The move is expected to halt large-scale mining, especially in Tamil Nadu.
New Delhi: A new gazette notification has banned the mining of beach sand by private players. In a February 20 notification, the Centre amended sections and rules that allowed private companies to mine rare earth minerals found in beach sand.
“All cases of Beach Sand Minerals and other placer deposits in association with monazite are notified as above threshold (i.e. the threshold is 0.00% monazite in Total Heavy Minerals), irrespective of monazite grade,” said the notification, according to The Lede.
An earlier amendment in 2016 barred private companies from mining beach sand that had monazite concentration of more than 0.75%. Monazite, an atomic mineral, can be processed to yield thorium, which is used to enrich uranium.
The move is expected to halt large-scale mining, especially in Tamil Nadu. As a result of the mining, the coastline of three districts in the state has severely been eroded. Though the state government already banned the coastal sand mining in 2013, The Wire reported that it continues unabated.
Private companies were not allowed to mine beach sand minerals until 1993. After liberalisation, private companies were initially allowed to mine garnet and sillimanite and permissions for other minerals followed.
[P]rivate firms are restricted from processing or exporting monazite. It remains a government monopoly, extracted under the purview of the Department of Atomic Energy. However, it remains legal for private companies to process and export other minerals mixed in beach sand – such as garnet, ilmenite, sillimanite, zircon and rutile – along with monazite.
These other minerals are separated, leaving behind waste sand containing monazite – or ‘monazite tailings’. These must be stored in areas or yards specified by the AERB, which is mandated to check these areas for radioactivity levels.
The report said that two miners held a majority of the apparently illegal stocks: S. Vaikundarajan and his brother S. Sukumar. Vaikundarajan is estimated to be the country’s largest beach sand mineral exporter and has been accused of large-scale illegal mining.
A suo motu PIL by the Madras high court has been investigating the problem of illegal beach sand mining, after a geologist alleged that it resulted in a loss of Rs 2 lakh crore to the exchequer. The court has banned export of beach sand minerals, while the 2016 amendment to the rules was also a result of the PIL.
Even the court’s order did not deter the sand mafia. As The Wire has previously reported, vast amounts of monazite continues to be mined illegally and even readied for export in some cases. These findings were part of the final report submitted by the Sahoo Committee, which was set up by the Madras high court.
In a district ruled by a powerful sand mining mafia, police booked two journalists as spies and detained local reporters for helping them.
New Delhi: In November of this year, journalists Arthur Bouvart and Jules Giraudat arrived in Chennai. They belong to a French organisation, Forbidden Stories, which travels the world to complete investigations by local reporters facing ‘threats, prison or murder’ – which many Indian reporters have faced for investigating illegal sand mining.
Ironically, the visit ended with the duo accused of spying – and two reporters from the area, D. Anandhakumar and M. Sriram, held and interrogated by police.
The trouble began when the French journalists visited Indian Rare Earths Ltd (IREL) in Manavalakurichi, in Kanniyakumari district, escorted by an activist on November 26. IREL is the Central government’s beach sand mining agency under the purview of the department of atomic energy. It is a prohibited and high security zone.
Bouvart told The Wire that they entered the plant with permission, went directly to meet a manager, and left as soon as they were asked to.
Police have registered a case against them for criminal trespass, read with sections of the Foreigners Act 1946: 14A (entry into restricted areas), 14B (using forged passport) and 14C (abetment).
However, they were unable to make an arrest as the duo had left the country by the time the case was registered. Instead, the deputy superintendent of police detained Sriram and Anandhakumar – who say they had neither accompanied the French journalists to IREL, nor had any knowledge of their plan to enter there.
The Chennai-based journalists were held for several hours, and were reportedly questioned by the representatives of the Intelligence Bureau, state intelligence, Q Branch, and the Central Intelligence Directorate, with DSP Bhaskaran acting as the investigating officer.
