From Policy to Plantation: Evaluating the Community-Led Governance Model of the Aravalli Green Wall Project

The Aravalli Range, that is 3 billion-years-old Proterozoic fold mountains, signifies more than being a geological phenomenon; it is the very foundation for the environment that sustains North-Western India. Stretching over 650 kilometers, although conceptual environs have stretched its environmental impact over 1,500 kilometers from the Palanpur hills in the state of Gujarat via Rajasthan and Haryana up until the ultimate points within the national capital Delhi, it has long acted as the primary climate modulating agent within this region while being the hydrological lifeline for millions. This ancient environmental hotspot that dates back millions of years, even preceding the existence of the mighty Himalayan chain that towers over the Deccan Peninsula like the majestic Alps, has over the past four decades witnessed an existential threat.5 The Aravalli Range that once stretched over this humongous area has now reduced, with over 25% being driven towards extinction due to extensive mine concessions, ballooning urban expansion, along with deforestation, thereby making the Indo-Gangetic plains susceptible for the Thar Desert's eastward expansion. In reaction to this point of no return in ecology, the Indian government introduced the Aravalli Green Wall Project in March 2023.7 Taking a leaf out of the book on the Great Green Wall in Africa, this project aims at creating a five-kilometer-wide green zone periphery around the length of the Aravalli range. Although the geographical spread, involving 29 districts, with a plan to reclaim 26 million hectares of this degraded land by 2030, itself is ambitious, the truly novel aspect in this plan has to do with shifting governance over forests in this country, hitherto rooted in the State, to a community-managed system. This report assesses the mechanisms in this system, the interface with employment policies in this country, the technical approach in this restoration plan, as well as the judicial complex in which this Aravalli sits.