We never learn from our past!  After 4 decades, the Union Carbide instrumental in the Bhopal gas tragedy has been forgotten completely. Similarly, it appears that the Vedanta group will also fall in line one day. Vedanta (Sterlite Industry) of Thoothukudi Tamil Nadu is a name that no one can forget, especially in Tamil Nadu. Sterlite operated the largest copper smelter plant in India, in Thoothukudi from 1998 to 2018. The plant has not been operational since March 2018 and was shut down on 28^th May 2018 after protests from locals. The plant also included a refinery, a phosphoric acid plant, and a sulphuric acid plant.  The Supreme Court dismissed a plea to reopen the plant in March 2024. Tamil Nadu opposed Vedanta’s suggestion to form an expert committee to decide on resuming operations, citing evidence of pollution by the plant. The Thoothukudi Copper Smelting plant has been long-opposed by the residents for polluting their environment and causing a range of health problems and was subject to several closures, on grounds of violating environmental norms. Now once again the Vedanta group is in the headlines. The only difference is the product, earlier it was copper and now it is tungsten. The issue is the same. The Union Ministry of Mines had auctioned 8 blocks for mining Tungsten in various parts of the country such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. Tungsten is in high demand for defense and other hi-tech industries, which is expected to be a strategic metal. In Tamil Nadu, every political party is against the proposed Tungsten or Wolfrum mining project in Nayakkarpatti Tungsten Block in Madurai district. This block is stated to overlap with the state’s Arittapatti Biodiversity Heritage Site, the first of its kind, spanning 193,215 hectares across the Arittapatti and Meenakshipuram villages in the Madurai district. The Tamil Nadu government declared this area a BHS on November 22, 2022, under the Biological Diversity Act of 2002. The block has already faced public protests and opposition from the Tamil Nadu Government. The project proponents say that the heritage area is just 193 Sq km out of the demarcated project area of 2016 Sq km that houses temples like Panchapandava temple and Jain Cave temple. On Dec 9^th, the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a resolution unanimously, rejecting the project. While we agree that development is essential for economic growth, the environment and ecology cannot be conveniently forgotten.

The area proposed for the mining activity is ecologically sensitive and was declared a biodiversity hotspot. Additionally, the identified mining activity will destroy the great heritage. Now we hope that the Ministry of Mining will give up the project. However, since the mining rights are now vested with the Centre as the Parliament has passed a bill taking over the rights in 2022, we do not know whether a positive decision would be taken to drop the proposed activity. In democracy the good old Latin quote ‘vox populi, vox Dei matters much. Let us wait and watch what is in store for us! (Picture Courtesy: Representative Internet photo)