Can Aravalli 'green wall' save the hill range from mining, urbanising damage?
As protests over redrawing of the Aravalli hill range intensify, a new eco-restoration report has raised sharp questions about the 'cure over prevention' approach
The report, ‘Eco-restoration of the Aravalli Landscape’, prepared in partnership with the government of Haryana, was released by Union minister for environment, forest and climate change Bhupender Yadav on January 14.
“Widespread deforestation, unregulated mining, encroachment, overgrazing and rapid urbanisation have fragmented habitats and eroded the natural barrier function of the [Aravalli] range. The weakening of this barrier has allowed desert sands to drift eastwards through identified gaps, accelerating desertification across Rajasthan and Haryana,” says the report.
The report argues in favour of restoration. “Global assessments show that restoration offers strong economic value. Inaction can cost more than three times the cost of restoration while well-planned measures can yield benefits up to 10 times the investment. Consequently, eco-restoration is not only an ecological imperative but also economically prudent,” states the report.
The move to redefine what comprises the Aravalli range has sparked a pushback from environmentalists and local communities in the affected states. The matter is now in the Supreme Court. On December 29, the court stayed its own ruling of November 20 that had accepted the government-proposed definition of Aravalli hills as landforms that rise at least 100 metres above surrounding terrain and a range being only that which is within 500 meters of each other.
This was framed as a technical clarification to enable scientific mapping and regulate mining in the ecologically-sensitive region. On January 21, the Supreme Court reiterated its stay and tasked the amicus senior advocate K. Parameshwar to reconstitute an expert committee to examine the central questions and issues in the case.
Although not specifically stated by the government, but by implication due to the timing of the release of the Sankala Foundation report, the term ‘restoration’ has gained currency. Environmentalists and experts feel the government’s earlier stand to prepare a management plan for sustainable mining is as an inevitable reality; thus ‘restoration’ offers a ‘strong economic value’. “The attitude is that cure is better than prevention as there is much to earn in the process,” said an activist, requesting not to be identified.
The Sankala report highlights in detail the Aravalli Green Wall Project, an initiative announced by the central government in 2023 as part of a broader National Action Plan to combat desertification and land degradation through forestry interventions. It draws inspiration from the Great Green Wall initiative in Africa. Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially inaugurated the Aravalli Green Wall campaign on June 5 last year.
At its core, the project envisions creating a five-km-wide green buffer along the Aravalli range, from Porbandar (Gujarat) to Panipat (Haryana), spanning 29 districts across states. The strategy combines afforestation with native species, reforestation of degraded forests, soil and water conservation, and rejuvenation of water bodies like ponds and lakes. Government plans also include establishing permanent nurseries for native plants, promoting agroforestry and pasture development, and engaging local communities in conservation work.
The responsibility for execution lies primarily with the Union environment ministry, in coordination with the forest departments of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi. Funding and implementation mechanisms draw on national schemes, such as the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and state-level environmental programmes.
The Sankala report strongly supports the Aravalli Green Wall Project but stresses that its success depends on treating the Aravallis as a connected ecological system, not isolated forest patches. “Fragmented interventions across departments and districts, treating it as a plantation project, will not work. It may not fail on intent but on governance,” implies the report, endorsing a replicable, science-led and data-driven planning model.
Environmentalists, however, warn against this cure strategy being considered better than prevention. Dr R.P. Balwan, a retired Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer from Haryana, writes in his book The Aravalli Ecosystems: Mystery of the Civilisations that scientifically and technically in geology science, ‘Aravalli rocks are either rocks that occur over the surface or below the surface. In Haryana, the Aravalli formations occur at a depth of 300 to 450 feet below the surface and these rocks are also Aravalli in science. Hill formations are a relief feature and cannot be used to define the Aravallis. Aravalli is the name of geological formations and has nothing to do with relief features’.
A geologist associated with a state university in Haryana explains that allowing mining in the Aravallis would permanently damage the water aquifers and the ecology of the region, and that this cannot be repaired by any amount of plantation. “Moreover, alternative compensatory plantation for vegetation cleared for mining and urban development would take decades to mature, during which the ecology, flora and fauna would be lost. Breaking the contiguous ecosystem would ruin the habitats of wildlife, which cannot be shifted at will to the 5 km ‘green wall’,” says the geologist.
