New Delhi: The Aravallis are the country’s natural heritage and have great ecological value, the Congress on Tuesday said, as it wondered why the Modi government was “hell-bent” on redefining the mountain range and for whose benefit.
In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the recent “clarifications” on the ancient mountain range given by the Environment and Forest minister raise more questions.
“Aravallis are part of our natural heritage and have great ecological value. They need substantial restoration and meaningful protection. Why is the Modi government hellbent on redefining them? To what end? For whose benefit?
“And why are the recommendations of a professional organisation like the Forest Survey of India being deliberately ignored and set aside?” he asked.
Ramesh also said, “The very recent ‘clarifications’ given by the Union Minister of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change on the Aravallis issue raise even more questions and doubts.”
The Congress leader, who has been the former Environment minister, said, the minister says that only 0.19 per cent of the 1.44 lakh sq kms of the Aravallis is presently under mining leases, and this already amounts to 68,000 acres, a vast swath.
“However the 1.44 lakh sq kms figure is deceptive - it spans the entire landmass of the 34 Aravalli districts identified by the Ministry in four states. This is the wrong denominator, since the denominator that should actually be used is the area within these districts, which is actually under the Aravallis.
“If the area under the Aravallis is used as a base, then 0.19 per cent will turn out to be a very huge under-estimate,” he said. Ramesh claimed that in 15 of the 34 districts for which data is verifiable, the area under the Aravallis is 33 per cent of the entire landmass.
There is no clarity whatsoever about how much of these Aravalli areas will be excluded under the new definition and made available for mining and other developments, he said.