Tamil Nadu | Feb 01, 2015: A grim sight greets the eye as the roads wind towards a sleepy fishing hamlet called Periyasamypuram in Tuticorin district, Tamil Nadu. There is red and brown everywhere — a desert-like landscape with even the few remaining palms drying up. The residents of this small village are equally grim and not people to mess with. They have managed to kick the beach sand mining mafia right out of their village.
"We all got together and held a truck hostage," says village head Irudaya Jebamalai, a wrinkled old man who is hard of hearing. "We thrashed the driver so he ran away. We refused to let the truck filled with sand go until all the authorities turned up. The police inspector of Surangudi station said he would lock me up if I opposed quarrying. The village administrative officer was also with him at that time. We kept calling the tahsildar but he never came," he says.
Periyasamypuram is an aberration in the line of fishing villages along the coast of Tuticorin. Most others have succumbed to terror tactics of the illegal beach sand mining mafia. Money, coercion, divide-and-rule and threats are the norm. Villagers are helpless in the face of their might, especially with local authorities colluding with them. "We have tried to petition every official — sub-collectors, various collectors over the past five years, but they only threaten us, tell us to go back," says Anthony Rayappan, a young fisherman. "But this is our village. We have to fight for it."
The pastor of Periyasamypuram, Father Selva George, shakes his head at the ruin brought on by the mining mafia. "At first we allowed them to operate but after a few years we realised that this mining is destroying our village," he says. "Look around you. Fish catch has come down, the palm trees have dried up, ground water has turned brackish and the sea is entering our village. No trees grow here except neem," he adds.
t was due to the petitions of such people that the then collector of Tuticorin Ashish Kumar launched raids on illegal sand quarries near Periyasamypuram, and neighbouring villages Vaippar, Vembar and Periyathaalai in August 2013. Within eight hours of the raids, he was transferred and made headlines across the country. Protests from villagers across the southern coast forced the state government to swing into action. In September 2013, the then chief minister Jayalalithaa ordered a ban on beach sand mining in five districts of the state and constituted a special team headed by senior IAS officer Gagandeep Singh Bedi to probe into the matter.
Raising an Alarm
On January 23, a PIL came up for hearing in the Madras High Court (HC). Renowned geologist Victor Rajamanickam filed the PIL which asks the court to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe illegal beach sand mining. "This is a fight which started in the 1980s," says Rajamanickam.
"In 1986, I began my studies of the beaches in South India. As we tried to conduct our research, my colleagues were beaten up and our vehicles were blocked from entering the beaches. The mafia had taken full rights of the beach and were not allowing anyone to move around. At that time I was in service and could not do anything. Post retirement I am free. I am least bothered what the government wants to do and what the mafia wants to do. I have decided to fight for justice," he says.
The PIL alleges that rare beach sand minerals worth Rs 1 lakh crore have been illegally exported out of the country. Rajamanickam says in his affidavit that officials at the Centre and the state are hand in glove with the mafia, enabling them to escape punitive action. The Madras HC has asked the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government to respond within eight weeks.
The most curious documents which are part of the PIL, however, are a set of mining licences issued by the Tamil Nadu Geology and Mining Department to a private company VV Minerals based in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu. These licences are run of the mill except for one fact — they authorise the private company to mine and export monazite.
Significance of Monazite
Monazite is an atomic mineral found in the beach sands of the southern and eastern coasts of the country (see What is Monazite?). "World monazite resources are estimated to be about 12 million tonnes, two-thirds of which are in heavy mineral sands deposits on the south and east coasts of India as per the World Nuclear Association," said expert Bahram Ghiassee of London's Kingston University. He has studied the beach minerals in India.
(Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/)