28.05° N · 77.23° E — CORRIDOR BRIEFING · ARAVALLI SAFARI
The safari park: announced at 10,000 acres, frozen at zero
Key facts
- Stage
- Proposal — no tender, no clearance
- Judicial gate
- SC prior permission required (9 May 2024 order)
- Latest hearing
- 12 Feb 2026 — DPR not received
- Acreage
- 10,000 announced (2022) → ~3,300 stated to SC (2026)
- Definition case
- 20 Nov 2025 judgment in abeyance; expert committee sitting
- Owner
- Forest & Wildlife Dept (moved from Tourism, 2024-25)
Last verified: 17 Jul 2026
Affected villages
Whose ground does this actually touch?
Of everything in the statewide registry, this proposal sits closest to home: Nuh adjoins Hathin tehsil, and a built park's footprint would lie within a modest drive of this district's south-west. That is precisely why the freeze needs saying plainly here — proximity makes the pitch common, and the record makes it hollow.
Implications
When the government and the court point in opposite directions
Both things on the record are true at once. The state's intent is real: the project moved to the Forest and Wildlife Department, ministers have spoken of design reports and global tenders, and Gujarat's Vantara was studied as a model — an administration behaving like it means to build. And the freeze is realer: the Supreme Court's May 2024 order makes final approval of any Aravalli safari contingent on its prior permission; its November 2025 attempt to settle the range's definition was itself put in abeyance a month later in favour of a fresh expert committee; and in February 2026 it declined to let the DPR even reach the central committees, in language as unambiguous as courts produce. Until the definition case resolves, the project has no lawful path forward, whatever the press releases say.
The market consequence around Hathin and Nuh is the one this practice exists to counter: "safari park announced nearby" has been a selling line from the 2022 announcement onward, it survives every hearing because sellers do not read cause lists, and it prices an outcome the current record forbids. A buyer who wants Aravalli-edge land for what it is — quiet acreage in honest farm country — can buy it well here; a buyer paying a safari premium is paying for litigation risk dressed as tourism.
What to check on any safari-flavoured pitch: the date of the most recent Supreme Court order in the Aravalli definition matter (this page carries it); whether any tender or clearance exists (none does); and whether the acreage being quoted is the 2022 announcement or the state's own reduced figure before the Court. Three questions, and the pitch usually ends at the first.
| Date | Milestone | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Sep–Oct 2022 | State announces ~10,000-acre safari, 18 villages | Official announcements (press record) |
| 9 May 2024 | SC: safari approvals require prior Court permission | Official (SC order) |
| 2024–25 | Project moved to Forest & Wildlife Dept | Government via press |
| 20 Nov 2025 | SC adopts 100-m Aravalli definition (2025 INSC 1338) | Official (judgment) |
| 29 Dec 2025 | Judgment put in abeyance; expert committee ordered | Official (GoI outlet) |
| 12 Feb 2026 | SC refuses to receive safari DPR; ~3,300-acre figure stated | Official (hearing record) |
Sources
- 9 May 2024 interim order (zoos/safaris clause) — LiveLaw/The Federal, fetched 17 Jul 2026
- 20 Nov 2025 judgment + abeyance — SCObserver + newsonair.gov.in (GoI outlet), Dec 2025
- 12 Feb 2026 hearing — DPR refused, acreage — The Tribune, fetched 17 Jul 2026
- Government position (dept move, Vantara model) — Ministerial statements via press, Aug 2025 — overtaken by later orders
Last verified: 17 Jul 2026
Start here
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