Kochi: On March 25, India’s environment ministry launched the Aravalli Green Wall Project. The project aims to “green” a five-kilometre buffer region around the Aravalli hill range in Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Delhi through afforestation and by restoring water bodies.It is good that the government is taking initiative to protect the Aravallis. However, the project may not have the desired impact unless, among other issues, the illegal mining widespread in the area is curbed, conservationists and activists told The Wire.Mining and other issuesOn March 25, Bhupender Yadav, India’s Union minister for environment, forest and climate change, launched the Aravalli Green Wall Project at Tikli in Haryana. A government press release says the vision of the project is to “create green corridors across the country to combat land degradation and desertification”. The project will include planting native plant species on scrubland, wasteland and in degraded forests. It will also focus on restoring water bodies such as ponds, lakes and streams. Another focus will be agroforestry and pasture development, to enhance the livelihoods of local communities, per the government.At the launch, the Union minister said that the Aravalli Green Wall Project will not only increase the green cover and biodiversity of the Aravalli but also improve the soil fertility, water availability and climate resilience of the region. It will also generate employment opportunities for local communities and help with income generation and ecosystem services, he said. The project will be part of India’s commitments under various international conventions such as the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.Addressed an event to inaugurate the Aravali Green Wall initiative in Tikli, Gurugram.Under PM Shri @narendramodi ji, through various initiatives like single-use plastic ban, water conservation efforts and natural resources protection, India is moving to revive the Aravalis. pic.twitter.com/A3FkKr9cqd— Bhupender Yadav (@byadavbjp) March 25, 2023In the first phase of the project, state forest departments will restore 75 water bodies, starting with five each in every district of the Aravallis. The project will also span degraded land in the districts of Gurgaon, Faridabad, Bhiwani, Mahendragarh and Rewari in Haryana.It is good to hear that the government is focusing on protecting the Aravallis but it also needs to address issues like rampant illegal mining that is destroying the range, Prerna Singh Bindra, conservationist and former member of the National Board for Wildlife told The Wire.According to a 2018 study, 31 hills in Alwar have been wiped out by mining, said legal environmental activist Sarvadaman Oberoi. Groundwater aquifers under the Aravallis across the range have been punctured and destroyed by mining and rivers including the Sabi originating in the Aravallis have disappeared, he said.“Making a green wall to combat desertification without tackling the threats of why the Aravallis have disappeared and are continuing to disappear will not have the desired on-ground impact,” he commented.Uncontrolled mining is ongoing, and deforestation and water shortage are the norm across the Aravalli range, Neelam Ahluwalia, co-founder of the Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement told The Wire. “If mining is allowed to flourish unabated, how effective this scheme will be is a question mark.”‘Holistic approach required’Schemes like the Green Wall Project need to be seen in the larger canvas of what is happening – including the proposed NCR draft plan 2041 which takes away protection for 70% of the Aravallis, said Ahluwalia. The government should ideally form an independent Aravalli Protection Authority comprising conservationists, ecologists, geologists, wildlife experts, environmentalists, local communities and the forest departments, she said. According to her, without a “holistic approach”, schemes like the Green Wall may not have the desired impact.There shouldn’t be any further exploitation or diversion of the Aravallis for any commercial, industrial or mining purpose, including a zoo safari, Bindra also said.The safari project in question has courted much controversy. The Haryana government proposed in October last year, to set up a jungle safari park in the Gurugram and Nuh districts. Per some reports, the park will also include a large herpetarium for reptiles and amphibians, an aviary, designated areas for big cats and herbivores and even exotic fauna, apart from nature trails, and exhibits to represent different biomes such as equatorial, tropical, coastal and desert ecosystems. Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar also said that the state government would consult the Union government to bring cheetahs to the park.Also Read: Haryana CM Knew About Forest Clearance to Great Nicobar Project 3 Weeks Before it Was GrantedThe park will be spread across around 3,858 hectares of land in the Aravallis. This, however, is land that has been set aside for protection under the Punjab Land Preservation Act, reported Hindustan Times. Conservationists had written to Khattar to drop the park project, reported the Times of India. Incidentally, the park is to be funded by the compensatory afforestation funds received for cutting down nearly a million trees in the Nicobars for a transshipment container terminal project (another project that has also attracted a lot of criticism from scientists and environmentalists). Khattar announced this even before the park project was granted clearance, The Wire reported in January this year.