The Union Government’s move to auction coal blocks in Cauvery Delta spread across the districts of Thanjavur, Cuddalore and Ariyalur has led to widespread protests and resentment from farmers, businessmen and industrialists in Tamil Nadu.
The Cauvery Delta region is known as the Rice Bowl of Tamil Nadu and any move to explore, drill or extraction of oil and natural gas incusing coal bead methane shale gas would lead to irreparable damage to the environment and ecology, warned Chief Minister M K Stalin in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Out of the 101 blocks put up for auction across the country, three are in Tamil Nadu. The three blocks fall under the Cauvery Delta region which ha been declared as a Protected Agricultural Zone. As per the law enacted by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, no person shall undertake any new project or new activity specified in the second schedule in the PAZ, pointed out Chozha Nachiar Rajasekar, president of Tamil Chamber of Commerce.
“We need to impose a permanent ban on the mining of coal in Thanjavur Vadassery Cauvery Delta Region. There was a move by Centre to auction nearly 1000 acres of fertile paddy field in Mannargudi for extracting coal bed methane which would have resulted in Thanjavur turning into a desert. This was called off following public pressure,” said Rajasekar. He said coal mining itself has become irrelevant across world as most of countries are shifting to renewable energy instead of polluting thermal power stations.
R V Giri, president, Consortium of Indian Farmers Association (CIFA) said he was shocked over the Centre’s move to destroy Cauvery Delta region through mining and drilling.
