00:00So, everyone's furious about the government changing the definition of the Aravallis.
00:03But this isn't the first time India has redefined geography on paper.
00:08Do you know how the 30-kilometer freeway Mumbai Coastal Road was built on parts of land that technically did not exist earlier?
00:15As per the 1991 Coastal Regulation Zone, CRZ notification, reclamation was prohibited under coastal areas.
00:22However, in 2015, rules were changed to allow reclamation of CRZ to allow construction of this coastal road.
00:29In Rajasthan, courts intervened in September 2025 after the state government redrew the boundaries of the Nehergarh Wildlife Sanctuary.
00:37The Rajasthan Forest Department altered sanctuary limits,
00:40allegedly benefiting luxury hotels and commercial establishments inside the sanctuary and its eco-sensitive zone.
00:46In 2016, on the banks of the Yamuna in Delhi, thousands gathered for the World Culture Festival,
00:51a mega-event organized by the Art of Living Foundation led by Shri Sri Ravi Shankar.
00:56Environmentalists protested, saying the event was being held on the Yamuna flood plain,
01:00land that absorbs excess water, recharges groundwater and protects the city from floods.
01:05But before the National Green Tribunal, their lawyers made a technical argument,
01:09saying this land could not be called a wetland at all because it had never been officially notified as one by the government.
01:16Under Indian law at the time, wetlands received protection only after formal notification.
01:21If a wetland existed in reality but not on paper, it had no legal standing.
01:26Then in 2017, the definition itself changed.
01:28The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change notified new wetlands conservation and management rules.
01:34These rules narrowed what the law would recognize as a wetland.
01:38River channels, floodplains and many seasonal water bodies were excluded from protection.
01:43Though older Narayan Sarovar Sanctuary in Gujarat offers a historical precedent.
01:47Originally notified in 1981, it was denotified and then reconstituted as a much smaller protected area to allow mining interests to operate in the excluded areas.
01:57The boundary shift reduces sanctuary from 765 km2 to 444 km2, stripping protection from mineral-rich lands.
02:05Which brings us back to the Aravallis.
02:07A mountain range hasn't moved, its ecology hasn't changed, but once again, the definition might have.
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