jaipur the state government will have to make a choice whether to safeguard the oldest mountain range or to let illegal miners feed the real estate industry in ncr for money it was in 1992 that the union government notified the aravallis as an ecologically protected area the supreme court in 2002 imposed a blanket ban on mining in the fragile range now 12 years later illegal mining of aravallis in tijara region of alwar district is at its peak the areas of silkho between tauru nuh and sare khurdtapukarh are difficult to traverse due to thousands of dumpers plying on the road day night the quarrying is done during the day and transportation in the night under the watchful eyes of the local police the aravallis may not last even the present generation wrote s chand to toi from delhi traffic jams are a regular feature in the area as hundreds of dumpers travel together carrying stones from the aravallis to haryana and delhi and the icing on the cake is that 80 of these trucks travel without number plates till sometime back the meo community which was actively into mining was a bit cautious and ran their operations only in the dark of the night sometimes the divisional forest officer dfo also visited the area but it was only for completing a formality for the last few months everything is happening in broad daylight as all the spotlight is on elections illegal miners are striking with a vengeance hundreds of dumpers are transporting illegally mined sand and grit for the booming construction industry in the national capital region as is self explanatory in the photographs while the front faade of the hill facing the highway is intact the rear portion of the hill has been totally mined all through day and night sounds of blasts reverberate through the ranges to maximize the output these days the miners have started using high intensity explosives a one time explosion costs them around rs 25000 but then they dont need to go in for another one in quick succession they can easily fill 1000 trucks with a single blast of that magnitude said a local resident