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The Supreme Court has taken suo moto cognisance of the matter on Saturday on the redefinition of the Aravalli Hills, following which a three-judge Special Vacation Bench will hear it on Monday.

The Bench will be headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. 

Earlier in November, the court had accepted the recommendations of a committee of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, which defined the ‘Aravalli Hills’ as any landform with an elevation of 100 m or more above the local relief and an ‘Aravalli Range’ as a collection of two or more such hills within 500 m from each other. 

The court agreed as per the panel, that “any landform located in the Aravalli districts, having an elevation of 100 metres or more from the local relief, shall be termed as Aravalli Hills… The entire landform lying within the area enclosed by such lowest contour, whether actual or extended notionally, together with the hill, its supporting slopes and associated landforms irrespective of their gradient, shall be deemed to constitute part of the Aravalli Hills”.

 

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The court had also accepted the panel’s recommendations for sustainable mining and the steps to be taken to prevent illegal mining in the Aravalli Hills and Ranges, directing the authorities to identify permissible areas for “mining and ecologically sensitive, conservation-critical and restoration priority areas within the Aravalli landscape where mining shall be strictly prohibited or permitted only under exceptional and scientifically-justified circumstances”.

“We further direct that till the MPSM (Management Plan for Sustainable Mining) is finalised by the MoEF&CC through ICFRE (Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education), no new mining leases should be granted,” the court said.

The court’s agreement with the ministry’s panel’s recommendations despite recognising the Aravallis as a “green barrier” that prevents the eastward spread of the Thar desert has received much criticism, with the Opposition and environment activists urging it to review the hills’ definition and subsequent mining permissions.