Budget proposal triggers protests in N Andhra coast

Visakhapatnam: The proposal in the Union Budget to establish rare earth mineral corridors and the indications to locate one of them in North Coastal Andhra Pradesh has forced social activists to seethe with anger.

They have been on the warpath against exploitation of beach sand minerals for a long time on environmental grounds and fears over contamination of water leading to fish-kill and loss of livelihood to traditional fisherfolk. Geological Survey of India (GSI), during its surveys, has found over 115 million tonnes of heavy mineral deposits all along undivided Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts, part of Visakhapatnam Economic Region (VER).

Rich deposits of ilmenite, monazite, zircon, garnet, nutile and sillimanite are found to be concentrated over 160 blocks, mainly in Kalinapatnam coast in Srikakulam. The Kalingapatnam coast where mining was permitted earlier is said to be containing 10.70 million tonnes with 25 per cent average grade. High concentration of placer deposits were found in beach dunes and offshore alll along Bheemunipatnam, Pudimadaka,Barua and other areas during the GSI surveys.

In the budget address, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the policy is in line with the recently announced scheme to promote manufacturing of Sintered Rare Earths Permanent Magnets (REPM) with an outlay of Rs7,280 crore. Mining of beach sand minerals by Trimex Sands Private Ltd in Srikurmam area of Srikakulam was stopped in 2019 mainly due to policy shift and concerns expressed over environmental issues.

"Beach sands contain valuable atomic minerals and rare earths, especially monazite, the raw material for thorium, the fuel for India's nuclear development in the long run. Past experience with private beach sand mining has shown that monazite, though prohibited to be extracted and used, had been smuggled out at the cost of national interest," former IAS officer and social activist Dr EAS Sarma told Bizz Buzz.

He said though private mining of beach sands was temporarily banned, it has come back through a regressive amendment to the mineral regulation law. "The latest announcement of a "rare earth mineral corridor" in the budget coupled with private mining in AP will not only damage the marine ecology and hurt the interests of fishing communities but also cause long-term irreversible environmental damage," he observed.

Furious over the move, East Coast Mechanised Boat Owners' Association of India (ECMBOAI) has submitted a representation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and drop the move on environmental grounds and save thousands of fisherfolk from forfeiting their livelihood.

Association president Janakiram Vasupalli said the decision should be dispensed with to protect the livelihoods of thousands of fishing families and the marine ecosystems. He said the coastal mining policy risks unfairly displacing coastal villages for mining purposes. The association representing thousands of owners of mechanised boats and fishing families on the East Coast of India, stated that the corridors if established will damage coastal ecosystems, marine biodiversity, and the livelihoods of fishing communities who are entirely dependent on healthy seas for their survival. The proposed corridors aim to promote the mining, processing, research, and manufacturing of rare earth elements, which are primarily obtained from beach sand deposits.

While the association acknowledges the national strategic importance of securing rare earth minerals for India's technological and economic progress, it stated that conducting large-scale beach sand mining and associated industrial activities in sensitive coastal areas where traditional fishing communities reside could lead to a reduction in crucial breeding grounds for marine life, resulting in poor fishing yields and loss of livelihood for traditional fishermen.