Why it is in the news
A Business Standard investigation published on 20 September 2026 documented what the Aravalli mining debate usually leaves out: the people who breathe it. In Sikar and Kotputli-Behror districts of Rajasthan, silica dust from mining and stone crushing is driving silicosis, an incurable lung disease. Residents of Syalodra village report more than 50 deaths; a 2023 health survey in Jodhpura-Mohanpura found 478 of 928 residents suffering breathing problems, tuberculosis and skin disease linked to mining blasts.
The exam angle
Issue: The Supreme Court has built a definition-based regime to protect the Aravalli landscape, while the communities beside the quarries continue to die of a preventable occupational disease. Can ecological regulation that is organised around landforms protect people whose harm is organised around dust?