New research by the Central University of Rajasthan has highlighted the decay of Delhi’s lungs, the Aravallis. Hundreds of hills have disappeared in two decades, allowing sandstorms from the Thar Desert to reach Delhi-NCR. In its investigative documentary Killing the Aravallis, News9 Plus had exposed the biggest two reasons for the flattening of the hills—rampant illegal mining and urbanisation.
Retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Madan Lokur, who was behind the 2018 order prohibiting mining in the Aravallis, says until the government takes strict action the Aravalli hills will continue to be razed to the ground.
You passed an order in 2018 banning mining in the Aravallis, based on a report that several hillocks had disappeared in the Aravallis. What led to that judgment?
There is something called the Central Empowered Committee (CEC), which has been nominated by the Supreme Court to file reports in front of its green bench. They had filed a report based on a survey by the Forest Survey of India with regard to the Aravallis. The report said that there was widespread destruction caused by illegal mining and it was impacting the environment in Delhi. One of the interesting things was that over 30 of the 128 hillocks had disappeared due to illegal mining, which is shocking. In their response, the state of Rajasthan didn’t deny that these hillocks had disappeared. They also didn’t deny that around 115 hectares of land was being mined in the Aravallis. The disappearance of the hillocks quite surprised us and we remarked at that time that it’s something like Hanuman had flown away with the hills. It was very disconcerting and we asked the Chief Secretary to file an affidavit to ensure that illegal mining ceases in that area. I don’t know whether the affidavit was filed or not as I retired from the Supreme Court a couple of months later.
The 2002 order by Supreme Court had also banned mining or construction in the area as the Aravallis serve as the lungs for Delhi NCR, but it wasn’t followed. Why do you think there was no real impact of the order?
The problem of the denudation of the Aravallis started in the 1980s. The idea was to make colonies for residential purposes. It has been going on for the last 40 years. There has been illegal construction, denudation, and illegal mining which are still going on. The SC or National Green Tribunal (NGT) can pass orders but unless there is a will to execute these orders and ensure that the Aravallis are protected, these things will go on. The SC can’t go to the Aravallis and find out what’s happening there. They can only get reports from the CEC, for example. It’s the government’s duty to ensure that illegal mining isn’t happening. If they fail, then the orders of SC or NGT are bound to be flouted. We had recently seen incidents where senior police officers were run over because they wanted to stop illegal mining. If they (the mining mafia) can run over police officers, they can flout the orders of the court with impunity. Unless the government realises, the executive realises what they are permitting shouldn’t be permitted, we will continue to face this problem.
If you talk about my 2018 order, the Rajasthan government said they are getting a royalty of Rs 5000 crore from the mining activities, which is a lot of money. It’s good that they are getting royalty, but at what cost? Delhi is going to suffer, lakhs of people are going to suffer due to desertification. When the hills are knocked out, pollution will rise further, a host of problems will arise. The Rs 5000 crore they get is from legal mining, but nobody knows how much they are losing because of illegal mining. This issue has to be looked at comprehensively. What are the disadvantages being caused to other people in the vicinity, especially in Delhi and Rajasthan? The whole issue has to be studied. Controlled or supervised mining is possible and that should be looked into.
What’s the solution for sourcing the materials for the construction of buildings?
You are right that the material is required for the development of housing and other things, but it doesn’t mean that one will denude the Aravallis. These people are unscrupulous. Let me cite an incident from a particular area in Rajasthan. Marble had been mined from under the railway track and the Railways had to build a separate track. This was brought to our notice. Can they say that one can damage railway tracks because they need marble for construction? These are ongoing issues. They demand attention, otherwise there would be trouble.