New Delhi, Dec. 25 -- The contentious issue of defining the Aravallis will be reopened on January 7 when the apex court hears the petition of former forest officer RP Balwan who was responsible for delineating the Aravallis in Haryana in 2008, as part of a Supreme Court appointed Central Empowered Committee. According to the court's order dated December 17, notices have been issued to the Union environment ministry and the four states across which the Aravallis range, to appear once again before the court as part of the TN Godavarman Vs Union of India case. Balwan who dealt with several illegal mining cases in Haryana during his tenure, has asked the Court to clarify that the entire Aravalli Hill Range/ecosystem, spread over all four states , Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat, as defined by the Forest Survey of India in 2010, and not limited by any height-based metric, is legally protected from all unsustainable activities; that the approved Sustainable Mining Plan as per the directions of the court in its November 20 judgement should be applicable to the entire Aravalli Hill Range/ecosystem, and not just to the Aravalli Hills as per the unscientific definition of the Committee. The reopening would mean that the matter may mean the issue comes up before the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) once again. According to people familiar with the matter, all CEC members have not signed off on the final decisions taken by the Centre's technical committee which came up with a contentious uniform definition of the Aravallis. The technical committee, comprising representatives from the Union environment ministry, Forest Survey of India (FSI), Central Empowered Committee and Geological Survey of India (GSI), defined Aravallis as any landform located in the Aravalli districts with an elevation of 100 metres or more from the local relief. But review of documents shows that CEC, GSI and FSI had agreed on a definition that is far removed than the one the technical committee arrived at. CEC's own approach to defining the Aravallis is evident in its report to the Supreme Court in March 2024. In this, CEC made it clear that it does not support the Rajasthan government's proposal that disallowed mining only in those areas which are above 100 meters above ground level. According to the CEC report of March 7, 2024, available on CEC website, as far back as August 2003, in a letter to the Rajasthan mines department, GSI said: "...the peaks of the hills rising 100 m above the ground level are only marked as hills ranges, while the slope of the hills upon which the stability of the hills/ranges depend are kept outside the boundary of hills. It is advised to include the slope of the hills above ground level to be part of the Aravalli hills/ranges." As for FSI, CEC in its report of March 2024 said, that FSI took up the task of demarcating the Aravallis as per the directions of the Supreme Court in 2010 and found that the terrains with slope of 3 degree or more are associated with the hills and do not occur in flat terrain. The minimum elevation of Aravalli Hill Districts in Rajasthan is 115 metres from the Mean Sea Level (MSL). Accordingly, it took the slope of 3 degree as the threshold for the purpose of delineation of the hills. . All such areas with slopes of 3 degree or more have been decided to be delineated as hills together with a uniform 100 metre wide buffer on the downhill side, CEC added. CEC's final recommendation in 2024 was that mapping of the entire Aravalli Hill Range should be undertaken and completed within a period of six months by the Forest Survey of India. The CEC has not changed its view on defining Aravallis according to people familiar with the matter. CEC chairman Siddhanta Das declined comment on whether it had changed its views after recommending the FSI criteria in 2024....