Mining dust in the Aravalli region linked to rising silicosis deaths

Manisha (27), sits with a group of women on a mattress laid out in one corner of the veranda of her house in Syalodra village in Rajasthan’s Sikar district. In the other corner are stacks of large oxygen cylinders that her husband, Manjeet (32), used to breathe until his recent death.

Manjeet was a labourer at a nearby stone crushing unit, and for more than three years he had silicosis, a debilitating, incurable lung disease. It is caused by inhaling silica dust, fine particles that are a by-product of mining operations such as drilling, blasting and stone crushing in the region.

Residents say silicosis has claimed the lives of more than 50 people over the years in Syalodra, which is part of the Aravalli range.

However, the Supreme Court-appointed panel, which concluded its field visits to assess several aspects of the Aravallis on Tuesday (August 11, 2026), did not come to the village, much like it skipped many other mining-affected areas across Kotputli-Behror and Sikar districts, according to activists and residents.

Manisha, a homemaker and mother of two young children, says: “We have spent most of our savings on my husband’s treatment. Yet, no one from the administration has talked to us or come to help.”

The Committee has been conducting an independent review of the Centre’s report on the definition and delineation of the Aravallis, where decades of mining have worsened air pollution. This has caused respiratory diseases among mine workers and people living close to mining sites.

The panel’s final report, due November 30, 2026, can address these issues by establishing ecological boundaries in and around the range. But among the affected people, there is not much hope, especially after the Supreme Court recently refused to extend the submission deadline by six months. The original deadline was August 31, 2026.

Sanjay (43), lives a few steps away from Manisha’s house. In July, his brother, Manoj, who also worked at a stone crushing unit, died of silicosis. The disease has claimed six members of his family.

“We do not have the money to move somewhere else. My kids have to live here and breathe the same poisonous air which has killed so many residents,” he says.

A 2023 study, ‘Prevalence of Silicosis in Stone Carving and Sandstone Mining Industry in Rajasthan’, published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, examined the Rajasthan government’s online portal for the registration, certification and disbursement of relief to silicosis-affected persons. The portal was launched under the Rajasthan Policy on Pneumoconiosis including Silicosis Detection, Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation-2019.

At the time of the study, 23,436 cases of silicosis, including 6,876 deaths, had been certified on the portal. An analysis of 4,977 cases, including 741 deaths, showed that detection of silicosis was much higher in districts with a large stone carving industry. The analysis also found that the prevalence of silicosis was the highest among people aged 36 to 40.

Kailash Meena, an environmentalist based in Neem Ka Thana town in Sikar, says the figures on silicosis cases and deaths do not represent the true disease burden, which is considerably higher.

One key reason for undercounts is that people face several hurdles in obtaining certification of silicosis, which is given by community health centres or district hospitals based on a medical examination and a chest radiograph.

“The process requires patients and their family members to make multiple visits to hospitals. However, a lot of people cannot afford such frequent trips and fail to complete the process,” Mr. Meena says.

For instance, Prem Devi, a Syalodra resident in her early 50s, has registered herself three times on the portal in the past three years with the help of her son, but each time the registration has been cancelled. Ms. Devi says that after registration, patients have to go to a hospital for an X-ray of the lungs, which is sent to a doctor for examination, and certification is granted on that basis.

“We never get to know who this doctor is or where his office is. Each time my X-ray has gone for an analysis, my registration has been cancelled,” she says.

For people like Ms. Devi, a widow, certification is a lifeline, as they are bedridden on most days and have no source of income.

“Patients receive free medicines for the treatment, ₹5,000 every month, and other facilities if they get the certification,” Mr. Meena says.

The money becomes more significant once patients require oxygen support for breathing. Residents of Syalodra say each oxygen cylinder costs about ₹1,000. In the days before his death, Manjeet used 12 oxygen cylinders a day.

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The problem extends beyond Syalodra to mining-affected areas of Kotputli-Behror, including Jodhpura-Mohanpura village.

Standing next to a temple on a hilltop, Kailash Yadav, secretary of the Jodhpura Sangharsh Samiti, says most village residents have breathing problems.

The temple is adjacent to a mining site operated by UltraTech Cement. The spot is dotted with excavators digging out stones, which are sent by dumper trucks to a stone crushing unit installed next to the mine. According to Mr. Yadav, blasts to shatter rocks are frequent at the site, even at night.

Rekha, the mother of a seven-year-old girl, lives not far from the mining site. She says: “Dust from these mining activities is infecting our kids as well. My daughter now has asthma, and she has to use inhalers to breathe properly.”

An April 2023 survey in the village, conducted by the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), gives a glimpse of the issue’s severity. Of about 928 people surveyed, 478 reported multiple health problems, including skin diseases, breathing problems, tuberculosis and itchy eyes.

In their final report on the survey, the NAPM and the PUCL concluded that the diseases could be “dust-induced from blasting activities” and that further investigation was required.

Noting the severe mining-related impacts on residents of Jodhpura-Mohanpura, the Central Zone Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), in November 2025, ordered the Rajasthan government to constitute a committee to rehabilitate the entire village. The order also banned blasts within 500 metres of the village and directed UltraTech Cement to pay ₹20,000 for health-related harm.

The order noted that a list of health check-ups had been filed, in which the medical officer had treated 298 persons, most of whom had skin rashes, asthma, nose irritation, joint pain, deafness, allergy, breathlessness or eye irritation.

Mr. Yadav says residents are yet to be rehabilitated and no action has been taken to curb mining operations.

A response from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and from UltraTech Cement to the allegations is awaited.

Ms. Rekha says the Aravalli Committee was supposed to visit her village on August 8, 2026 but did not arrive.

“A group of us, along with my daughter, waited for the members for more than five hours. I wanted to tell them what mining has done to us,” she says.

The panel conducted its field visits from August 6, 2026 to August 11, 2026, visiting nine districts in Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan, according to the Aravalli Virasat Jan Abhiyaan, a group of environmentalists, social activists and others. Public hearings were held in Gurugram, Alwar, Ajmer and Udaipur.

A 2025 report of the Forest Survey of India (FSI) identified 63 districts across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi as part of the Aravalli range.

In its compliance report, submitted on August 31, 2026, the Committee said it needed six more months to submit the final report. The additional time would allow the panel to bring together spatial, ecological, geological, hydrological, socio-economic and stakeholder evidence before arriving at its conclusions on the Aravallis.

However, the Court refused the request and asked it to submit the final report by November 30, 2026.

“Let the panel work day and night to submit a report on the Aravalli issue,” Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said while hearing the matter.

Mr. Yadav does not believe the panel members would visit Jodhpura-Mohanpura before submitting the final report. “When they did not come during their first field visit, why would they come now? Their final report will not change anything for us,” he adds.