The Supreme Court has drawn a firm but balanced line through the ancient spine of the Aravalli range—no fresh mining licenses until the Union government shapes a scientifically grounded blueprint for how the hills may be touched, if at all.
A bench led by the Chief Justice, joined by two companion judges, endorsed a set of definitions and conservation safeguards proposed by a court-appointed committee. These new contours decide what qualifies as an “Aravalli Hill” and when two such elevations together form a “Range”—a long-needed clarity after States adopted their own conflicting interpretations.
The Court rejected the idea of a blanket mining ban, noting that outright prohibition often becomes an invitation for shadowy operators, illegal extraction networks, and the kind of criminality that thrives in blind corners. Instead, it chose a more surgical path: tightly governed, scientifically evaluated, and strictly monitored mining in non-sensitive areas.
The bench ordered the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to craft a Management Plan for Sustainable Mining (MPSM) for the entire Aravalli system, modeled on the detailed ecological studies done for Jharkhand’s Saranda and Chaibasa forests. The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education will steer the study, overlaying geology, biodiversity, carrying capacity, and long-term environmental risk.
This masterplan must do three things:
• Map zones where mining can never happen, where it might happen only under exceptional and scientifically justified conditions, and where limited extraction is permissible.
• Assess cumulative ecological impact, not just plot-by-plot damage.
• Lay out concrete restoration and rehabilitation protocols for post-mining landscapes.
Until this plan is completed, no new mining licenses may be issued. Existing legal mines may continue but must obey, to the letter, the committee’s recommendations.
The Court pointed to the Aravallis’ role as a living ecological arcade—host to wildlife sanctuaries, tiger reserves, wetlands, national parks, and aquifers that feed rivers across North and West India. Any future mining, it said, must protect the continuity and integrity of this ancient range.
District-wise micro-plans may also be crafted, the bench noted, but only if they preserve the broader unbroken character of the hills.
With the judicial compass now set, the next move belongs to the Centre—design the plan, protect the range, and decide what sustainable mining truly looks like in one of India’s oldest mountain systems.