“To our shock, we were illegally detained at the DSP’s office and questioned for hours. We were asked to sign a statement, which we did. After that we were taken to Sun World Hotel in Kanyakumari and locked up … for almost six hours,” Anandhakumar said, according to the Times of India.
French journalists Arthur Bouvart and Jules Giraudat.
The DSP allegedly told the journalists to not talk about beach-sand mining. During the questioning, Bouvart and Giraudat made a video call to the police station and showed their press credentials.
After a few hours, Sriram was told to return to the hotel, while Anandhakumar was detained at the Kanyakumari police station. After several journalists called the DSP to ask why Anandhakumar was being illegally held, he was taken to the hotel late at night with four policemen outside the room. The next day the two journalists were again taken to the police station for more questioning.
It was only after senior lawyer D. Geetha intervened that the two journalists were released by the Kanyakumari police, after two days in custody.
The superintendent of police, N. Shreenath, has since given contradictory statements to the media – first that the French journalists were stopped at the IREL gate, but trespassed; that they ‘videographed the sensitive installation after trespassing into the prohibited zone’; and that the journalists did not take pictures or videos inside the premises of the IREL.
Pon Radhakrishnan, the BJP MP from Kanyakumari, had earlier made a statement to press that the French journalists were spies who “arrived by sea” to commit “a treasonous conspiracy”.
On December 3, the local unit of the BJP held a press conference demanding an investigation into French journalists and locals who had helped them, including environmental journalist Sandhya Ravishankar, who introduced them to the French team.
“I am afraid that I will be unfairly arrested under foisted charges,” Ravishankar told The Wire on December 3. “The Kanyakumari police appear to be playing into the hands of vested interests.”
Also on December 3, the Alliance for Media Freedom held a press conference in Chennai to respond to the allegations. N. Ram, Chairman of the Hindu Publishing Group, spoke for the two detained Tamil reporters. “We don’t want them to be subject to the illegal treatment they have suffered so far,” he said, “In a prejudiced atmosphere, coloured by all kinds of lies – fakes news, falsehoods, communal propaganda, attempts to alarm the public that people have come by sea and have stolen your secrets.”
This article was updated on December 3, at 3.45pm, with details of the BJP unit’s press conference and the mention of journalist Sandhya Ravishankar, and at 6.35pm, with details of the press conference in Chennai and the remarks by N. Ram.
The companies that are being searched are involved in mining, processing and export of beach sand minerals in an alleged illegal manner that led the taxman to probe tax evasion charges against them.
Chennai: The Income Tax Department (ITD) on Thursday launched multiple raids at over 100 locations in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh as part of a tax evasion probe against mining and mineral export companies, officials said.
The searches are being conducted at the premises of at least four such business groups in Chennai, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin and Karaikal in Tamil Nadu and Vishakhapatnam and Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh, they said.
One of the firms identified by ITD officials is V V minerals of Tamil Nadu.
Over 130 ITD officials are conducting the operation with assistance from security and police personnel, they said.
The companies that are being searched are involved in mining, processing and export of beach sand minerals in an alleged illegal manner that led the taxman to probe evasion charges against them.
The alleged illegal profits earned through this, they said, was subsequently ploughed for investments into other businesses of these groups like spinning mills, sugar mills, hotels, engineering colleges and some blue metal businesses.
Some overseas transactions of these companies, made in alleged violation of tax laws, is also under the scanner of the department and the sleuths are looking for documents, to substantiate these charges, during the raids, they added.
On Thursday, she found that the fuel pipe of her bike was cut and filed a sixth complaint with the Chennai police.
New Delhi: Chennai-based journalist Sandhya Ravishankar has stated that attempts were being made to harass and intimidate her by unknown persons. Ravishankar has faced multiple instances of harassment, stalking and violation of privacy after her four-part exposé on the sand mafia was published by The Wire early last year.
