Recent policy ‘death warrant’ for Aravallis: Sonia

Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday said the BJP-led Centre had displayed a “particularly venal streak of cynicism” towards environmental protection, claiming that its recent policies have “nearly signed a death warrant” for the Aravalli hills.

She demanded that the Centre withdrew the amendments that it had “bulldozed” through Parliament in the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, along with the Forest Conservation Rules, 2022.

Gandhi said the government’s declaration that hills in the Aravalli range below 100 metres would not fall under mining restrictions was an open invitation for illegal miners and mafias to “finish off 90% of the range that falls below the set height limit”.

She emphasised that the Aravallis had long prevented the spread of desertification, guarded historic forts and served as a cradle of spirituality across North-West India.

Pointing to Delhi’s worsening air quality, she said the Capital had entered its annual smog season with “a hazy mist of dust, smoke and particulate matter” settling over millions. “This is a full-scale, slow-motion public health tragedy with estimates suggesting up to 34,000 deaths annually in just 10 cities,” she added.

Gandhi further flagged recent findings that 13 per cent to 15 per cent of Delhi’s tested groundwater samples contained uranium beyond permissible limits, adding that Punjab and Haryana reflected even higher contamination levels.

“These news items cannot be seen disparately,” she said, describing them as symptoms of a decade-long deep-seated and continuing disregard for the environment in the government’s policy making.

She stressed the need for a halt on deforestation, action against illegal mining and withdrawal of amendments that, she said, were “anti-Adivasi” and enable the clearing of forests without local consent.