Bengaluru: The public hearing for the ‘rationalising’ of the boundaries of Rajasthan’s Sariska Tiger Reserve, conducted at the district collectorate at Alwar on Wednesday (March 18), witnessed a heated debate as authorities refused to respond to queries about whether redrawing the boundaries of the reserve will reopen old mines in the area. Several members of the public including Rajasthan’s Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Tika Ram Jully and environmental groups raised objections during the hearing.In June last year, across a span of just a few days, the Rajasthan State Wildlife Board, the National Tiger Conservation Authority and the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) had approved the Rajasthan government’s proposal to increase the Critical Tiger Habitat (CTH) of the Sariska Tiger Reserve from 881 square kilometres to 924 sq km. However, environmentalists and lawyers had pointed out that this increase in CTH area is misleading because part of the existing CTH, which is in the southern part of the Tiger Reserve, will be denotified altogether and the new, larger CTH will now be notified in the northern part of the reserve. Villages that are part of the existing CTH will no longer come under the purview of certain laws, and at least 50 old mines in this area could be reopened for operations, activists had alleged. The Supreme Court had also rapped the NTCA ANS and NBWL and mandated that a public hearing be conducted before taking the decision to redraw the boundaries of the Tiger Reserve.Numerous objectionsSeveral members of the public raised objections about the redrawing of the boundaries of Sariska Tiger Reserve at the public hearing conducted by the state government on March 18.Rajasthan’s LoP, Jully, who was present at the public hearing asked authorities for the number of mines that would be able to reopen if the redrawing of boundaries occurred. His question was met with silence from authorities, and a statement that objections would be noted and sent to the government.In a video of the public hearing accessed by The Wire, a government official can be heard saying that estimating the number of mines (that will be reopened if the boundaries are redrawn) comes under the jurisdiction of the Department of Mines in the state.In a public hearing, it is mandatory for stakeholders including government departments to give information regarding the proposed project/ changes, and the impacts the new move will have on people and the environment.A citizens group, People For Aravallis, raised objections to the proposal on the grounds that the Forest Rights Act has not been implemented, as several villages in the vicinity would be affected by the redrawing of the boundaries. The state’s notification about the redrawing does not disclose whether the process of determination, recognition and settlement of individual and community forest rights under Sections 3 and 6 of the FRA has been completed for the affected villages, PFA founder member Neelam Ahluwalia said in a statement on March 19. “There is no disclosure of any free, prior and informed consent of the Gram Sabhas concerned, which is a statutory prerequisite before notification of CTH affecting community and livelihood rights,” she said.“This is a conspiracy”“They have already made up their minds that the mines in the area have to be reopened,” said Jully, while speaking to the media after the hearing. He added that the intention is to bring the lands of the poor under the new CTH being proposed. There is nothing else to it and the government is misleading people about this rationalisation of boundaries, Jully said. Pointing to a printed map of the tiger reserve in his hands, he reiterated the same thing he said at the public hearing: that there was a “difference of day and night” in the existing and new CTH boundaries. An image of Tika Ram Jully speaking to mediapersons. Photo: X/Tika Ram Jully.“This is a mili bhagat [conspiracy],” Jully remarked. “When I asked why the CTH was being moved from one side of the reserve to another, they had no answers. We would understand if they gave some reason such as the inability of tigers to breed. But they have no reasons. No other critical tiger habitat area of a tiger reserve has been changed this way,” Jully said. सरिस्का टाइगर रिजर्व के दायरे को घटाने को लेकर CTH के मुद्दे पर आज अलवर सचिवालय में ग्रामीणों एवं जिला कलेक्टर के साथ बैठक की।भाजपा सरकार की मंशा स्पष्ट नहीं है। ये लोग माइंस खोलने के उद्देश्य से गरीबों और किसानों की जमीन को सीटीएच में शामिल करना चाहते हैं l pic.twitter.com/DXPlkF3w4B— Tika Ram Jully (@TikaRamJullyINC) March 18, 2026“This is a big scam, and an inquiry has to be made into this,” he added. “The CTH should not be changed, it is being done now only to benefit mine operators.”On one side are rich, powerful mine owners and on the other, poor villagers and farmers who will lose their lands in the process, he said.Ministry defended it in parliamentThe Union environment ministry has defended the proposal to redraw the boundaries of the reserve — as recently as in February this year. In a response in parliament on February 9, minister of state for environment, Kirti Vardhan Singh had claimed that the proposal to ‘rationalise’ the boundaries of the tiger reserve was being undertaken by “relevant authorities” and “as per the provisions of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972”.He also said that it was not possible to estimate the number of mines that would become operational if the rationalisation were to be finalised:“The rationalised boundaries of the CTH and Sariska Tiger Reserve and its corresponding ESZ boundary, have not yet been finalized and, therefore, [the] estimated number of additional mines likely to become operational in the event of such reclassification cannot be ascertained at present,” he had claimed. “Further, as per the information provided by the State government, mining within one kilometer of boundary [sic] of the existing CTH has been prohibited. As per the information received from the State government, one Dolomite mine in the surrounding area of existing CTH of Sariska Tiger Reserve is operational.”Several red flagsThe proposal to redraw the reserve’s boundaries has drawn flak for numerous reasons. One of course is the clear inability of the government to come on record about the number of mines that will reopen for operations if the rationalisation were to occur.Another is the fact that redrawing the reserve’s boundaries will make no difference for tigers, as many individuals already use the existing CTH. A third is the fact that the move will decrease buffer zone area for the tiger reserve, from 245 sq km to 203 sq km. A fourth is that two members of the Rajasthan State Wildlife Board had expressed dissent about the “rationalisation” of the reserve’s boundaries which denotified 23 sites in the CTH. However, this was not recorded in the board’s minutes of the meeting, and nor was this acknowledged by the NBWL.Yet another is the apparent hurry in which the permissions for the rationalisation were given by several state and central departments and bodies. The Rajasthan State Wildlife Board approved the proposal on June 23. The National Tiger Conservation Authority approved it on June 25. The standing committee of the NBWL approved the proposal on June 26. The Supreme Court too had noted this haste, as The Wire reported, while it heard a petition in this matter that was filed by activists in September last year. The court had asked state and government departments to take a relook at the proposal and had noted that proper public consultation must be done according to procedure and law.