The Congress on Monday accused the Narendra Modi government of “selling” the Aravalli range instead of “saving” it.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh wrote on X: “Ashok Gehlot, who has served as the chief minister of Rajasthan three times, has exposed the duplicity of the Modi government on the issue of Aravalli conservation. Gehlot has rightly said that the Modi government is engaged not in 'saving' the Aravalli, but in 'selling' it.”
Ramesh rejected the Centre’s claim that the impact would be marginal. “The Modi government claims that only 0.19 per cent of the Aravalli area will be opened for mining and other activities, but 0.19 per cent amounts to about 68,000 acres. This is no small area, and its fragmentation will cause massive environmental damage.”
He said the range had already suffered extensive harm and that the Centre was pushing it further.
AICC general secretary Sachin Pilot on Monday said that the Congress will hold a massive protest in Jaipur on December 26 against the Centre on the Aravalli definition issue.
"It is a death warrant, as I can see it, in the next few years, what is going to happen to the Aravallis," Pilot said.
"The Aravallis issue is something that the central government and more importantly the BJP leadership has to answer. All the four states where the Aravalli exists - Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi, are ruled by BJP," he added.
Ramesh’s post followed former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot’s criticism of the BJP government for backing what he called a discredited formula.
On Sunday, Gehlot questioned why the state and Centre had revived a “100 metre” definition that the Supreme Court had rejected in 2010. He accused the BJP of risking Rajasthan’s future by trying to “hand over the Aravallis to the mining mafia”.
Gehlot has warned that this reworking would wipe out protections for most of the range. He has repeatedly said the new definition would destroy 90 per cent of the Aravallis in Rajasthan.
Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav said the court-approved framework would bring more than 90 per cent of the Aravalli region under “protected area”.
Senior BJP leader Rajendra Rathore dismissed Gehlot’s claims as “baseless” and “misleading”, arguing that the new definition is “stricter” and “more scientific than before”.
Gehlot countered the BJP’s charge by revisiting the record. He said an expert committee in 2003 had recommended the 100-metre definition from the perspective of livelihood and employment.
“Acting on this recommendation, the then state government submitted an affidavit before the Supreme Court on February 16, 2010. However, the court rejected this definition within just three days,” he said.
According to Gehlot, his government accepted the court’s decision and moved to strengthen enforcement instead.
“Our Congress government made serious efforts to detect illegal mining in the Aravallis by directing the use of remote sensing (satellite imagery). A budget of Rs 7 crore was allocated for surveys across 15 districts,” he said, adding that SPs and district collectors were made responsible for stopping illegal mining.
“Now, the question is why did the present government in Rajasthan support and recommend to a Union government committee the very definition that had already been rejected by the Supreme Court in 2010,” he said, hinting at pressure or “a larger game”.
Gehlot also used numbers to underline his accusation of political backsliding.
Between 2019 and 2024, his government recovered penalties worth Rs 464 crore from illegal mining operators, more than double the Rs 200 crore recovered during the BJP’s previous term from 2013 to 2018, he said.
“The Congress government broke the backbone of the mining mafia by registering 4,206 FIRs over five years. Of these, a large number were filed in the first three years alone -- 930 in 2019-20, 760 in 2020-21, and 1,305 in 2021-22.”
In contrast, he said, only 508 FIRs have been registered in the first year of the present BJP government (2024-25). “This clearly indicates the BJP government’s soft approach towards the mining mafia, which is, once again, boosting their confidence,” he alleged.
The dispute hinges on the definition of what constitutes the Aravalli hills and ranges.
A committee under the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change recommended that an “Aravalli hill is any landform in the designated Aravalli districts with an elevation of 100 metres or more above its local relief”, and that an “Aravalli range is a collection of two or more such hills within 500 metres of each other”.
The Supreme Court accepted this definition on November 20.