For more than two decades, the Supreme Court of India has stood as a formidable guardian of the Aravali mountain range, consistently issuing orders to shield its ecologically sensitive zones from harmful activities. This judicial protection has been crucial in preserving one of the country's oldest and most vital natural landscapes.
A Timeline of Judicial Intervention
The court's proactive role began in 2002 with a landmark order that prohibited mining and the pumping of groundwater within a five-kilometer radius of the Delhi border. This set a powerful precedent. Subsequently, the apex court also moved to ban illegal mining operations in the states of Haryana and Rajasthan, which form a significant part of the Aravali range.
The legal shield extended further when the Supreme Court put Haryana's Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) in abeyance. This state act, if implemented, would have stripped vast tracts of the Aravalis and Shiwalik hills of their crucial legal 'forest' status, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation.
Executive Support from the Highest Office
Interestingly, the judiciary has not been alone in this fight. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has stepped in on multiple occasions to reinforce environmental norms. The first notable intervention came in April 2014 during the tenure of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The PMO acted to stop a dilution of the provision that restricts construction and other non-forest activities to just 0.5% within the Natural Conservation Zone (NCZ) of the National Capital Region (NCR), which largely encompasses the Aravalis and important water bodies.
This scenario repeated itself in 2022. The Haryana government, in the Draft Regional Plan 2041, pushed to replace the specific mentions of 'Aravali' and 'NCZ' with a more generic and less restrictive term, 'Natural Zone'. This change would have effectively removed the mandatory conservation requirement. Once again, when the matter reached the PMO and a Group of Ministers, they directed the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs not to dilute the provisions protecting the NCZ and the Aravalis.
Persistent Pressure and a Surprising Report
Environmental activists point to a consistent pattern where government entities, particularly in Haryana, have attempted to permit non-forest and real estate activities under the guise of developing recreational facilities. For instance, in 2014, the then Haryana government's effort to relax the 0.5% construction limit in the Aravalis during a mid-term review of the NCR Regional Plan 2021 was halted only after the PMO directed the NCR Planning Board to consider the environment ministry's serious concerns.
Against this backdrop of sustained judicial and executive protection, a recent development has raised eyebrows. M D Sinha, the former principal chief conservator of forests for the Haryana government, highlighted a contradiction. He noted that a report submitted by the Union environment and forest ministry in an ongoing case before the Supreme Court appears to facilitate mining rather than promote the conservation of the Aravalis. This stance seems at odds with the two-decade-long legacy of protective orders from the highest court and interventions from the country's highest executive office.
The series of orders from the Supreme Court spanning 2002 to 2019 clearly demonstrates a judicial commitment to preserving the ecological integrity of the Aravalis. The complementary role played by the PMO underscores that the protection of this critical natural zone has been a persistent, cross-administration priority at the highest levels of the Indian government.
