Issue of Mining in Aravallis :

Within one generation, millions who once found it the axis of their sustenance, are now reconciled to the loss of one of the planet’s oldest physical features. This despite the fact that village after village have reported changes in the local ecology after the mountain range’s degradation, with significant impact on the people’s lives.

Though the Supreme Court banned mining in the range in 2002, unless cleared by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), illegal mining has continued, sometimes on a scale even larger than that of legal mining operations. A 2018 report by Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) says that 25 per cent of the Aravalli range has been lost due to illegal mining in Rajasthan since 1967-68 and over 10,300 hectares (ha) have been affected outside the lease boundary in the 15 districts where 80 per cent of the Aravallis are located.

“Extent of illegal mining in terms of percentage area exceeds 100 per cent in many cases, especially in respect of smaller mines allotted for minor mineral,” the report says, which was based on satellite images of 2008-2010. While the committee recommended the Rajasthan government immediately stop all mining activities outside the legally sanctioned mining leases and identify and prosecute those involved, experts and activists working to conserve the Aravallis rue the poor implementation of the laws on the ground. A 2017 Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report says 4,072 cases of illegal mining, transportation and storage of minerals have been registered between 2011-12 and 2016-17. Around 9. 8 million tonnes of minerals were found to have been illegally excavated.

The Aravalli mountain range that spans four states—Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi—was never continuous, but mining and construction activities have made it even more broken. Of 128 hills/hillocks of Alwar district in Rajasthan that were sampled from the total 2,269, it was observed that 31 hills/hillocks have vanished from the time the Survey of India topographic sheets were prepared in 1967-68, says the CEC report. The gaps were recorded by satellite pictures and verified on the ground.

Even the Delhi ridge, the last stretch of Aravallis, in the northern part of the capital, has been encroached upon. The massive exploitation of the ridge has made it unrecognisable. Huge residential colonies, religious institutions, university campus and security force camps have been set up. This has made the landscape flat, like the plains.The ridge acts as lungs for the city’s polluted air; helps maintain reserve of drinking water; and, protects it from desert sands blowing from Rajasthan.

In all the states, the depleting groundwater has fuelled the growth of invasive species that thrive on minimal water. “Indigenous trees have disappeared and there is a preponderance of kikar (Julifora prosopis). Unlike kikar, the indigenous varieties were broad-leaved, which retained more water and played a key role in the ecology of the mountains, helping in rain formation. When kikar spreads, the area is still green but it is a green desert. Meteorological department data shows that Alwar has not received average annual rainfall since 2009. “Sand dunes and desert vegetation have even become visible in certain parts of Haryana’s Sohna town.

Sweeping impact :

The decline of the effectiveness of the Aravalli hills as a source of structural control for normal weather and climate can be gauged from the shrinking of the duration of rainy season (from the day of onset of monsoon to the day of its withdrawal)— from 101 days in 1973 to just 25 days in 2009, says Narpat Singh Rathore, former head of department of geography at Mohanlal Sukhadia University in Udaipur, in a 2009 study on the Aravallis.

Similarly, the total number of rainy days has declined from 60-80 days per year to 18-30 days.

According to a 2017 WII( Wildlife Institute of India) report, the hills checked the spread of the Thar Desert towards eastern Rajasthan, the Indo-Gangetic Plains, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. The study identifies Dungarpur-Banswar gap area on the Aravalli range, Upper Banganga Valley, Magra Area, Girwa-Gogunda tract, Jaisamand Lake area, Daragarh-Banara-Maja-Dariba area, Abu-Sirohi and Chappan hills of South Aravalli as “extremely most vulnerable”.

A serious ecological impact of digging or mining to a great depth is puncturing of aquifers, which disturbs the water flow, results in drying of lakes and popping up of new ones. Several reports have also confirmed the vanishing of rivers like Banas, Luni, Sahibi, Indori and Sakhi, which originated in the Aravallis.