On Friday morning, Ravishankar took to Twitter to say that on the previous day, she had found that the petrol tube of her bike was cut. While she initially suspected that it was a simple case of petrol theft, she found that her fuel tank will still full. Suspicious, she checked the CCTV camera that was installed at her house, overlooking the parked vehicles. She tweeted the CCTV footage, in which two persons can be seen stopping at her house at 11:43 pm on Wednesday. While the footage is not clear, the men – wearing helmets – can be seen fiddling with Ravishankar’s bike. They leave after a few minutes and arrive again at 11:51 pm and can be seen approaching her bike once more.
Two days after I filed a police complaint with the CoP on my privacy being violated and harassment being meted out, a strange incident occurs. On 27.09.2018 I went to start my bike to head to work. I found the petrol tube was cut. Initial thought was "petrol thief". pic.twitter.com/YescYv7KlZ
Ravishankar had already filed a case with the commissioner of police when in late August, an online portal called Savukku had released the CCTV footage of her meeting with former DGP Ramanujam in March 2017 at a cafe on Chamiers road in Chennai.
In her complaint to the commissioner, Ravishankar said this was a violation of her right to privacy. She revealed that she had questioned the owners of the cafe how the footage was leaked, to which they told her that footage is only downloaded at the request of the police.
“It is therefore evident that Savukku has received the CCTV footage from the police… I have strong reason to believe that a senior police officer is colluding with the mining mafia in order to follow me, film and photograph me,” she said in her complaint. She said this police officer was targeting and maligning her at the “behest of the powerful beach sand miners in the state”.
On Thursday, she filed another complaint with the local police station. The local inspector and SI took cognisance of the complaint and paid a visit later in the evening. The police have promised to increase patrolling near her house. This is the sixth complaint that Ravishankar has filed with the Chennai police since the beginning of last year, soon after her stories were published by The Wire. While the complaints have been filed, the police have not yet registered a case or an FIR, failing which no investigation can be undertaken.
The Foundation for Media Professionals has released a statement supporting Ravishankar, while several journalists have also expressed solidarity through social media.
The Foundation for Media Professionals calls upon the Tamil Nadu Government to take a serious view of the harassment of this investigative journalist and order a probe into the leakage of the CCTV footage and take action against all those responsible for this offence.
It is well known that monazite-mining adversely impacts human health and the ecosystem because of the radiation hazards it brings with it. Research is needed to address local fears about causality.
It is well known that monazite-mining adversely impacts human health and the ecosystem because of the radiation hazards it brings with it. Research is needed to address local fears about causality.
Tailing deposits outside the Orissa Sands Complex in Chatrapur district. Credit: Ranjana Padhi and Rajinder Singh Negi
Ranjana Padhi is a feminist activist and writer based in Bhubaneswar. Rajender Singh Negi is a journalist, editor and translator based in New Delhi.
Badaputti (Ganjam district, Odisha): Sitting on a plastic chair with his legs stretched out, wearing a clean white round-neck shirt and a lungi, he seemed like a man who had lost all hope in life and someone who knew that the spectre of death was lurking around, waiting to consume him slowly but surely. He looked frail and weak and had festering wounds in his legs; his soles pale, indicating his anaemic condition. It was frightening to look into his eyes with those shadows of death staring back at you.
P. Jagannath, 51, has been suffering from chronic kidney disease (CKD) for the last two years. Having spent all their life’s savings, his family now has nothing left to continue his treatment. They can barely pay for his medicines and have to skip buying them more often than not. There is no question of affording dialysis any longer.
Till a few weeks ago, he was routinely being taken to hospitals in Berhampur and Bhubaneswar. The family even sold its gold ornaments and other assets on expensive treatment in private hospitals like Seven Hills and Apollo. His son P. Adinarayan had to leave his college studies midway to take over his father’s vocation, that of a barber, to meet daily expenses. As the entire family stood surrounding Jagannath for a photograph, their worn-out faces and torn emotions were eloquent enough of the toll his illness has taken on each one of them.
