As many as 7,173 FIRs in connection with illegal mining, transportation, stocking, etc, have been reported in the last seven years in Rajasthan, of which 4,181 have been filed in the Aravalli districts alone.
The state recorded 71,322 instances of illegal mining – these include both major and minor violations, including many that are dealt with using challans instead of police cases – in the last seven years, of which 40,175 instances have been reported from Aravalli districts alone.
Contrasting figures from the five-year Congress rule with two years of the BJP government, the latter’s spokesperson and former three-term MLA Ramlal Sharma said, “It is the clear intention of the Rajasthan government and the chief minister that not a single stone will be damaged in Aravalli.” He said that the BJP government has taken decisive action “against illegal mining, and mining mafia in the last two years”
Official data shared by Sharma shows 29,209 instances of illegal mining were reported in Aravalli districts between December 15, 2018 and December 14, 2023, while this figure was 10,966 in the first two years of the Sharma government, from December 15, 2023, to December 15, 2025. Rajasthan has 20 districts in the Aravalli belt.
While 3,179 FIRs for illegal mining activities were lodged in Aravalli districts under Congress rule, 1,002 FIRs have been lodged in the two years of the BJP government.
On the difference between instances reported and FIRs lodged, T Ravikanth, principal secretary, Mines and Petroleum Department, said, “Instances reported means all kinds of cases where the mining department took action on its own, by giving a notice, imposing penalty etc – which is also a form of punishment – while the FIR is only the cases lodged in a police station.”
He said that the instances reported include illegal mining, transportation, and storage, most of which are compoundable, and that it may translate into an FIR in case there is an assault, theft, etc. “Hence the FIRs are fewer,” he said.
In response to an Assembly question by Leader of Opposition Tika Ram Jully earlier this year, the government had said that there were 93 attacks against 311 officials and workers by the “mining mafia” in 2024.
Overall, a penalty of Rs 637.16 crore has been collected in the last seven years in the state. Of this, Rs 231.75 crore was collected from the Aravalli districts under Congress rule, and Rs 136.78 crore has been collected under the incumbent BJP government.
As many as 3,736 persons have been arrested in seven years for illegal mining across the state; of this, 1,415 persons were arrested from the Aravalli districts during the Ashok Gehlot government and 300 during the Sharma government.
Additionally, 70,399 vehicles, machines, etc, have been seized in the last seven years from across the state. Of these, 29,138 were seized from Aravalli districts under Congress rule and 10,616 under the BJP government.
With the hills already under severe pressure for the last few decades from mining, both legal and illegal, and other development activities, the new definition has triggered widespread protests in Rajasthan and beyond.
The new definition – proposed by a committee under the Environment Secretary and approved by the Supreme Court on November 20 – states that any landform that is at an elevation of 100 metres or more above the local relief will be considered as part of the Aravalli Hills, along with its slopes and adjacent land. This has triggered fears that it would open the Hills to mining, although the Environment Ministry has said that no new mining leases would be allowed until a detailed study is undertaken, according to the November 20 order.