Before Aravalli Row, Government Set in Motion a Process to Map Hills by New Definition: Report
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: While the Union government on Wednesday (December 24) announced that it has issued directions to states to implement a “complete ban” on granting any new mining leases in the Aravallis, following uproar over the new definition of the ranges which the Supreme Court accepted on November 20, just weeks before, the Union Environment Ministry held a meeting to set in motion a process for states to begin delineating which areas in Aravallis qualify for a sustainable mining plan.
The meeting was held on December 8, The Hindustan Times has reported, just weeks after the Supreme Court order on November 20, in which it accepted a uniform new definition of the Aravallis, that only hills above a local relief of 100 metres or more, among others, would qualify as the Aravalli hill range.
The report said that the meeting was to discuss and come up with a plan to start the process of drawing up the Management Plan for Sustainable Mining (MPSM) for the entire Aravalli range through Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE).
The environment ministry in the meeting coordinated a framework under which state governments will work with the Survey of India to map Aravalli areas according to the new definition accepted by the Supreme Court. This mapping in effect lays ground for all subsequent actions on where mining can take place, and act as the foundation for approvals of mining processes within those delineated areas.
The meeting, The Hindustan Times reported, was chaired by the environment ministry secretary, and included representatives from Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), Forest Survey of India, Survey of India, the mines ministry, and forest and mining officials from Aravalli states.
According to the meeting's agenda and action points, the Survey of India, upon request of the Aravalli State Governments, is to provide all necessary assistance for marking and delineation of areas on toposheets as per the definition of Aravalli Hills and Ranges accepted by the court.
Amid the outrage, the environment ministry on Wednesday in its press release said that there will be a “complete ban” on granting any new mining leases across the Aravallis in all four states that the hill range spans and this “applies uniformly across the entire Aravalli landscape and is intended to preserve the integrity of the range”.
The Wire has reported this ban is not new and is merely what the Supreme Court had already asked the Union environment ministry to do in its order dated November 20.
The court had directed an MPSM for the Aravallis, saying that it would be in “the best interest of the ecology and environment” of the Aravallis that a similar study be done for the hill range.
A citizens’ programme called the Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyaan (which was formed under the banner of the People for Aravallis, a citizens collective, on December 11) termed the ministry’s press release “misleading” and said it does not say that the ministry will not go by the new 100 metres-definition.
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