NEEM KA THANA: Dizzyingly deep pits produced by large-scale mining scar India’s ancient Aravalli Mountains, threatening the future of a forested area that New Delhi depends on for protection from the fiery desert winds.
Residents have long protested that the hills of the 700-kilometer (435-mile) mountain range are being torn apart by rampant mining, to feed an insatiable hunger for concrete in some of the world’s fastest-growing cities.
Late last year, India’s top court ordered a ban on new mining licenses in the region, but some fear the move comes too late.
The loss of hills is raising already dangerously high temperatures in cities, increasing the risk of desertification and worsening health problems, experts warn.
For those living in the Aravallis, which stretch from the western state of Gujarat through Rajasthan to the heart of New Delhi, the consequences are already existential.
“Mining has destroyed our region,” said Salle Kumar, a 34-year-old farmer who lives in a village between two huge mines in Rajasthan. “Our rivers are dead, our farms barren.”
‘Shakes violently’
Lung illnesses are also common, residents say.
“There is a layer of dust all day because of mining and stone crushing,” said Subhash Saini, whose brother died of what private doctors said was silicosis, a disease caused by breathing dust.
A government hospital insisted it was tuberculosis, although silicosis can also make people more susceptible to tuberculosis.
Most of the Aravallis are in Rajasthan, and a quarter of the state’s hills have been quarried, a committee constituted by the Supreme Court in 2018 found.
The mines extract gneiss and granite for the construction of the gigantic shafts that now surround the village of Chatru Ki Dhani, where fewer than 200 people live.
When AFP At the locations visited, explosions echoed repeatedly through the hot, burning air, as blasts split stone for mining.
At villager Om Prakash Verma’s house, constant activity has left cracks in the walls. Other houses simply collapsed, residents said.
“The earth shakes violently every time there is an explosion, which happens all day and all night,” said Verma, who described quarry workers beating her aunt when she joined the anti-mine protests.
‘Alarmist claims’
India’s Environment Ministry says that only 0.19% or 277 square kilometers (106 square miles) of the Aravalli landscape are open to mining.
“Contrary to alarmist claims, there is no imminent threat to the ecology of the Aravallis,” it said in a December statement.
But independent audits suggest a much broader mining footprint.
A 2020 report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, using satellite imagery and field verification, found that around 34% of licensed mines surveyed extended beyond their legal limits.
A 2025 judicial committee found 2,339 square kilometers of mines in the Aravallis part of Rajasthan alone.
The scale of illegal activity means the Supreme Court’s December decision to ban new mining licenses is too little, too late, campaigners say.
“Most of the existing mining leases are flawed and are granted without proper verification,” said veteran anti-mining activist Kailash Meena.
“In addition, there is widespread illegal mining, as audit after audit has confirmed.”
‘Physical barrier’
The degradation of the Aravallis will affect the entire north of India, experts say.
The mountain range is a “physical barrier to dust storms and heat waves” from the western Thar Desert, said ecologist CR Babu.
The desert is already advancing eastward, threatening the floodplains of the Ganges, he warned.
“If we do not protect the Aravalli, the northern Gangetic plains, which constitute a food basket for the rest of the country, would become a desert,” he said.
Delhi, where temperatures in May reached 45C for several consecutive days, is particularly at risk of becoming “a dust bowl with extreme heat load”, he said.
Activists like Meena, whose brother died of lung disease two decades ago, say they have repeatedly warned of these consequences.
“For years we have called for a crackdown on mining,” he said. “But now that urban dwellers realize their cities are getting warmer, everyone wants to save the Aravallis.”
Parts of the hills, which reach a height of 1,722 meters (5,813 feet), are still home to dwindling populations of leopards, sloth bears, hyenas and antelopes.
They offer a glimpse of what has been lost, with hardy shrubs turning the hills dark green.
In the village of Bhagwanpura, Rajasthan, Nikita Meena, 18, and her fellow residents have camped on a hilltop since January to prevent miners from entering one of the last pristine stretches.
“No matter what happens, we will not let the miners come here,” he said. “The only thing mining brings is destruction.”
