No Endangering Our Paradise: Why Villagers in Deepwas Are Refusing to Let Their Hills Be Mined |
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Sikar (Rajasthan): The blue Girjan river snakes lazily past fields of wheat in the backdrop of the Aravallis and through the village of Deepawas in Rajasthan’s Sikar district.
Dainty black-winged stilts wade with their delicate, long ruby legs along its shallow marshy banks. Spot-billed ducks and comb ducks dot the deeper water tracts. The water is clear enough to reveal the dark green frilly fronds of aquatic plants as they move with the rhythm of the river.
“See how clear the water is,” says Maamraj Meena, a small farmer who lives in Deepawas. “The river gives us everything.”
The Girjan river passes through forest land, agricultural fields and homes in the village of Deepawas, Sikar district, Rajasthan. Photo: Aathira Perinchery/The Wire.
But Maamraj and other Deepawas residents are losing sleep over an iron ore mine that came up on the banks of the river in 2024. They’ve seen what mines have done to other rivers in the landscape, and know the worrying transformations the Girjan, and their now-productive lands, could undergo. The villagers were clear: they would not let the mine endanger their homes by felling trees, slicing up hills and polluting their river. They petitioned the Supreme Court. In response, the Rajasthan government finally agreed that the mine was located in an area defined as the Aravallis, as per a delineation by the Forest Survey of India in 2010.
The Aravallis: A lifeline
The Aravalli range in Sikar district, Rajasthan. Photo: Aathira Perinchery/The Wire.
The Aravallis, meaning “line of peaks” in Sanskrit, are a long chain of short hills spread across around 30 districts in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi. Considered to be one of the oldest fold-mountain systems of the world, it was formed in the Pre-Cambrian era dating back to about three-four billion years ago. This makes it much older than the Himalayas (though home to the world’s tallest peak, this mountain range is only about 40-50 million years old).
The Aravalli range in Sikar district, Rajasthan. Photo: Aathira Perinchery/The Wire.
Across the 800-odd kilometres where they occur, the Aravallis are a lifeline for people and biodiversity alike. The hill range supports a diversity of wild habitats, flora, and fauna in protected areas including tiger reserves (such as dry deciduous forests of Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan), wildlife sanctuaries (like the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary in Delhi-Haryana), Ramsar sites like the Sambhar Lake near Jaipur (formed due to a natural depression in the Aravalli hill range), conservation reserves (like the Baleshwar Reserve in Rajasthan, just about an hour northeast of Nareda) and community-managed reserves like the orans (sacred groves). Wildlife that live in some of these areas include species that are afforded the highest protection under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, such as tigers, leopards and Indian gazelles (or chinkaras).
Areas outside the Protected Area network also serve as important buffer areas for wildlife movement. Hills and forested lands merge with agricultural fields, and studies show that wildlife including striped hyenas and leopards also frequent these human-use areas. Across its range, the Aravallis goes by several names — such as gair mumkin pahar or ‘hilly uncultivable areas’ in Haryana.
A field of wheat in the Aravallis, and a ‘hilly uncultivable area’ nearby. Photo: Aathira Perinchery/The Wire.
The hills are also key for ground water recharge — a crucial ecosystem service in the predominantly arid landscape. The Aravallis’ old weathered rock systems contain lots of fractures, fissures and cracks that help rainwater seep underground and recharge specific local aquifers, said ecohydrologist Jagdish Krishnaswamy, Dean, School of Environment and Sustainability at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bengaluru.
“Studies show that some parts of northwest India are receiving higher rainfall in the past few years,” he told The Wire. “The Aravallis’ ability to absorb and store this rainwater makes it important for regulating hydrology in the area in future if this trend holds,” he said.
Apart from groundwater recharge, the scrub forests and grasslands in the region are also important for carbon sequestration, Krishnaswamy added. This vegetation also ensures cooling through transpiration and this will be a very important ecosystem service in the years to come as India warms up even more due to the vagaries of climate change, he said.
An aniket or bund traps water for irrigation in a village near Deepawas, Sikar, Rajasthan. Photo: Aathira Perinchery/The Wire.
Water, a crucial resource
The thorny trees, dry scrublands and expanses of savanna grasslands in the Aravallis may look unglamorous if you’re only familiar with the stereotyped image of a lush green jungle. But people living in the Aravallis know the worth of these habitats, and the hills they grow on.
“This Girjan river is born from these hills,” Maamraj says, pointing to the blue river snaking through wheat fields and homesteads in Deepawas, a village in the Sikar district in northeast Rajasthan. “If there are no hills, there is no river.”
The Girjan trickles out of the Baleshwar Conservation Reserve (around 10 km north as the crow flies) as a stream, before merging with others to form a small river, about 10 metres wide, at Deepawas. The Girjan flows for around 19 km in total, and then joins the Sota river that drains into the Buchara Dam.
