Brief by Shorts91 Newsdesk / 05:33am on 24 Dec 2025,Wednesday India
The Supreme Court accepted the Environment Ministry's 100-meter Aravalli definition on November 20, despite its own Central Empowered Committee opposing it. On October 14, CEC chairman Siddhant Das wrote that Forest Survey of India's 3-degree slope definition should be adopted instead, clarifying views attributed to CEC were actually Dr. JR Bhatt's individual opinion, not the committee's. Amicus curiae K Parmeshwar's presentation warned the 100-meter rule loses "integrity of Aravali as geographical feature" and enables mining on lower hills, accelerating Thar Desert expansion. FSI's internal assessment flagged 91.3% of 12,081 Aravalli hills above 20 meters would be excluded. Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav claimed mining covers only 0.19% currently but hasn't addressed future development scope. (PC: The Indian Express)
