Bhupender Yadav, Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, addresses a press conference in New Delhi on December 22, 2025. | Photo credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) will prepare a district-wise report in the coming days on which hills meet the criteria to be considered part of the Aravalli range but exclusively for logging purposes, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said at a press conference on Monday (Dec 22, 2025).
Under fire from environmental activists and a social media firestorm that claimed vast areas of the Aravalli range could be opened for mining, Mr Yadav stressed that no new mining licenses would be granted. In accordance with the November 20 Supreme Court order, ICFRE will prepare a detailed sustainable mining management (MPSM) plan covering the entire Aravalli range, he added.
The plan must delineate areas where mining must be absolutely prohibited, identify zones where limited and highly regulated mining can be permitted, map sensitive habitats and wildlife corridors, assess cumulative ecological impacts, determine ecological carrying capacity, and formulate measures for restoration and rehabilitation as ordered by the Supreme Court.
The court modeled the plan on Jharkhand’s Saranda Forest Management Plan and emphasized that any logging in the Aravalli range must be done only under scientific supervision along with transparent environmental safeguards.
Although the issue of deforestation, logging and associated stone quarrying has been an environmental issue in the courts for years, a uniform definition of what constituted the Aravalli Range, applicable to all states and Union Territories where the Aravalli Range is located, remained elusive.
An expert committee comprising representatives of the Union Ministry of Environment has recommended that all states agree to adopt the above uniform criterion of “100 meters above local relief” to regulate mining in the Aravalli region, which has been in force in Rajasthan since 9 January 2006.
The Aravalli Range was also defined as all landforms that existed within 500 meters of two adjacent hills of 100 meters or more in height. All terrain formations existing in this 500-meter zone, regardless of their height and slope, are excluded for the purpose of granting a mining lease, according to an explainer from the Ministry of the Environment. However, the government does not yet have an indication of how many hills are included in this definition.
A 2010 report by the Forest Survey of India (according to media reports; this is not a public document) calculated that only 8% of about 12,000 hills are above 100 meters and therefore potentially open for mining. Mr Yadav did not give a figure but said only 237 sq km. of 147,000 square km. of the Aravalli range is open for mining. “Allegations that the Aravalli are willing to be looted for mining are completely false and (are) lies spread by the opposition parties,” the environment minister added.
Besides being nearly two billion years old and being India’s oldest mountain range, the Aravallis serve as an important ecological barrier against the desertification of the Indo-Gangetic plains. They help stop the eastward spread of the Thar Desert into Haryana, Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh and play a major role in groundwater recharge, climate stabilization and biodiversity support.
Published – 22 Dec 2025 21:20 IST
