India, Dec. 23 -- As the debate regarding the Supreme Court's December 20, 2025, verdict on the Aravalli hill range gets sharper, one of the main arguments put forth by critics is the fact that the low-lying hill range protects Delhi and much of the fertile Indo-Gangetic Plain against the Thar Desert.

The Aravallis are one of India's and the world's oldest hill ranges. As writer Pranay Lal wrote in Down To Earth (DTE) in 2019, "It took nearly two billion years (3.2 to 1.2 billion years ago) of shoving and pushing of tectonic plates and magma outpourings to create these oldest fold mountains in the world. Since then, these mountains have endured millions of years of sustained assault of lava flows, submergence by seas, uplift by force of ...