India, Oct. 16 -- More than a year after the Supreme Court entrusted the Centre with the task of defining the Aravalli Hills and Ranges to curb illegal mining, a high-level committee headed by the Union environment secretary has submitted its report to the court, proposing that any slope with a height of more than 100 metres, measured from the top, will qualify as Aravalli hills.

The report - the first such exercise to lay down a uniform definition for the Aravalli Hills - further recommends that to ensure sustainable mining in the Aravalli Hills and Ranges, no new mining lease, except in the case of critical, strategic, and atomic minerals, should be allowed.

A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod...