Overview
- The Supreme Court, in a May 25, 2026 order, set up a five‑member High‑Powered Committee (HPC) to re‑examine how the Aravalli Hills and Ranges should be defined and has kept a nationwide stay on mining in the Aravalli region until the panel reports.
- The HPC is chaired ex‑officio by Kanchan Devi, director general of ICFRE, and includes former heads of the Forest Survey of India and the Geological Survey of India, a former MoEFCC joint secretary, and a former Delhi University botanist, with two academic invitees available to assist.
- The committee’s remit explicitly includes testing the scientific validity of the 100‑metre elevation threshold and the 500‑metre gap rule, checking claims that those criteria exclude thousands of lower‑elevation formations, and assessing whether regulated mining in newly demarcated gaps would cause ecological harm.
- The court has ordered the HPC to issue a public notice inviting submissions from states, environmental groups, mining lease holders, villagers and others, and to submit a comprehensive report by August 31, 2026 ahead of a September 7, 2026 hearing.
- Environmental petitioners have questioned the panel’s independence because the chair heads an institute under the environment ministry, and the panel’s conclusions could directly affect groundwater recharge, biodiversity, local livelihoods and tens of mining leases across Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi‑NCR and Gujarat.