Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav told reporters in the Sundarban Tiger Reserve that the Supreme Court-approved definition will bring more than 90% of the Aravalli region under “protected area”
The Centre on Sunday (December 21, 2025) rejected reports that the definition of the Aravalli hills had been changed to allow large-scale mining, and cited a Supreme Court-ordered freeze on new mining leases in the region.
Sources in the Environment Ministry said the Supreme Court, while hearing long-pending cases on illegal mining in the Aravallis, had constituted a committee in May 2024 to recommend a “uniform definition”, as different states were following inconsistent criteria while granting mining permissions.
The committee, chaired by the Environment Ministry secretary and comprising representatives from Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, and Delhi along with technical bodies, found that only Rajasthan had a formally established definition, which it has been following since 2006.
