In December 2025, to cope with the bitter cold in Haryana’s Nuh disrict, a group of young men tried to light a bonfire outside an Aadhaar service centre in Jimrawat village. Nuh is part of the Mewat region, which is characterised by the rugged Aravalli hills, agrarian plains, and rural landscapes.
It was a windy day. Trucks carrying stones hurtled by every five minutes, kicking up clouds of dust. The men were unable to light the fire. One of them yelled at a driver to slow down; another immediately shushed him.
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“They belong to the mining mafia who are busy cutting the Aravallis day and night,” said Kasim Khan, a septuagenarian.
The Aravallis stretch about 650 kilometres across Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Gujarat. In 2009, the Supreme Court had ordered a blanket ban on mining and quarrying in the Aravalli hills of Haryana’s Faridabad, Gurugram, and Nuh (Mewat) districts. “Despite the ban, these trucks fearlessly make the rounds here,” Khan said.
Khan remembered the time when the Aravallis were surrounded by green forests, housing diverse fauna. He said he has witnessed how human greed has exploited the hills.
This 2-billion-year-old geological formation is endowed with sandstone, limestone, marble, granite, and minerals such as lead, zinc, copper, gold, and tungsten. Mining and quarrying in these hills is not new. Since the 1990s, the Union government has laid down restrictions on these practices on several occasions.
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The same issue made it to the headlines once again after the Supreme Court of India, on November 20, 2025, upheld a definition of an expert panel constituted by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change. The panel said that an Aravalli hill had to rise at least 100 metres above local relief, while a range comprised hills, slopes, and hillocks that are within 500 metres of each other.
Environmentalists criticised the order and expressed worry. They alleged that the lower ranges would no longer have the environmental protection they currently enjoy. They said that the new rule would leave the doors open for reckless exploitation of the hills, which regulate the climate of the region; support the recharging of groundwater; and serve as the “lungs” for the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) by preventing sand and hot winds from the Thar Desert from spreading eastward. After widespread protests, the Supreme Court stayed its November order on December 29.
Life and livelihood in the foothills
Mohd. Habib, 63, from Ghaghas village in Nuh, is passionate about writing. “It Dilli ut Agra…Nuh, Jaipur aur Bairat…kalo pahad suhavano jaa ke saath base Mewat (It’s Delhi, then Agra…Nuh, Jaipur, and Bairat…Mewat lies along the foothills of the dark mountains),” he said, reciting the first poem he had penned about the Aravallis, his home and his source of living.
Rajuddin Meo, chairperson of the Mewat Right to Information (RTI) Manch, a citizen group that uses the RTI Act, 2005, to promote transparency in governance, said that most people in Nuh are either employed in agriculture or cattle farming. Niti Aayog has classified Nuh as one of the most backward districts of India.
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“Mining has lowered the water level in the area and climate change has adversely impacted rains. Due to this, agricultural produce has reduced considerably in the region,” he said.
A protest at Kotputli in Rajasthan. The poster reads, “The Aravallis are our heritage and our breath.”
| Photo Credit:
R.V. Moorthy
Meo, who is part of one of the most marginalised groups in the area, added that rampant quarrying has left the hills deserted. He said no plant grows on it. This deprives animals of their grazing space and burdens the pockets of their masters. “If the Aravallis are not saved, over 100 villages in Mewat will have nothing to do for their survival,” said Meo, who has written a letter to the Prime Minister, the President, and the Home Minister, to put a blanket ban on mining in the Aravallis.
Following the Supreme Court order of 2009, Mufisa, a resident of Nuh who is a mother of five, said her husband began working at an illegal mining unit, a practice that continues due to strong local lobbies and administrative apathy. He died during the COVID-19 pandemic.
With no farming land, Mufisa has revamped the backyard of her house, to make coal out of wood. She places wood inside 10-12 feet tall, round structures covered with mud. The wood is burnt under controlled temperatures until it turns into coal which is sold at ₹25-20 to hotels on the Haryana-Rajasthan highway. In December, the Delhi government banned the use of coal and wood in tandoors, to curb pollution.
“We are uneducated people,” Mufisa said. “If there are no animals and no farming, what can we do to survive?”
Nuh, a region dominated by Meo Muslims, has seen communal clashes recently. The people of this area are afraid of sending their men to work in neighbouring NCR and Western Uttar Pradesh or even Rajasthan.
“No one can ensure the security of our children in the current environment. We have to keep them with us,” said Shamima. Her son works as a daily wager and another takes animals to graze in the hills.
Arshad, from Baniyabaas Chaupra, is upset with the recent hue and cry over mining in the Aravallis. For years, he has been employed in a job that requires him to cut through the hills. Now, the forest department administration and the police remain on strict vigil after the matter became sub judice in the Supreme Court.
“I feel that the government should not give big tenders for mining in the Aravallis,” Arshad said. “However, poor people like me should be allowed to cut stone. I sell one tractor of stones a day and earn merely ₹400-500. This is after the tractor rent, diesel charge, and labour charge are deducted. Most of my stone is either used by my own villagers or goes to the neighbourhood. It is our hill, why can’t we use it.”
Arshad added, “If we are not be allowed to cut the hills, our children will either become thieves or commit petty crime to earn their living.”
Rajiv Saini, from Sammanwala in Naugaon, a cluster of nine villages which is emerging as a farmhouse hub due to its proximity to Delhi and Gurugram, disagreed. “The men of my village always did just one job and that was to break the Aravalli hills and sell stone. That risky job has left many dead, while several others have suffered permanent disabilities. All this was for a daily income of just ₹400-500. When we created awareness to stop mining in the hill, young men started studying. Many of them have recently got government jobs,” he said.