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The report, ‘Eco-restoration of the Aravalli Landscape’, prepared in partnership with the government of Haryana, was released by Union minister for environment, forest and climate change Bhupender Yadav on January 14.
“Widespread deforestation, unregulated mining, encroachment, overgrazing and rapid urbanisation have fragmented habitats and eroded the natural barrier function of the [Aravalli] range. The weakening of this barrier has allowed desert sands to drift eastwards through identified gaps, accelerating desertification across Rajasthan and Haryana,” says the report.
The report argues in favour of restoration. “Global assessments show that restoration offers strong economic value. Inaction can cost more than three times the cost of restoration while well-planned measures can yield benefits up to 10 times the investment. Consequently, eco-restoration is not only an ecological imperative but also economically prudent,” states the report.
The move to redefine what comprises the Aravalli range has sparked a pushback from environmentalists and local communities in the affected states. The matter is now in the Supreme Court. On December 29, the court stayed its own ruling of November 20 that had accepted the government-proposed definition of Aravalli hills as landforms that rise at least 100 metres above surrounding terrain and a range being only that which is within 500 meters of each other.
This was framed as a technical clarification to enable scientific mapping and regulate mining in the ecologically-sensitive region. On January 21, the Supreme Court reiterated its stay and tasked the amicus senior advocate K. Parameshwar to reconstitute an expert committee to examine the central questions and issues in the case.
Although not specifically stated by the government, but by implication due to the timing of the release of the Sankala Foundation report, the term ‘restoration’ has gained currency. Environmentalists and experts feel the government’s earlier stand to prepare a management plan for sustainable mining is as an inevitable reality; thus ‘restoration’ offers a ‘strong economic value’. “The attitude is that cure is better than prevention as there is much to earn in the process,” said an activist, requesting not to be identified.
The Sankala report highlights in detail the Aravalli Green Wall Project, an initiative announced by the central government in 2023 as part of a broader National Action Plan to combat desertification and land degradation through forestry interventions. It draws inspiration from the Great Green Wall initiative in Africa. Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially inaugurated the Aravalli Green Wall campaign on June 5 last year.
At its core, the project envisions creating a five-km-wide green buffer along the Aravalli range, from Porbandar (Gujarat) to Panipat (Haryana), spanning 29 districts across states. The strategy combines afforestation with native species, reforestation of degraded forests, soil and water conservation, and rejuvenation of water bodies like ponds and lakes. Government plans also include establishing permanent nurseries for native plants, promoting agroforestry and pasture development, and engaging local communities in conservation work.
The responsibility for execution lies primarily with the Union environment ministry, in coordination with the forest departments of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi. Funding and implementation mechanisms draw on national schemes, such as the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and state-level environmental programmes.
The Sankala report strongly supports the Aravalli Green Wall Project but stresses that its success depends on treating the Aravallis as a connected ecological system, not isolated forest patches. “Fragmented interventions across departments and districts, treating it as a plantation project, will not work. It may not fail on intent but on governance,” implies the report, endorsing a replicable, science-led and data-driven planning model.
Environmentalists, however, warn against this cure strategy being considered better than prevention. Dr R.P. Balwan, a retired Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer from Haryana, writes in his book The Aravalli Ecosystems: Mystery of the Civilisations that scientifically and technically in geology science, ‘Aravalli rocks are either rocks that occur over the surface or below the surface. In Haryana, the Aravalli formations occur at a depth of 300 to 450 feet below the surface and these rocks are also Aravalli in science. Hill formations are a relief feature and cannot be used to define the Aravallis. Aravalli is the name of geological formations and has nothing to do with relief features’.
A geologist associated with a state university in Haryana explains that allowing mining in the Aravallis would permanently damage the water aquifers and the ecology of the region, and that this cannot be repaired by any amount of plantation. “Moreover, alternative compensatory plantation for vegetation cleared for mining and urban development would take decades to mature, during which the ecology, flora and fauna would be lost. Breaking the contiguous ecosystem would ruin the habitats of wildlife, which cannot be shifted at will to the 5 km ‘green wall’,” says the geologist.
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