Discuss the ecological significance of the Aravalli Range and examine why a uniform legal definition of its boundaries has proved contentious.

Stretching from Delhi to Gujarat across four States, the Aravallis are among the world's oldest fold mountain systems and India's principal natural barrier against westward desert expansion. Yet the Supreme Court's ongoing effort to fix a uniform definition of "Aravalli hills and range" shows that ecological value alone has not settled the question of legal boundaries.

Ecological significance

• Barrier against desertification: the range checks the eastward march of the Thar and associated dust movement into the Indo-Gangetic plains; ISRO's Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas records extensive degradation in Rajasthan and Gujarat [1].
• Water security: its rocky, fractured terrain is a critical groundwater recharge zone for the water-stressed NCR and semi-arid Rajasthan [2].
• Biodiversity and carbon: habitat and corridor for leopard and tiger populations linking protected areas; the Aravalli Green Wall Project (2023) aims at a 5 km-wide green buffer across Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Delhi [3].

Why a uniform definition is contested

• Technical ambiguity: criteria such as treating "hills" only as areas within 500 metres between two or more hills would shrink the protected zone considerably [4].
• Economic stakes: a narrower boundary directly determines where mining leases, stone-crushing and real estate can operate — hence resistance to expansive definitions [2].
• Federal divergence: Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat and Delhi classify the same landscape differently in revenue, forest and land-preservation records, complicating one common standard [2].
• Livelihood and equity: the Court has directed that tribal communities in Rajasthan and Gujarat be heard before recommendations are finalised [5].
• Institutional delay: the Supreme Court refused the High-Powered Committee's six-month extension, fixing 30 November 2026 as the final deadline [5].

Definitional clarity is thus the precondition, not a technicality, for Aravalli conservation. A scientifically delineated boundary, backed by ICFRE's mapping of no-mining zones and the freeze on new leases [2], can reconcile mineral needs with ecological security and advance India's land degradation neutrality commitments.