New Delhi, Dec. 29 -- The Aravalli hills in northwestern India that traverses about 700 km across four states, including as an environmental bulwark to capital Delhi, did not deteriorate due to pressure, age, or climate. It existed in one of the hardest ecological areas of the subcontinent for generations, enduring geological upheavals, desert winds, unpredictable monsoons, and human occupation. The hills endured borders being redrawn, economies changing, and empires rising and falling.

And yet, one of the greatest dangers the range is facing is paperwork. Not in a symbolic or figurative sense, but literally. The legal presence of living landscapes is being stripped away through the use of files, committees, definitions, notifications, a...