site-specific planning, as required in the ecologically sensitive Aravalli hills and ranges,” the CEC said.
After analysing the spatial data of the terrain, the Forest Survey of India (FSI) found that areas with slopes of three degrees or more are associated with hills and do not occur in flat terrain. “All such areas with slopes of three degrees or more were decided to be delineated as hills, together with a uniform 100-metre-wide buffer,” the CEC noted.
However, this methodology for defining the Aravallis was not considered by the Supreme Court in its November 20 judgment. The Aravalli region contains large deposits of rock phosphate, used in fertiliser manufacturing. It is also one of the country’s largest producers of zinc, while green marble is mainly extracted from the Aravalli hills.
Despite restrictions on mining, illegal mining has continued in the region.
The Rajasthan High Court has observed that “by and large the mine operators are interested in making money at the cost of the environment. They are not being benign to the environment”, and that “in Rajasthan, mining has become a menace. The scale of injustice occurring on Indian soil is catastrophic”.
