Aravalli Explained: Why the Supreme Court’s 100m Rule Is Being Questioned

India Today

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00:00YouTube channel has made a confusion that 100 meters will be the top 100 meters.

00:05It's not like that.

00:06The base structure is the base of 100 meters.

00:10This definition of 100 meter threshold,

00:12these definitions were actually rejected by the same Supreme Court in the past.

00:16Why are people so outraged about the 100 meter definition of the Arabulis?

00:23We spoke to environmentalists.

00:24Supreme Court pulled up Rajasthan government for disappearance of 31 hills.

00:29They have such a bad track record.

00:31Former bureaucrat.

00:32The mining lobby and the reality lobby is so powerful

00:36that they would continue the definitional issue till a definition that suits them comes.

00:42And a journalist who has covered the Arabulis for over two decades

00:45to understand the issue behind this outrage.

00:47We have come to show you today that the Arabulis is being destroyed by the Arabulis.

00:58Mining in the Arabulis isn't something that began this decade or the one before it,

01:02but has a long history.

01:03The Arabulis is being destroyed by the Arabulis.

01:07A Supreme Court appointed panel in 2018 reported that 25% of the Arabulis in Rajasthan have been

01:13lost to illegal mining since 1967-68.

01:20I don't think any government has been able to check illegal mining.

01:25These lobbies are very very strong.

01:27The first intervention of the Supreme Court in defining the Arabulis was seen in the

01:30M.C. Mehta case in 2002 where the court directed that all mining activities in the Arabulis be halted.

01:36However, the absolute ban lasted only a few months in Rajasthan.

01:52The Richard Murphy Landform Classification, proposed by environmental expert Richard Murphy,

02:13defined hills as landforms rising above a meter limit above local relief.

02:17The Rajasthan government relied on this to argue that only areas but clear hill characteristics

02:22of the Arabulis required protection, allowing mining exemptions in some terrains.

02:26You know, Ashok Erloth played a very very important role.

02:30Right now, of course, he's opposing it.

02:31But in terms of really pushing for this new definition,

02:35when Congress government was in power in Rajasthan,

02:39they didn't really oppose this.

02:40In fact, they actually supported this.

02:41But then came the problem.

02:43This is a problem.

02:44To support this for the reform, the modern warfare of this Nerifurite

02:46requires the mining and the other forces of the M.C.

02:47To address the altae of thoseules in the Arabulis,

02:48the M.C.

02:48for the Alvarulis itself is the most reds in the organization.

02:50This is a about-concantial warfare.

02:51The M.C.

02:52The Alvarulis'

03:10I have been in the field in the Aravali region for almost 30 years now.

03:24So I have seen a lot of times, I have seen officers being charged, I have seen officers

03:30nearly being arrested and all.

03:32The lobby, the mining lobby and the reality lobby is so powerful that they would continue

03:39the definitional issue till a definition that suits them comes.

03:45Through its November order, the Supreme Court extended the 100-metre height criterion

03:49to all four Aravali states, beyond Rajasthan, where it was already in force.

03:53Activists caution that improper implementation of this definition

03:56could pose grave risk to the Aravalis.

03:59Richard Burfei has given the formula, that it doesn't go from the bottom of the contour.

04:05However, the Rajasthan government has begun to make a lot of damage from the ground.

04:11And the altimeter has given the list from the altimeter.

04:17The altimeter has a strong influence, which doesn't make it right from the ground.

04:23In Ramgad and Alwar have given the list from the altimeter.

04:27The Supreme Court pulled up the Rajasthan government for the disappearance of 31 hills.

04:33Yeah?

04:34I mean, what else do they have to defend?

04:37They have such a bad track record.

04:39How can they defend anything?

04:41According to the Union Environment Minister,

04:43there was an absence of a uniform definition of the Aravalis across the four states

04:47that enabled its exploitation, making the Supreme Court definition a necessity.

04:51But one of the biggest criticisms of the new 100 meter definition of the Aravalis,

05:05according to people familiar with the matter,

05:07is that it adopts a definition the court itself had rejected earlier.

05:10In 2010, the Supreme Court itself did not agree to the 100 meter criteria submitted by the Rajasthan government.

05:18Online, the 100 meter definition triggered widespread skepticism,

05:22with fears that if measured from the surface,

05:24nearly 90% of the Aravali range would fall outside the protected category.

05:28Union Minister Yadav issued a clarification stating that the 100 meter height

05:32would not be measured from the point of origin.

05:34But experts believe, irrespective of the clarification about the measuring,

05:38the 100 meter definition is ambiguous and poses huge risks to the Aravalis.

05:42The Honourable Environment Minister, after so much backlash that was there,

05:47has come and tried to clarify that we are not talking about 100 meters from the ground level.

05:51Reality is that that paper actually talks about the ground level,

05:54but right now he is saying that that 100 meters will actually be calculated from under the ground.

05:59Experts also believe that the recent Supreme Court definition of the Aravalis

06:02was not needed in the first place.

06:04So there is a 1992 Aravali notification where every khasra,

06:09every revenue record has been put together as Aravali.

06:13So already it is mapped and defined.

06:16Then what was the need to further define it?

06:18It's a geological structure which has been present before the advent of man.

06:22Have we defined any geological structure in India for mining purposes?

06:26Are we going to define the Himalayas, the Ganga, the Yauna tomorrow?

06:30If the Shivaliks are below a certain height, are they not going to be Shivaliks?

06:35So this is just obfuscation and a smokescreen to allow, to remove the policy framework for protection of the Aravalis.

06:44You know, as I said, Supreme Court was for the Aravalis.

06:47Unfortunately, this last stance that the bench has taken, there is no representation from Aravalis.

06:54There was nobody who could stand there and say that what happens to the lower hills?

06:59What happens to their future?

07:01What happens to the drainage channels that come from the Aravalis?

07:07What happens to the groundwater recharge?

07:09I don't think there was enough representation in the courts.

07:13And therefore, this bench took very, very harsh understanding of the Aravalis.

07:19Centre has directed states to impose a complete ban on new mining leases across the Aravali range.

07:24But the definition has left critics sceptical.

07:26What do you think?

07:27Let us know in the comments below.

07:28No.

07:29No.

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