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Cancel tungsten mining in TN district, Stalin urges Modi
Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the cancellation of rights granted by the Centre to a private firm to mine tungsten in Madurai district.
Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the cancellation of rights granted by the Centre to a private firm to mine tungsten in Madurai district.
Stalin urged PM Modi to intervene and instruct the Union ministry of mines to cancel the tungsten mining rights awarded to Hindustan Zinc Limited following concerns over the location being a bio-diversity site. He also asked the Prime Minister to inform the central department to desist from floating any bids for mining without the consent of the Tamil Nadu government.
“I wish to draw your attention to the grim situation in Madurai district due to the Union government’s award of tungsten mining rights and request your immediate intervention to cancel it,” Stalin said in the letter.
The state government had previously raised concerns on auctioning of mining rights of critical and strategic minerals in a letter sent by Tamil Nadu minister for water resources and natural resources, Durai Murugan, last month.
“But unfortunately, the Hon’ble Union minister of parliamentary affairs, coal and mines in his letter dated 02.11.2023 had rejected them, mentioning that the auction of critical minerals by the ministry of mines cannot be withheld, in the larger interests of the country,” Stalin further said in the letter. “Meanwhile, the Union ministry of mines has declared Hindustan Zinc Limited as the preferred bidder of Nayakkarpatti tungsten block (critical and strategic mineral) under Tranche IV on 07.11.2024.”
This Nayakkarpatti block comprises villages such Kavattayampatty, Ettimangalam, Vallalapatty, Arittapatty, Kidaripatty and Narasingampatty.
“Among them, Arittapatti is a notified biodiversity heritage site and is famous for archaeological monuments including cave temples, sculptures, Jain symbols, Tamil Brahmi Scripts and Pancha Pandavar stone beds,” Stalin said. “Any mining activity will cause irreparable damage to these sites. In addition, commercial mining in such densely populated villages will definitely affect the people in these villages. This has caused immense anguish to the people, who fear that their livelihood may be lost forever. Hence, the Government of Tamil Nadu would never allow any such mining to be undertaken in these areas.”
Activists and villagers have been protesting against the proposed mining project in the ecologically sensitive zone for the past month. Arittapatti, consisting of a chain of seven barren granite hillocks, acts as a watershed, supporting 72 lakes, 200 natural spring pools, and three check dams.
Tamil Nadu has neither received any application from Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL), a subsidiary of Vedanta, nor has the state granted permission for the company to mine tungsten in the proposed 5,000 acres of land in Madurai district, state forest minister K Ponmudy said on November 21.
“Considering the above situation, I urge you to instruct the ministry of mines to cancel the award of tungsten mining rights given to Hindustan Zinc Limited in Madurai District,” Stalin said on Thursday. “I also request you to instruct the ministry of mines to desist from floating any bids for mining without the consent of the concerned state government.”
On November 22, DMK MP K Kanimozhi condemned the project, recalling that Vedanta’s copper smelting plant in Thoothukudi –– the Lok Sabha seat she represents –– had to be shut due to environmental damage.
