The Central Empowered Committee (CEC), formed in 2002 for environmental protection, was rendered powerless immediately after being removed from the Supreme Court’s purview and brought under the government on September 5, 2023.
The Sunday mail
Jaipur। Former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has termed the Union Government’s move to change the definition of Aravalli and Union Minister Mr. Bhupender Yadav’s claim as completely misleading and devoid of facts, wherein he stated that mining can occur on only 0.19% of the Aravalli area. He also questioned their intent regarding the attempt by the Union and State Governments to change the protected area of Sariska in the year 2025 itself.
Mr. Gehlot said that the BJP is trying to mislead the public by entangling them in statistics. The new ‘100 meters’ definition of Aravalli should not be seen in isolation, but in conjunction with two other major decisions, which prove that this is not environmental protection, but a preparation to hand over Aravalli to the mining mafia by ‘Institutional Capture’.
*1. The ‘Coincidence’ of turning the Protector into Predator:* Mr. Gehlot said that through a notification on September 5, 2023, under a planned conspiracy, the Central Government weakened the Supreme Court-monitored Central Empowered Committee (CEC), formed in 2002 for environmental protection, by bringing it under the Ministry of Environment. This ‘ad-hoc’ committee formed by the Supreme Court in 2002 has now become a ‘permanent’ government committee via government notification. Previously, CEC members were appointed with the Supreme Court’s approval, but after this notification, the Central Government took the entire authority of selecting members into its own hands, causing the CEC to work at the behest of the Central Government.
This is the same CEC based on whose impartial report the CBI arrested powerful minister Janardhan Reddy of the Karnataka BJP government on September 5, 2011, in an illegal mining case. Exactly 12 years later, on September 5, 2023, the Central Government issued a notification strangling that ‘watchdog’ of environmental protection and turning it into its ‘puppet’. Today, the CEC’s job is restricted to merely rubber-stamping government decisions.
Mr. Gehlot questioned whether the government feared that if the CEC remained independent, permission for mining in protected areas like Aravalli and Sariska would not be granted?
*2. Sariska Model of changing Protected Areas:* Union Minister Mr. Bhupender Yadav’s claim that even after this new decision, new mining can take place on only 0.19% of Aravalli because the rest are Tiger Sanctuaries, Protected Areas, etc., is incomplete. The biggest example of the government’s intent to attempt mining in protected areas is the effort to change the Critical Tiger Habitat (CTH) of Sariska.
The Rajasthan Government declared an 881 sq km area as Critical Tiger Habitat (CTH) for Sariska, prohibiting mining within 1 kilometer of this area. In this very year, 2025, the BJP government of Rajasthan prepared a proposal to change (Rationalisation) the boundaries of Sariska’s CTH. The argument given was that there would be an ‘exchange of land’, but the actual objective of this change was to give a new lease of life to more than 50 marble and dolomite mines that had closed down due to being within 1 km of the CTH. By receding the boundary, these mines would have come out of the prohibited zone.
*Look at the haste and ‘match-fixing’ of the Rajasthan and Central Government to execute this decision:*
*The National Wildlife Board meeting, which was scheduled for June 11, 2025, was deliberately postponed to June 26 so that the Rajasthan government could get time to prepare the proposal.
After this, files were moved at ‘Rocket Speed’:
➡️ June 24, 2025: Rajasthan State Wildlife Board passed the proposal.
➡️ June 25, 2025: NTCA (National Tiger Conservation Authority) gave approval.
➡️ June 26, 2025: The Central Committee (SC-NBWL) stamped it.
Mr. Gehlot reminded that on August 6, 2025, the Supreme Court stayed this decision while delivering a stern reprimand. The Court asked, “How was the work that takes months completed in 48 hours?” This comment by the Court is the biggest proof of the government’s intent. Even today, both the Central and State governments are working together to change the CTH boundary.
*3. Complaint of corruption reached PMO:* Citing a report by ‘The Indian Express’, Mr. Gehlot made serious allegations. According to the report, K.S. Rathore, a mine owner from Thanagazi, sent a complaint to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on June 14 stating that mine owners are being asked to “collect money” to restart the mines.
At the same time, a member of the CEC stated in the same report on the condition of anonymity that “We want to complete this before the Supreme Court’s deadline because Minister Mr. Bhupender Yadav is personally monitoring it.” This statement proves that the CEC is now engaged in fulfilling the wish of the Minister, not the Supreme Court.
Now Union Minister Mr. Bhupender Yadav should explain who will trust his definition of 0.19% new mining because both these examples show that the intent of the BJP governments at the Centre and in Rajasthan is to breach even the Protected Areas. First, the definition of Aravalli was changed, and now there is an attempt to change the boundary of Sariska’s Protected Area. Rajasthan will not tolerate this toying with its natural heritage.
