New rules on oil exploration irks farmers in Cauvery Delta

Farmers in the Cauvery Delta region, who are being forced to be content with just one crop a year, are up in arms yet again against the Union Government.

The bone of contention this time is a notification from the Union Environment Ministry that allows companies to carry out hydrocarbon exploration activities without applying for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and holding public consultations.

Environmental activists and farmers say the latest amendment to the EIA Notification, 2006 will give a free hand to companies like Vedanta Limited and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to carry out exploratory activities in an area of nearly 4,500 square km without holding any public hearing or conducting a study to assess any possible damage to the environment.

Vedanta, whose Sterlite Copper was shut in May 2018 after protests against the expansion plan turned violent killing 13 people in police firing, has been permitted to drill 274 exploratory wells and ONGC in 40 in Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Villpuram in Tamil Nadu and Kaaraikal in neighbouring Puducherry.

Farmers in the fertile Cauvery Delta region feel the hydrocarbon exploration would bring irreparable loss to agriculture in the Delta, whose cultivation area has already shrunk over the years due to a variety of factors. Hydrocarbon expansion was a major election issue during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with DMK even including its promise of scrapping the project if it came to power.

Mannargudi S Ranganathan, general secretary of Cauvery Delta Farmers Association, told DH “new freedom” for companies to explore for hydrocarbon in the Delta region.

“They don't have to ask for any permission. The government's obsession with exploring hydrocarbon will destroy the entire east coast from West Bengal to Tamil Nadu. Cauvery delta is a treasure for the country and I don't understand why the government wants to finish it off?” he asked.

Environmental activist Nityanand Jayaraman said downgrading such projects from the highest level of environmental scrutiny, category ‘A’, to the ‘B2’ category is liking saying oil exploratory activities are akin to the mining of soil.

“The intensity of impact on the environment through such projects is immense and to exempt them from EIA makes a bad law worse. Even though EIA and public hearings are “mere rituals”, the new notification doesn't give a say to the landowners whose land would be used for exploration,” he said.

P R Pandian, President, Coordination Committee of All Farmers' Associations of Tamil Nadu, also spoke in a similar vein.

“In layman's language, the new amendment says any company can take away the land of a farmer in the Delta region for oil exploration without his permission. How can a government allow a project without eliciting the views of the landowner who has been cultivating crops for decades together? This would be the last nail in the coffin if the new rules come into force,” he told DH.

He said the farmers' will move the Supreme Court against the new amendment to ensure that fertile lands are not taken away for projects by private companies. “We will not give away even an inch of land,” he said.

Ranganathan, himself a geologist, wonders why officials from the Geological Survey of India haven't red-flagged such projects which would not just wipe out agriculture but also degrade the environment severely. “Exploration of hydrocarbon in fertile lands should stop,” he said.