Lessons from Deepawas: How Rajasthan villagers challenged mining

By Rosamma Thomas* 

In January 2026, a mining firm commenced iron ore extraction in Deepawas village of Neem Ka Thana in Sikar district, Rajasthan. A road was paved, and over 200 trees were felled. A marbles and granite enterprise was about to start mining on 180 hectares, of which 149 hectares are forest land. Three villages in Neem Ka Thana would be affected.

Alert and vigilant villagers, who have seen neighbouring villages ravaged by soapstone mining, lost no time in approaching the Supreme Court, which is hearing the matter of protecting the Aravalli hills from mining.

In November 2025, the SC accepted the recommendation of the Aravalli panel that a landform with an elevation of 100 metres or more above the local relief would be considered part of the Aravalli hills. The ruling was received with disbelief. Vast parts of the nearly 670-km Aravalli range are now low hills. The Aravallis are among the oldest mountain ranges in the world, dating to the Proterozoic age—a tectonically active period when free oxygen was just forming in the earth’s atmosphere. 

Erosion over the ages means that nearly 90% of the Aravallis would fall outside the definition accepted by the SC for the hill range. In December 2025, the SC took up the matter suo motu; the earlier 100-metre ruling was stayed.

Mamraj and Kailash Chand, villagers whose homes and lands would be affected by the mining project in Neem Ka Thana, filed an intervention application in the Supreme Court in the suo motu case, “Definition of Aravalli Hills and Ranges and ancillary issues.”

They argued that the 2010 Forest Survey of India report held that the region falls under the Aravalli ranges. The Supreme Court, on May 9, 2024, had ruled that no permission for mining would be granted on lands falling under the Aravalli ranges, as defined in the Forest Survey of India report of 2010, without prior permission from the court.

Meanwhile, the mining department of the state government took cognisance of the matter and issued a letter on January 24, 2026, directing the firm to “stop mining operations with immediate effect,” since the area falls under the Aravalli polygon.

The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority also issued a letter stating that prior permission from the SC was necessary for mining operations.

“It is heart-breaking for us to see the vegetation cleared. Our livelihoods and cattle are directly dependent on the land,” Kailash Meena said. The other petitioner, Mamraj, explained that mining activities had commenced on land just 2 km away from the Baleshwar Conservation Reserve. The Girjan river basin would have been affected, with the water table declining and the region facing air and noise pollution.

“Destruction of arable land, grazing fields and the water table, loss of agricultural output and income,” Mamraj explained, would result from the mining operations. “The 180 hectares under this mining project is at the mouth of the Girjan river, and mining will pollute the only source of drinking water and irrigation for over 60,000 people in more than 40 villages completely dependent on the river for sustenance,” Mamraj explained.

The region has already faced the ravages of stone mining—Sota and Katli, rivers in North Rajasthan, have dried up; the Kasavati has been reduced to a dirty drain, with stone crushers in its flow area. “The 19-km Girjan is our lifeline, with water year-round. We do not see our land and rivers as something to be exploited for profit. These are sacred, and we will protect our Aravalli land,” Mamraj said.

The project developer, meanwhile, approached the Supreme Court with an intervention application in the suo motu matter, arguing that Rajasthan, the state with the largest land area in India, has no iron ore mine. Mining operations would, it argued, be a significant source of employment for youth in a region prone to out-migration. This application was later withdrawn.

What this case proves is that alert citizens with a deep knowledge of their surroundings can use the courts to protect their lives and livelihoods. It is a pity that vast tracts of the country have been given over to mining, with old-growth trees felled in Adivasi regions. Massive protests have recently occurred in Rayagada district of Odisha, where bauxite mining is set to begin after Vedanta Limited won the auction in 2023. Nearly 1,500 acres in Kalahandi and Rayagada districts would be cleared.

Rampant mining, the thrust towards higher ethanol production, and the tax holiday for data centres until 2047 will place enormous stress on water resources. The villagers of Deepawas show how Indians elsewhere can fight to protect their natural resources.

Aathira Perincherry, reporting for The Wire website, has created a video of the struggle that explains this issue and has also offered an on-the-ground perspective.

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*Freelance journalist