Project report on protest by farmers of Tamil Nadu
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Neduvasal in Pudukottai district, over 400 kilometres south of Chennai, is threatening to become the next hotbed of protests in Tamil Nadu. Farmers, villagers and environmentalists are protesting against a soon-to-start hydrocarbon extraction project, claiming that it will affect their farmlands and pollute underground water.
The centre is planning to explore and extract hydrocarbon in Pudukottai in Tamil Nadu and Karaikal in Puducherry.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on 15 February gave its approval to award contract in 31 areas to 44 fields, including 28 on-land and 16 offshore fields discovered by Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL). The government has awarded contracts for the project to private firms.
According to the villagers, ONGC had dug borewells a few years ago in a nearby village to test the presence of hydrocarbons. “Villagers found oil oozing out of a borewell in Vanakkankadu village which is over 12 km from Neduvasal. This was polluting agricultural lands and we were worried,” said Parthiban Vairavan, a resident of Neduvasal.
This incident along with the CCEA’s nod for extracting hydrocarbon, has led to protests and hunger strikes since 16 February.
A release from the ministry of petroleum and natural gas on 15 February said: “It is expected that in-place locked hydrocarbons volume of 40 MMT oil and 22.0 BCM of gas will be monetized over a period of 15 years. The production from these contract areas will supplement domestic production.”