Ajay Maken demanded – Ajay Maken (file photo) New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP and former Delhi minister Ajay Maken on Monday demanded that the government withdraw the new definition of Aravali with ‘local relief’ criteria – height of 100 meters from the ground – which could prove to be a disaster and threaten to turn the entire north India into a dust bowl. Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Upper House, Maken said, “The Aravalli range stands at a critical juncture in its billion-year history. Having survived the collision of continents and centuries of erosion, it now faces its most potent threat – an administrative definition.

” The Aravalis, he said, have a unique ‘secondary porosity’ within the fractured rocks. For districts like Gurgaon and Faridabad, these aquifers are often saline.

A 2018 report by the SC-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) revealed that 25% of the Aravali range in Rajasthan has been destroyed since the late 1960s. He said internal data from the Forest Survey of India (FSI) showed that of the 12,081 mapped Aravali hills in Rajasthan, only 1,048 are more than 100 meters above ‘local relief’.

“This means that 91. 3% of the Aravalli Hills in Rajasthan will lose their legal recognition and protection,” Maken said.