Don’t submit report on Aravallis without visiting all districts: Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyaan to SC-appointed panel
Environmental activists have urged a Supreme Court-appointed committee to delay its report on the Aravalli mountain range until it conducts site visits in all affected districts. The coalition claims that current public hearings are inaccessible to rural communities and fail to address the realities of illegal mining.
Why it matters
The Aravallis are a critical ecological barrier, and the debate over 'sustainable mining' versus environmental preservation is a major point of contention in Indian environmental policy.
The Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyaan (AVJA), a coalition of environmentalists and activists, on Tuesday claimed that the Supreme Court-appointed High-Powered Committee (HPC) on the Aravallis had not visited any mining-affected villages to understand the ground reality.
The AVJA demanded the committee not to submit its report to the top court without visiting all districts through which the Aravallis run and understanding people’s problems.
“Our biggest demand from this committee is that they need to write to the Supreme Court and get an extension on the August 31 deadline to submit their report. Without meaningful consultations with the rural communities in all the 64 districts in the five States of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, no decision should be taken which will decide the fate of India’s oldest mountain range,” said AVJA co-founder Neelam Ahluwalia at a press conference.
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