Union Minister for Environment Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav inaugurated the National Conference on Eco restoration of the Aravalli Landscape Strengthening the Aravalli Green Wall in New Delhi on 14 January 2026, reaffirming the Centre’s commitment to restoring one of India’s most fragile and historically significant ecosystems. During the inaugural session, the Minister released a comprehensive report titled Eco restoration of the Aravalli Landscape, prepared by the Sankala Foundation, outlining a scientific and community driven roadmap for long term ecological recovery.
Addressing the conference, the Minister said the Aravalli Green Wall Project was launched as part of the national vision under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and in alignment with India’s international commitment under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification to restore 26 million hectares of degraded land. He noted that the Aravalli range, the oldest mountain system in the country, has supported human civilisation for thousands of years and continues to play a critical role in climate regulation water security and biodiversity conservation across north western India.
The Minister informed that 6.45 million hectares of degraded land have been identified across the Aravalli landscape, spanning Gujarat Delhi Haryana and Rajasthan. Of this, greening and restoration activities have already commenced over 2.7 million hectares. The implementation is being led by Divisional Forest Officers across 29 districts in the Aravalli region, with a strong focus on planting native species adapted to arid and semi arid conditions to ensure ecological resilience and long term sustainability.
Highlighting a landmark conservation intervention, the Minister said nearly 97 square kilometres of severely degraded Aravalli revenue land stretching from Naurangpur to Nuh in Haryana has been identified for large scale afforestation and declared a Protected Forest by the state government. He described this as one of the most significant policy measures for Aravalli protection since Independence, made possible through coordinated efforts between the Centre and the state government.
The Minister underlined the ecological importance of the Aravalli ecosystem, noting that it is safeguarded by four tiger reserves and 18 protected areas, with additional green interventions being undertaken wherever ecological restoration is required. He said thousands of hectares in the region have been restored over the past two to three years and reiterated that future development efforts would continue to place ecology at the centre of planning and implementation.
Referring to India’s global standing in wildlife conservation, the Minister said the country hosts five of the world’s seven big cat species and nearly 70 per cent of the global tiger population, which continues to grow. He emphasised that India’s approach demonstrates that ecological stability and economic aspirations can be pursued together through balanced and science based policy making.
The inaugural session was also addressed by the Environment Minister of Haryana Rao Narbir Singh, Secretary of the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change Tanmay Kumar, Director General of Forests Sushil Kumar Awasthi, Ambassador of Denmark to India Rasmus Abildgaard Kristensen and representatives of the Sankala Foundation. The conference brought together policymakers forest officials scientists practitioners and civil society representatives to deliberate on the ecological significance of the Aravalli range and to chart practical pathways for its restoration.
The report released at the conference presents a scalable and multidisciplinary framework to strengthen the Aravalli Green Wall Project under the National Action Plan to Combat Desertification and Land Degradation. It stresses that restoration must be landscape scale data driven and anchored in community participation, noting that isolated or fragmented interventions are no longer sufficient to address the extent of degradation and environmental pressures facing the Aravalli region.
