Environmentalists and water conservationists have criticised the Supreme Court’s November 20 order that accepted a uniform, elevation-based definition of the Aravalli Hills given by a Centre-appointed expert committee. Activists have warned that hills below 100 metres from local relief will lose protection and could be opened for mining, threatening the ecological continuity of India’s oldest mountain range.

A three-judge bench headed by CJI B R Gavai, and comprising Justices K Vinod Chandran and N V Anjaria, had asked the Centre to prepare a Management Plan for Sustainable Mining (MPSM) “for the entire Aravalis” and barred the grant of new mining licences in the region before it is finalised.

“In the result, we pass the following order: (i) We accept the recommendations made by the Comm

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