Supreme Court sets up high-powered expert panel to re-examine Aravalli’s definition

An aerial view of the Aravalli range in Haryana in December 2025. | Photo credit: ANI

The Supreme Court set up a high-powered committee to conduct an independent review of the Centre’s report on the definition and delimitation of the Aravalli Range and directed the panel to address what it described as “critical ambiguities” in the findings.

The committee, headed by Kanchan Devi, director general of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), has been directed to submit a comprehensive report by August 31, 2026.

The move comes months after the Supreme Court on December 29 stayed the implementation of the October 2025 report prepared by a committee chaired by the secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC).

The Court then emphasized the need for a new scientific and environmental assessment to be carried out by an independent body of industry experts.

In its order, the court said that a “fair, impartial and independent expert opinion” is necessary after consultation with all relevant stakeholders to provide final guidance on several contentious issues related to the protection of the Aravalli ecosystem.

The newly formed High Performance Committee (HPC) will be chaired ex-officio by Kanchan Devi, a 1991 batch officer of the Indian Forest Service, an autonomous institution functioning under the Ministry of Environment.

Committee members include Dr. Subhash Ashutosh, former Director General of Forest Survey of India; Dr. Rajendra Kumar Sharma, former Director, Geological Survey of India; Brij Mohan Singh Rathore, former Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Environment; and Prof. Ashok K. Bhatnagar, Former Head, Department of Botany, University of Delhi.

The court also appointed Professor Jagdish Krishnaswamy of the Indian Institute of Human Settlements in Bengaluru and Prof. Laxmikanta Sharma of Central University of Haryana as special invitees who may be involved in the work of the Committee by the Chairman as required.

The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change was directed to appoint an officer of the rank of Director to serve as Member Secretary of the Committee.

The HPC has been tasked with examining several key questions arising from the October 2025 report.

These include whether limiting the definition of the Aravalli Range to an area located within 500 meters between two or more hills substantially narrows the extent of the protected area and could facilitate continued mining and other environmentally disruptive activities.

The committee will also assess whether the Aravalli hills with elevations of 100 meters and above form a continuous ecological formation, even if they are separated by more than the proposed 500 meter threshold, and whether mining activities should be allowed in such intervening gaps.

Another issue flagged up by the court is with the report’s claim that only 1,048 out of 12,081 hills in Rajasthan meet the 100 meters altitude criterion.

The HPC was asked to determine whether this assessment is scientifically and factually accurate and would leave a large number of formations at lower elevations without environmental protection.

The panel will further assess whether existing regulatory mechanisms contain significant loopholes that warrant an exhaustive scientific and geological survey of the Aravalli system.

The establishment of the HPC follows consultations between the parties before the court.

During the last hearing on May 25, the Center informed the Bench that the proposed panel could include four experts whose names appeared in the recommendations made by both the amicus curiae and the Central Empowered Committee (CEC), with the ICFRE Director General serving as the Chairman.

Published – June 3, 2026 11:41 AM IST