The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
The main question to be examined in these matters is whether the mining activity in area upto 5 kilometers from the Delhi-Haryana border on the Haryana side of the ridge and also in the Aravalli hills causes environment degradation and what directions are required to be issued. The background in …
The Supreme Court (SC) in a recent order has banned all mining activities in the entire Aravalli hills in Rajasthan and Haryana. The order follows the court's earlier directive in May, prohibiting mining within a five-kilometre (km) radius of Delhi (see: Down To Earth, Vol 11, No 12, November 15, …
New Delhi, November 15The extent of degradation in and around mines is the evidence of total failure of the state administration to enforce basic rules for ecological safeguards. Recent attempts at planting trees are cosmetic. Exposed groundwater lakes observed in mining sites only reconfirm the worst fears. If mining could …
forest, water and biodiversity management don't have powerful lobbies. Mining does. The trouble is mineral exploitation can easily destroy the natural resource base of the poor
The respondent No.7, who is admittedly a leader of national stature, a reputed Member of Parliament for years and a former Prime Minister of the country is accused of usurping about 600 acres of land in Village Bhondsi of the State of Haryana by manipulations and resort to exercise of …
It was a sight from the air that nobody could miss. The barrenness of the Aravalli hills stretching out from Delhi to Alwar is something President K R Narayanan could not help remark about, as his helicopter made its way to Hamirpura village. I also showed him the dry agricultural …
when Raghubir Singh was six years old, the portion of the Aravallis range in Gurgaon district of Haryana was lush green, tall and majestic. Wild animals inhabiting the hills kept the residents of the nearby villages at bay. The scenario has changed. And Singh, now 35, stands witness to the …
the Aravalli range, stretching from Palanpur in Gujarat to Delhi, divides Rajasthan into three distinct climatic regions. The Udaipur zone of the range is estimated to be around 300 million years old. It is, therefore, not surprising that the range is a unique amphitheatre of biological diversity. But with the …
THE Aravallis, the oldest and hoariest mountain range in India, are today some of the most barren sentinels in the country. At the foothills of this range, which extends all the way from Haryana to Rajasthan, lie villages which live in desperate poverty, lacking food and water. Aravalli Paharian Hariali …
THE PEOPLE of the Aravalli region are tired of waiting for the authorities to rescue their habitat from destruction caused by unbridled mining and deforestation. In November, about 300 villagers from Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana reached New Delhi after undertaking a padyatra to spread awareness about the issue. Rajendra Singh, …
NESTLED in the hills of the Aravallis about 12 km from Udaipur, Eklingapura shines as one of the first successful instances of participatory forest management. Eklingapura has a population of 1,400 over 200 households of various castes and 1,600 livestock. The land was once covered with dense forests of Salar, …
WITH THE run-up to the assembly elections under way in Rajasthan, one would expect senior politicians to be busy plotting campaign strategy -- and not be immersed in the problems of mining in the Aravallis. But their concern is not surprising, given the fact that mining has become one of …
• The area being mined has gone up 36.5 times in the past 20 years and as a result, forest cover in the area has declined from 237.8 sq km in 1971 to 127.7 sq km. • In 1971, the entire forest cover of 237.8 sq km was classified as …
IF SHAH Jahan's men were to return today to Makrana, from where the marble for the Taj Mahal was procured, they would have no problem recognising it. Little has changed in the small Aravalli town in Nagore district, which has become synonymous the world over with quality white marble: the …
ON AUGUST 14, 1991, the residents of Mogji Ka Kheda village near Udaipur woke up to a shocking sight: labourers digging up a part of their 17-ha community pasture. When the startled villagers, led by Godaji Gadari, confronted the labourers they learnt the workers had been employed by Udaipur mining …
THINGS could not have turned out more badly in the fight over the fate of the wastelands board. Last fortnight's cabinet notification lays to rest the uncertainty over where the new minister for wasteland will sit. The notification certainly also does another thing: It dug a grave for the entire …
BUILDERS in Delhi are in a bind. The Supreme Court order to close down stone-crushing units around the Capital has hiked structural costs by 10-15 per cent. The Aravalli notification has drastically cut down prime land they have been opening up in Gurgaon, where land prices are less than a …
HELPED along with generous grants from the World Bank and Japan to green the Aravallis, plus its own sizeable forestry budget, the Rajasthan government has embarked on an ambitious compensatory reafforestation plan. District collectors have been asked to identify areas which can be set aside to form part of a …
WHEN WITH 'big brother' presumption, the Centre decided to 'help' the states of Haryana and Rajasthan regulate their industrial development, and arrest the adverse effect of this development on the Aravallis, it stirred up a hornet's nest, with development and the states on one side and environment and the Centre …
