Several environmentalists on Tuesday demanded that an impartial, independent and high-powered committee examine the controversial definition of the Aravalli hills based on a 100-metre height threshold, which would allow mining in a substantial part of the region.

Environmentalists and rights activists under the banner of the Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyan stressed the need to change the composition of the committee formed by the Supreme Court last month. In a letter to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, the environmentalists said the chairperson and member secretary of the current panel were under government control.

“If the committee continues to be headed by an official who reports directly to the secretary as well as the minister of environment, forest and climate change, it will not satisfy the criteria of either ‘impartiality’ or ‘independence’ nor being ‘high’ in terms of either power, status or rank,” the letter stated.