The Girjan, where it merges with the Sultana stream, a few kilometres from Deepawas. Here, an aniket or small bund collects water for irrigation. Photo: Aathira Perinchery/The Wire.
And this small river is what the entire village of Deepawas – comprising small farmers like Maamraj – depend on. Borewells in Deepawas have water throughout the year, Maamraj says. He uses the same water to irrigate his fields of mustard, wheat, chickpea and vegetables. His livestock – buffaloes and goats – graze in the gochar bhoomi or common grazing lands in and around the village. The milk they provide, along with produce from his agricultural land, are what see Maamraj and his family of five through.
Around 40 villages including five panchayats — 60,000 people in all — depend on the river and its groundwater recharging services, says Neelam Ahluwalia, founder of People For Aravallis, a citizen group that raises concerns pertaining to the hill range and its protection.
A herd of cattle graze in the gochar bhoomi or grazing commons near Deepawas. Photo: Aathira Perinchery/The Wire.
“Where there is water, there is everything,” Maamraj says. “We are self-sufficient now.”
Dharna for the Girjan
But this will change if the iron ore mine right next to his home operates in full swing. It was only when Ojaswi Marbles Pvt Ltd cordoned off 180 hectares of land (of which 140 is designated forestland) in 2024 that Maamraj and his neighbours knew of the mine at all: they were not informed, they allege. And then began the blasts: blasts that tore cracks into the walls of his house.
Maamraj and other residents of Deepwas are painfully aware of how many villages just like theirs have sunk into despair because of mining and its impacts — thanks to the strong, unwavering voice of grassroots activist Kailash Meena.
“All the other rivers have died, the Girjan is the only living river [in this landscape],” Kailash says. “They are trying to start mining at its origin now. There are mines and stone crusher units along its banks too. If this river dies all the 16 villages that are dependent on it will perish. Thanks to the river, the groundwater levels are still good here…people here have protected this river. But now governments want to destroy it in the name of development. If their livelihoods disappear, what will the people do? This is why they are protesting the upcoming mine here, so that the mine is closed and this is made a no-mining zone.”
The protest site, located adjacent to the mine site and on a hillock overlooking the gentle meanders of the Girjan river and the wheat fields on its banks, is buzzing despite the harsh noon sun on February 22. More than 50 villagers – men, women and children – have gathered here.
Villagers of Deepawas and a few other surrounding villages at their dharna site atop a hillock just outside the entrance to the Ojaswi mine on February 22, 2025. Photo: Aathira Perinchery/The Wire.
Villagers of Deepawas and a few other surrounding villages at their dharna site atop a hillock just outside the entrance to the Ojaswi mine on February 22, 2025. Photo: Aathira Perinchery/The Wire.
As of February 22, their dharna had been ongoing for around two months. Everyday, at least 20 villagers walk to the hilltop and sit in the blazing sun to make their presence felt, their voices heard.
Ojaswi felled about 100 trees, including native species such as ber or the Indian jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana) on the hillock they had fenced off, Maamraj says. The hillock he led me to on February 23 bore tell-tale signs: slashed scrub, and sliced trunks.
Gende Lal Chand, a resident of Deepawas, stands next to a logged tree on the hillock fenced off by the mining company. Photo: Aathira Perinchery/The Wire.
In January this year, the mine commenced operations. Maamraj and Kailash Chand, another resident of Deepwas, filed a case against Ojaswi in the Supreme Court, arguing that the area where mining-related activities had begun was clearly within the criteria used to delineate the Aravalli hills as per the 2010 report of the Forest Survey of India.
The Ojaswi iron ore mine near Deepawas in Sikar, Rajasthan, on February 22, 2026. Photo: Aathira Perinchery/The Wire.
The court asked the respective departments to check on the issue and respond. The state’s mining department agreed that the land was indeed part of the Aravallis and directed Ojaswi to stop mining immediately; the state environment impact assessment authority too noted that Ojaswi had to obtain permission from the Supreme Court to operate. So on February 26, when Ojaswi filed their petition, the court declined to intervene, Ahluwalia told The Wire.
Barbed wire fencing currently prevents livestock from grazing at the Ojaswi iron ore mine near Deepawas in Sikar, Rajasthan, on February 22, 2026. Photo: Aathira Perinchery/The Wire.
“This has been a huge relief for all Aravalli lovers and villagers who are collectively trying to save this ecologically sensitive and biodiversity rich area,” said Ahluwalia. “If the Ojaswi iron ore mining project located near the Girjan river’s headwaters was allowed to start operations, it would introduce acid mine drainage into the river and heavy metals like arsenic, lead, cadmium, copper, manganese and zinc; which would degrade water quality and harm aquatic life as well as human and animal health. We look forward to the government authorities removing the gate, other structures, JCB machines and other heavy machinery put up by Ojaswi mines, dismantle all the barbed wire fencing and restore free access to the land traditionally used by the villagers.”