New Delhi: Citizens including environmentalists under the banner of the ‘Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyan’ – a collective formed to highlight importance of the Aravallis and its conservation – announced on Thursday (January 22), that they will undertake a 700-kilometre march along the Aravallis traversing four states to highlight the threats to the hill range and the local communities who live in the region.The Aravalli hill range – which runs across the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi – has been in the limelight recently, with citizens raising concerns that large tracts of areas across the range would be opened up to mining if a new definition of the Aravallis was implemented. The Supreme Court had accepted this controversial new definition in an order on November 20, but later stayed this order following widespread protests, particularly in Rajasthan. ‘Aravalli Protection March’ launchedCalled the ‘Aravalli Sanrakshan Yatra’ or the ‘Aravalli Protection March’, the walk – which will witness the participation of environmentalists, conservationists, social activists, lawyers and others – will begin in the Aravalli district in Gujarat on January 24. According to the members of the Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyan who called a press conference in New Delhi to announce this, the walk will traverse through three districts in Gujarat, 27 districts in Rajasthan, seven districts in Haryana and finally enter Delhi. The march will cover 700 kilometres and will take more than 40 days to complete, the members added. It will engage with rural communities dependent on the Aravallis for sustenance and livelihoods in every district and “showcase the beauty and destruction of North West India’s lifeline for clean air and water”, said Neelam Ahluwalia, a member of the Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyaan, in a statement on Thursday.“The Aravallis have been bleeding for the last few decades as a result of deforestation, licensed and illegal mining, real estate development with hill after hill being razed to the ground and waste dumping poisoning our aquifers. Aravallis require strict protection, not senseless definitions to exclude majority of the areas from legal protection and so called ‘sustainable mining plans’,” she added.‘Clarifications necessary’“Through the ‘Aravalli Sanrakshan Yatra’, we want to highlight that there is nothing sustainable about mining which is an extractive operation causing negative social and environmental impacts,” said Kailash Mina, an environmental activist from the Sikar district in Rajasthan. “So called ‘licensed and regulated mining’ across the Aravalli range flouts all norms and has caused huge destruction. Both licensed and illegal mining in the Aravalli belt over the last 40 years has already razed many hills across the range to the ground and along with it several cattle grazing areas,” he said in a statement.Water conservationist Rajendra Singh said that it must be ensured that the land sought to be excluded for mining does not form part of any watershed or catchment systems, wetlands, ecological habitats of indigenous or seasonally migrating wildlife, ecological or habitat connectivity, forested or regenerable vegetative systems, geomorphological formations relevant to erosion, recharge, or stability, climatic, wind, or dust-modulating structures. “Unless the absence of such roles is clearly demonstrated, environmental protection cannot be diluted by definition classifications, or assertions of so called ‘sustainable or regulated mining’…At a time, when we are seeing courts in several countries such as Ecuador, Colombia, New Zealand, Bangladesh, having issued landmark decisions and recognised through legislation that nature and specific ecosystems have legal rights and personhood thereby allowing them to be protected; we expect India’s Hon’ble Supreme Court to recognise the rights of the Aravallis as India’s oldest mountain ecosystem. Also, the voices of the people impacted by the destruction of the Aravalli range must be at the forefront to conserve what is left of the range.”He added another demand of the Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyaan is that the Aravalli range be declared as a ‘Critical Ecological Zone’ based on its significance for the eco-system services the range provides for millions of people living in North West India and being an important repository of biodiversity. ‘Will not let our ‘living god’ be destroyed’“Through the ‘Aravalli Sanrakshan Yatra’, we want to highlight how the lifestyle of the adivasi people is tightly woven to the mountains and its forests,” said Kusum Rawat, Youth Leader of the Adivasi Ekta Parishad. Rawat, who belongs to the Bhil tribal community who live in the Aravalli ranges of southern Rajasthan and Gujarat, said that numerous tribal communities like hers live in the lap of the Aravallis and rely on the forest for food, fuel, medicinal herbs and raw materials like bamboo and tendu leaves, which are collected and sold. “Hill slopes provide grazing land for the goats and sheep, while rain-fed terraces allow cultivation of millets and pulses. Seasonal streams and water bodies supply drinking water and support small-scale fishing. The adivasi cultural identity, livelihood and sustenance depend directly on the health of the Aravalli hills, forests and its natural resources,” she said in a statement. LWe get life from the Aravalli mountains and forests and we worship them as living Gods. Destroying nature to do destructive activities like mining and making buildings and resorts is not ‘progress’. We will not let our mountains, rivers, forests – our living Gods – be destroyed.” Members raise concerns about SC hearing Members of the Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyan also raised concerns about the latest hearing by the Supreme Court regarding the issue of a new definition for the Aravallis conducted on January 21. While the Court said that its stay on the acceptance of the new definition for the Aravallis – that only hills above 100 meters above the local terrain would qualify as the Aravallis, per a recommendation made by the union environment ministry – would continue, it also said that no more petitions regarding the issue would be entertained further as this “distracts” from the issue at hand. However, Ahluwalia called this stand by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) “disappointing”. She said that the Court only wanted to listen only to the Amicus Curiae appointed by the court, and lawyer Kapil Sibal who represented a Member of Parliament from Bihar about the issue of the new definition for the Aravallis. “Why have the intervention applications in the Supreme Court suo motu matter submitted by people impacted by the Aravalli destruction and conservationists working in the Aravalli region not been formally accepted by the Bench,” she asked.“What is the logic in accepting only one intervention application in the ongoing suo motu matter? Our demands are that the Supreme Court recalls its 20th November 2025 judgement completely and scraps the regressive new definition of the Aravallis given by a Committee spearheaded by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.”Other than experts, the new ‘High Powered Committee’ that the Court had appointed should include spokespersons of communities impacted by mining and must direct that an independent and cumulative social and environmental impact study of the entire Aravalli range across all four states is carried out to ascertain the damage already done to the hills, forest, rivers, groundwater, agriculture and associated activities by mining, real estate, encroachments, waste dumping and burning, Ahluwalia added. “Damage done to people’s health and livelihoods in all the Aravalli districts must be part of this assessment. Liability should be fixed for the same. Like the Western ghats, the Aravalli ecosystem needs to be declared as an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA),” she said.