Covered in dust
The residents of Ajitpura Kalan and Kujota village in Kotputli district of Rajasthan had been sitting on an indefinite strike to save the Aravallis. Their protest had lasted 145 days.
Ajitpura Kalan is home to one of the biggest cement manufacturing companies in Rajasthan. Though spread over several acres, the factory appears dwarfed by the deep pits carved into hills.
“In some places, they have dug so deep that the pits are now filled with groundwater. They use heavy motors to empty the pits and let out the water in our fields, flooding them and rendering them useless. Most pits are of the height of 4-5 storey buildings. People are afraid to even go near these pits,” said Netram Takhar, head of Ajitpura Kalan village.
Takhar alleged that the company blasts the hills, which leaves the entire area, with over 500 homes, shaken. At many places, he said the company asks people to vacate their homes before the blasting, which mostly occurs at night. “The houses which are close to the mining area have developed cracks. But if we complain to the company officials or administrative officials, they slap cases on us for ‘disturbing law and order’,” he said.
Anushka Kumari, a student of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya in Pawana Ahir village of Kotputli, said students remain awake through the night fearing that the school might collapse due to the continuous blasts. Her school was part of the government’s initiative to provide free residential education, boarding, and lodging for adolescent girls from disadvantaged communities in rural and educationally backward areas.
In Alwar’s Lalawandi village, the trees, which look snow clad but are actually covered in dust, bear testimony to the ordeal of the people. Tejwan Kumar, whose house is next to the village temple, said half the villagers were either suffering from respiratory diseases or skin allergies.
Rajasthan produces 70% of the country’s sandstone. It has a high burden of silicosis cases, particularly in mining areas. In the State, more than 1,000 mining leases have been given in the Aravallis, according to government data. Environmentalists say if the new definition of the hills, as initially approved by the Court, is allowed to stay, only 1,048 Aravalli hills out of a total 12,081 in Rajasthan would meet the 100-metre elevation criteria, leaving the entire range exposed to miners.
“Many people have left their homes as there is no solution to our problems. Those who decided to stay only spend their days at doctors’ clinics. No one here dares wear white as clothes turn grey from the dust within minutes,” said Panni Lal from Lalawandi. He claimed that his phone sometimes shows an AQI of 800, nearly double that of the AQI in Delhi.
Sandhya, whose porch cracked after a recent blast, said that administrative officials blamed her for it, alleging that her home was made up of poor construction material. “Poor people’s houses are built like this. If you destroy that as well, where will we go,” she asked.
The villagers also said that mining units never help them in any way. They argued that the units simply exploit natural endowments, which belong to the people living around them.
“They never hire villagers to work in the factories of these mining units. They think locals will form unions and stop them from over-exploiting their resources,” said Vineet.
Fighting for rights
On December 29, due to a public outcry, the Court paused its order. It proposed the constitution of a high-powered committee to analyse whether “sustainable mining” or “regulated mining” within the newly demarcated Aravallis, notwithstanding regulatory oversight, would result in any adverse ecological consequences.
After its decision, members of the Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyan, a citizen-driven campaign aimed to protect the range, issued a statement. They said that whatever is left of the Aravallis must be declared an ecologically sensitive region and that no destructive activities should be allowed any more.
“India’s oldest mountain range does not need ‘sustainable mining’ plans. It needs to be protected and conserved. No mining is sustainable. Plus, all the definitions which seek to limit the Aravallis need to be scrapped,” said Neelam Ahluwalia, an environmentalist who is part of the people’s movement to save the Aravallis.
The Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyan also demanded that the Supreme Court direct an independent, cumulative social and environmental impact study of the entire Aravalli range across four States to ascertain the damage caused by mining, real estate, encroachments, and waste dumping, and to evaluate its role as a critical water recharge zone, climate regulator, pollution sink, and wildlife habitat. They said that the study should also assess the extent of damage inflicted on the people’s health and livelihoods across the range.
On December 30, the Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyan continued with its protests to save the hills. At Ambedkar ground in Kotputli, women held up placards demanding that the Aravallis be declared as Rashtriya Dharohar (a national asset). Some of them held the death certificates of their loved ones, who had succumbed to silicosis or accidents while mining. The People’s Union for Civil Liberties and Rajendra Singh, known as the ‘water man of India’, also attended the protest.
“You all have seen how the Supreme Court stayed the Delhi High Court order granting bail to Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the Unnao rape case. The woman had protested for her rights. When all of you protest for your rights, the Court will meet our demands to save the hills,” said Mahesh Yadav, a retired veterinary doctor, affiliated with the Congress, the Opposition party in Rajasthan.
Preserving resources
Kailash Meena, 60, an environmentalist who led the protest in Kotputli, said India needs to learn how to protect its natural resources. “Only countries that have preserved their natural resources and found alternative construction methods, which are now considered synonymous with development, have truly become developed. In India, we are exploiting all our natural resources just for the pleasure of the 5-7% of rich people, while the rest of the country is struggling to survive,” said Meena.
In his three-decades-long fight to save the environment, Meena said he has never felt so restless.
“Mai chahta hu Dillika jitna dum ghute…tabhi Dilli ko samajh aayega humara dard (I think only if Delhi gasps for breath will they understand our condition),” he said.
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