India, March 22 -- Illegal mining in the Aravalli Hills has destroyed hillocks, brought prosperity to locals and depleted the groundwater table
Ilyas Khan, 50, of Banban village in the Tijara block of Rajasthan's Alwar is a worried man. He was one among thousands of villagers, who mined the nearby hills to eke out a living and prospered. But the sudden prosperity has come at a cost: there is a severe depletion of the groundwater table in the region.
"A decade ago, we used to get groundwater at a depth of 10-15 metres. These days, we have to bore up to 60 metres to get water for drinking and irrigation," says Khan.
A study of Alwar's groundwater by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) in 2010 also reveals that in a major part of the dist...