Even
as the country is debating the magnitude of scams involving Colagate
scandal, a silent and lethal swindling of precious Indian natural
resources is happening in the country. A cartel, headed by a
Tirunelveli-based businessman, is depriving India of its precious mineral wealth.
This smuggling relates to mineral reserves which are worth billions of
rupees, and compromises India’s energy security and strategic position
as a superpower.
The sea beach along Manavalakurichi in Kanyakumari district in Tamil
Nadu is unique in many ways. It has the world’s largest deposit of
monazite, ilmenite, garnet, zircon and rutile, all strategically and
economically important minerals and metals. The monazite from Manavalakurichi contains 12 per
cent thorium. Prof V Rajamanickam, India’s leading marine mineral
explorer and a geochemist of repute, says that Manavalakurichi is home
to world’s 30 per cent thorium deposits.
According to World Nuclear Association (WNA), the global body of
nuclear industry, India is home to 3,00,000 tonnes of thorium deposit.
What is not known to the outside world is that a Tirunelveli
businessman literally controls the mining industry in southern Tamil
Nadu. He owns 96 out of the 111 garnet mining licences issued by the
Indian Bureau of Mines. The Union Government has issued 44 licences for
mining ilmenite and he owns all the licences.
The value of 30 per cent thorium reserves of the world at
Manavalakurichi is 720 times more than the 2G spectrum scam, according
to leading geologists.
The company which has monopolised sand mining along the seashore on the
basis of its ability to bend and break laws of the land is exporting
the thorium-rich sand to other countries. Containers filled with sand
from Manavalakurichi are exported through Tuticorin Port. Instances of
boats ferrying sand laden bags to ships anchored off the Tirunelveli and
Kanyakumari coasts are regular sights, said Prof Rajamanickam.
The mining baron has made it rich by exporting ilmenite, rutile, garnet
and zircon. Though the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) controls the
sand along the coastline because of the presence of elements like
zircon, thorium and ilmenite, officials look the other way when sand
rich in thorium is exported from the region.
The sad part is that officials of the Department of Atomic Energy have
ignored the wanton looting taking place right in front of their eyes.
Two middle level executives of Indian Rare Earths Ltd at Aluva in Kerala
told The Pioneer that they were incapable of preventing such thievery.
“The licence to mine the sand was issued by our bosses in the Atomic
Energy Commission. Indian Rare Earths Ltd does no more mining. The
licence has been issued on the condition that the thorium mined by them
would be returned to the DAE,” they said.
But the mining baron has not returned a single grain of sand back to
the DAE. There are allegations that the engineers in IRE and DAE are
helping him export monazite to other countries.
Dr CSP Iyer, former director, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC),
narrates an interesting incident when the Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR) wanted to find out the impact of mining along
the south Indian coastline and asked him to prepare a status report.
“As part of this project titled Capacity Building for Coastal Placer
Mining, I visited the entire coast of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. But I was
not allowed any where near areas mined by these private companies. They
have something to hide,” he said.
Immediately after the signing of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal in
2007, Government of India amended the Mines and Minerals Act by a
Government order, probably under pressure from a foreign country, to
facilitate the export of the mineral-rich sand. Till then private
companies were not allowed mining of monazite because of the presence of
thorium. But there is no system in place to prevent the export of the
thorium-rich sand. The Tirunelveli baron has a global network to export
the thorium-rich monazite.
The illegal export of thorium was first noted by scientists of the DAE.
Since their hands were tied because of procedural propriety, they
alerted some concerned citizens in Chennai like former secretary to
Tamil Nadu Government V Sundaram and S Kalyanaraman, former Asian
Development Bank executive.
Sundaram, an IAS officer belonging to the old school had been
Tirunelveli District Collector and knew the district like the back of
his hand. “What I found was flabbergasting. I hope Chief Minister
Jayalalithaa would bring the culprits to book and save the south Indian
coastline from further looting,” he said.
According to Dr Kalyanaraman, who retired from the Indian Railway
Account Service, thorium reserves of India are worth Rs 1,340 billion.
“It is only a conservative estimate. If you take into account the
strategic importance, the price would go up manifold. You just find out
from international community of nations whether anyone with thorium
deposits would sell it,” he asked.
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