BEYOND CARTOGRAPHY: MINING IN THE ARAVALLI LANDSCAPE AND THE LIMITS OF DEFINITION-BASED ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE IN INDIA

Abstract

The recent renewed judicial controversy over mining in the Aravalli area reflects a basic weakness in environmental governance in India: relying on legal definitions to control ecologically linked ecosystems. Several interventions made by the Supreme Court of India relating to the Aravalli Hills and Ranges, such as adopting an elevation-based definition and the Court's decision to put those directions into abeyance, changed what was perceived to be a strictly technical debate into a larger governance issue [8]. This paper argues that difficulties in regulating mining activities in the Aravalli area stem not simply from failures in implementing regulations, but from the nature of creating definitions as a means of environmental governance. Using doctrinal analysis, the article will examine how legal definitions create regulatory visibility, jurisdiction, and ecological sensitivity in the Aravalli area. Finally, the article proposes moving away from object-focused regulation toward landscape-level regulation to address cumulative and spatially diffuse environmental damage, and notes that this approach's principles can be applied to governing extractive activities in other ecologically sensitive areas outside India.