The recent decision by the Union Government to auction the tungsten-rich Nayakkarpatti block in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai district has triggered significant controversy and opposition.
Key Details of the Decision
- Location and Size: The Nayakkarpatti tungsten block spans 2,015.51 hectares in Madurai’s Melur taluk.
- Mineral Significance: This area is rich in scheelite, a critical ore of tungsten, essential for aerospace, defense, and green energy technologies.
- Auction and Identification: The Union Ministry of Mines announced the successful auction of eight mineral blocks, including this one, following identification by the Mineral Exploration and Consultancy Limited.
Local Opposition and Concerns
- Biodiversity and Heritage: The proposed mining site overlaps Arittapatti, known for its ecological richness and cultural heritage. It is home to:
- Rare species and diverse ecosystems.
- Historical monuments like cave temples, Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions, Jain symbols, and the Panchapandavar beds.
- Potential Irreversible Damage:
- Environmentalists and archaeologists warn that mining activities could severely impact the fragile ecology and destroy historical sites.
- Local residents fear that mining operations would disrupt their livelihoods and degrade the environment.
- Political Resistance: The Tamil Nadu Assembly unanimously passed a resolution condemning the Centre’s decision, emphasizing the need to protect the region’s unique ecological and cultural identity.
Tungsten: Basic facts
- About: Tungsten, also known as ‘wolfram’ is a very dense lustrous greyish white to steel-grey metal. The name tungsten is derived from the Swedish ‘tung sten’ meaning heavy stone.
- Tungsten has the highest melting point of all metals and is alloyed with other metals to strengthen them.
- Tungsten and its alloys are used in many high-temperature applications, such as arc-welding electrodes and heating elements in high-temperature furnaces.
- Tungsten is the heaviest metal to have a known biological role. Some bacteria use tungsten in an enzyme to reduce carboxylic acids to aldehydes.
- The principal tungsten-containing ores are scheelite and wolframite.
- In addition to being the world’s largest tungsten producer, China is the world’s top consumer of the metal.
- In India, the entire demand of tungsten can only be met by imports and recycling, as there is no indigenous production of tungsten ore & concentrates.
Balancing Development and Conservation
This issue highlights the tension between economic development and environmental preservation. While the mining of tungsten aligns with India’s push for self-reliance in critical minerals, the ecological and cultural costs of such activities in sensitive areas like Arittapatti pose serious ethical and strategic questions. Effective policy-making will require balancing these competing interests to ensure sustainable progress.
