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India's oldest fold mountain range, running from Delhi to Gujarat and acting as a natural barrier against the eastward spread of the Thar Desert.
The Aravalli Range is the oldest fold mountain system in India and among the oldest in the world, formed during the Proterozoic era long before the Himalayas existed. It runs roughly north-east to south-west for about 692 kilometres, beginning near Delhi and passing through Haryana and Rajasthan into Gujarat. Because it is so ancient, it has been worn down by hundreds of millions of years of erosion into a chain of low, broken hills rather than the sharp peaks of a young range. Its most important geographical function is climatic: the range stands between the Thar Desert to its west and the comparatively fertile plains to its east, and it checks the eastward advance of desert sand.
Type: PhenomenonAge and type — the oldest fold mountain range in India, of Proterozoic origin, heavily eroded into residual hills
Extent — approximately 692 km from near Delhi through Haryana and Rajasthan into Gujarat
Highest peak — Guru Shikhar, about 1,722 metres, situated on Mount Abu in Rajasthan
Climatic barrier — separates the arid Thar Desert to the west from the relatively fertile eastern Rajasthan, checking the desert's eastward spread
Drainage — the Banas, Luni, Sabarmati and Mahi rivers rise in or near the range
Mineral wealth — copper at Khetri, zinc at Zawar, marble at Makrana, along with lead and other minerals
Protected areas — Sariska and Ranthambore Tiger Reserves lie within the Aravalli landscape
Frequency: A recurring physical geography topic in UPSC Prelims and a staple of SSC and Railway general awareness
Fold mountains, oldest in India
Proterozoic
692 km
Guru Shikhar, about 1,722 metres
Mount Abu, Rajasthan
Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat
Banas, Luni, Sabarmati, Mahi
The Aravallis do a quiet ecological job whose value becomes visible only when it fails. By standing across the path of dust-bearing westerly winds, the range limits how far the Thar Desert can extend eastward, and by intercepting monsoon runoff it recharges the groundwater on which much of Rajasthan and southern Haryana depends. Decades of quarrying for stone and marble, illegal mining and encroachment have broken the range into discontinuous fragments, and satellite studies have recorded wide gaps in what was once a continuous chain. Where those gaps occur, dust storms carry further east and groundwater recharge falls. This is why the Aravallis feature repeatedly in Supreme Court orders restricting mining and in afforestation initiatives such as the Aravalli Green Wall Project, and it is the strongest available Indian example of a landform whose degradation is simultaneously a mining, water and desertification problem.
Oldest fold mountain range in India, of Proterozoic age
Extends about 692 km from near Delhi through Haryana and Rajasthan into Gujarat
Highest peak: Guru Shikhar, about 1,722 m, on Mount Abu
Acts as a barrier against the eastward spread of the Thar Desert
Rivers: Banas, Luni, Sabarmati, Mahi
Minerals: Khetri copper, Zawar zinc, Makrana marble
Sariska and Ranthambore Tiger Reserves lie in the range
Guru Shikhar, at about 1,722 metres, located on Mount Abu in Rajasthan.
The range stands between the desert and the plains to its east, checking the eastward advance of sand and dust. Where the range has been broken by mining, that barrier function weakens.
Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat, over a distance of roughly 692 kilometres.
They date to the Proterozoic era and are the oldest fold mountains in India, far older than the Himalayas, which is why erosion has reduced them to low residual hills.
Copper at Khetri, zinc at Zawar and marble at Makrana, along with lead and other minerals.