The Aravalli Hills, among the world’s oldest mountain ranges and a fragile ecological shield for north India, are at the centre of a raging controversy after a new legal definition by the Supreme Court. It fanned fears of large-scale mining, set off a political firestorm, and stoked a huge outcry online.
What the Centre calls a technical clarification, activists see as a slow-motion ecological unravelling. At the heart of the storm is a question that sounds deceptively simple: what exactly qualifies as the Aravalli Hills?
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SUPREME COURT REDEFINES ARAVALLI HILLS
The controversy traces back to a weeks-old Supreme Court observation asking for a clearer, scientific definition of the Aravalli Hills and Aravalli Range. The top court noted that over the years, inconsistent descriptions had complicated environmental regulation, land-use planning, and enforcement against illegal mining.
The court cited globally accepted geological standards, including the d
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