Chennai: The central government’s move to auction three coal/lignite mining blocks in Tamil Nadu’s Cauvery delta region snowballed into a major political controversy in the state with leaders from across parties — including those from the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — united in their opposition to the move.
Slamming the move, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said Wednesday that the state would “not permit any project that affects farmers”, while the Congress’s P. Chidambaram called it “shocking and retrograde”, and the opposition All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) urged the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) to raise the issue in Parliament.
The Tamil Nadu BJP, on the other hand, has submitted a memorandum to Union coal and mines minister Pralhad Joshi asking him to exclude coal blocks in the Cauvery delta from the auction.
On Thursday, Union Minister for Coal Pralhad Joshi announced that the three lignite mines in Tamil Nadu would be removed from the auctions list announced by the Central government last month.
“In spirit of cooperative federalism and keeping in mind the interests of people of TN, I have directed to exclude them from auction,” Joshi tweeted.
ThePrint looks at why the proposed auction had become so controversial.
The three mining blocks — Vadaseri, East of Sethiathope, Michaelpatti — were among the 101 blocks for which the central government invited bids for auction on 29 March. While Vadaseri and East of Sethiathope fall within the Protected Agricultural Zone under the Tamil Nadu Protected Agriculture Zone Development Act, 2020, Michaelpatti is located in a paddy-growing area adjoining a fertile part of the Cauvery delta.
The controversy stems from the fact that this lush green region, spanning over 14.47 lakh hectares, has been Tamil Nadu’s rice bowl, contributing 35 to 40 per cent of the state’s annual production.
Two of the three blocks included in the central government’s auction proposal fall under the Tamil Nadu Protected Agriculture Zone Development Act, 2020. Under the law, these lands are not to be used for zinc/copper/aluminium smelting, iron ore processing, setting up a tannery or integrated steel or sponge iron plant, or for drilling and extraction of oil and natural gas — including coal-bed methane, shale gas and other similar hydrocarbons.
Both leading Dravidian parties in the state been trying to make inroads in the seven districts that fall under the Cauvery delta region — which has been a DMK stronghold — namely Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Tiruchirappalli, Ariyalur, Cuddalore and Pudukkottai. These districts send 41 MLAs to the 234-member Tamil Nadu assembly.
Chennai-based political analyst Priyan, who goes by his first name, tells ThePrint, “There are many issues in the Cauvery delta region: water dispute, hydrocarbon, coal, petroleum extraction. All these issues affect farmers and give Dravidian parties a stage to take these genuine demands of the people forward.”
Contrary to the old Tamil saying ‘Sozha vala naadu sorudaithu (there is no dearth of food in the fertile region of Chola)’, farmers who spoke to ThePrint termed the central government’s move “unacceptable”. Exploration and extraction of coal, they fear, could lead to grounwater depletion and saltwater intrusion and may even result in fertile agricultural land losing its potency.
The Cauvery delta, an attractive prospect for mining companies due to its rich hydrocarbon reserves, has been subject to hydrocarbon exploration since the 1950s, say environmentalists.
“But notifying blocks for auction in the rich agri-region despite a state government law to protect it shows the central government’s arrogance, taking for granted the attitude of states’ rights and people’s sentiment,” says G. Sundarrajan, an environmentalist affiliated with the Tamil Nadu-based non-profit Poovulagin Nanbargal.
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‘Delta will become a desert’
The first deep exploration well in the Cauvery delta region was drilled in 1964 and, according to reports, the region has 430 million tonnes of onshore hydrocarbon reserves. Environmentalists have in the past alleged irregularities in the operation of exploration wells in the region.
A study released in 2018 found that the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board’s (TNPCB) data about the number of wells operating in the Cauvery delta was “wildly conflicting” with the actual number of operational wells, and that at least 112 were perhaps operating without the TNPCB’s knowledge.
“None of the 71 operating wells (the number in operation according to TNPCB data) have valid licences (Consent to Operate (CTO) under Air and Water Acts), according to TNPCB,” the study found.
The study was conducted by environmentalists under the banner of ‘Cauvery delta Watch’ — an initiative of the Chennai Solidarity Group, an umbrella organisation environmentalist groups.
Although rice is the principal crop in the Cauvery delta region, pulses like gingelly and vegetables like brinjal and chillies are also grown in abundance there, besides groundnut, maize, banana and sugarcane. Flowers like jasmine, rose, chrysanthemum, crossandra and arali, in addition to fruits such as mango, jackfruit, guava, pomegranate, and custard apple are also grown in a few pockets of the region.
“Fertile farmlands will become like desert,” Thanjavur-based Bakirisami, a member of the farmers’ union Vivasayi Thozhilalar Sangam tells ThePrint.
Elangeeran, who has three acres of farming land in Kattumannarkoil, Cuddalore, where he grows rice and groundnuts, claims that mines operated by the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) have already caused damage in the region. “The groundwater level has reduced drastically. Groundwater is not available now even at 500 feet. Just 30-40 years back, it was available even at 100 feet,” he says.
The town of Kattumanarkoil is located about 20 km from the extraction mines that cater to the NLC, which is a central public sector undertaking (PSU).
Elangeeran fears that the proposed auction of the East of Sethiathope coal block may lead to further destruction of farmlands and affect livelihoods.
Jeevakumar of the Vivasayi Thozhilalar Sangam insists that the Union government “drop” this auction proposal. He asks, “Can you eat coal instead of rice? Can you drink petrol instead of water?”
Meanwhile, P. Ayyakannu, state president of the National-South Indian Rivers Linking Farmers Association, an activist group, says the outfit has filed a request with the Union home secretary seeking permission to protest against the move. In 2017, the outfit had held a 141-day protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar against the central government’s agricultural policies.
“If mining begins, there will be no water for farming in the region,” Ayyakannu says, adding that the protest will begin on 12 April. He also says that in 2019, members of the outfit had met Union home minister Amit Shah, who assured them that the government would “interlink the rivers Godavari and Cauvery and ensure farmers in the Cauvery delta region get 250 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) of water for agriculture per year”.
Stating that funds for the interlinking project are yet to be released, Ayyakannu alleges that these promises were ploys by the central government to render the Cauvery delta dry and extract hydrocarbons.
DMK, AIADMK, BJP united in opposition to move
Stalin, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week, wrote that the government’s auction proposal was formulated without any consultation with the state. He also told the state legislative assembly on 5 April that DMK MP T.R. Baalu had taken up the matter with Union minister Joshi, who had promised to look into it.
While the AIADMK and the Tamil Nadu BJP are also opposing the proposed auction, they took aim at the DMK, too.
In his own letter to Joshi, BJP state chief K. Annamalai said protests had erupted in the Cauvery delta region after the “DMK in 2011 signed up with Great Eastern Energy Corporation (GEECL) for the exploration and production of coal bed methane in Mannargudi”.
BJP MLA Vanathi Sreenivasan raised the same point on the floor of the House on 5 April.
“During the Cauvery issue, the AIADMK stalled Parliament for 22 days. What is the ruling DMK doing,” remarked Leader of the Opposition and former CM Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
However, Stalin had in 2014 clarified the DMK’s stand on the MoU with GEECL during a public meeting when he said, “We believed it would not have any impact on farmers. But after realising the consequences, the party urged the Centre to drop the project.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)