Jagannath lives in Badaputti village with his family, in one of the 85 two-room tenements that were constructed for landless families under the World Bank-supported Odisha Disaster Rehabilitation Project after the devastating Cyclone Phailin hit Gopalpur on the Bay of Bengal coast in October 2013.
The cursed village
The Terabasa Chowk is on the Gopalpur-Chhatrapur road. Badaputti village begins just after 500-600 meters to the west of this Chowk. The village runs along one kilometre having approximately 700 families. Pucca houses are lined on both sides of the main village road. At one end of the village, there is a primary and upper primary school established in 1954.
Badaputti was once the stronghold of resistance against a proposed mega steel plant by TISCO that people of Chhatrapur block had successfully stalled. On 19 July 1996, 55-year-old Lakshmi Amma of this village had given up her life trying to save the village and its land. The village is surrounded by cashew plants, kewda bushes and coconut trees. It gives the impression as if it has hidden itself since then.
Out of a population of roughly 3,000 people, almost 200 in this village have been diagnosed with renal ailments since 2013. There are a couple of other villages (Begnipetta and Lakhimpur) from where cases of kidney ailments have also been reported. Approximately 50 deaths have been reported due to kidney failure over the last two years in the area. We were even told by some villagers that the village is now so stigmatised that nobody is ready to marry their daughters and sons with anyone from the village. Elected representatives of the district have turned a blind eye as well.
Gurudeb Behera, a social activist who has been tracking all the diagnostic test results, illnesses and deaths of his fellow villagers, told The Wire, “We suspect that the monazite processing plant owned by the government, situated at a distance of less than 500 metres from the village boundary, is the culprit. We sent a letter to the collector about the health problems possibly caused by monazite in May last year.”
Why suspect monazite mining?
P. Jagannath with his family. Credit: Ranjana Padhi and Rajinder Singh Negi
This plant is named the Odisha Sands Complex (OSCOM) and is a unit of Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL). It was inaugurated in 2010. Its tailings – huge piles of dumped residue left over from the mineral processing operations – are deposited adjacent to the village. There are suspicions in the area that toxic effluents from the plant have been seeping into the groundwater.
Ninety percent of the population of Badaputti survives on groundwater for agriculture, drinking and daily use. Almost all inhabitants now have RO (reverse osmosis) water purifiers installed in their homes. Those who cannot afford the expensive purifiers end up buying bottled water for consumption. In the village square, a daily wage labourer, G. Damru, was walking down the road with a 20-litre plastic container of water mounted on his shoulder. Drenched in sweat and dishevelled in the sweltering heat, he grinned at us when we asked him why he needed to buy water. He said, “There is no other way but to buy drinking water, as you know the water here is not drinkable.”
It must not be easy to spend Rs 50 for 10 litres – assuming it is available at that rate; sometimes, some vendors sell the liquid at up to Rs 15 per litre. These landless labourers are barely able to eke out an existence in the crisis-ridden countryside. But then the situation warranted that they rather spend money to buy packaged water to avert worse health problems.
Jagannath is not alone in his misery. D. Lovaraj’s 60-year-old wife and daughter-in-law have been taking Lovaraj to Bhubaneswar for his routine dialysis. They travel twice a week from Badaputti with him to Bhubaneswar, 160 km away. Two years ago, when he was diagnosed with the kidney problem, it cost them Rs 60,000 for the initial treatment in a private hospital in Vishakhapatnam, where his son had then been posted. Lovaraj earned his living by cultivating kewda before he fell ill. His son, Manoj Kumar, told us over the phone that it costs Rs 1,300 for dialysis each time. Injections and medicines cost another Rs 2,500. And if other miscellaneous costs (such as transport) are also added, it comes to about Rs 5,000 per visit.
Lovaraj’s sister G. Saraswathi, 48, has also been complaining of pain in her legs for the last few years, especially in the joints near the ankles, and she was also diagnosed with a kidney problem. She travels to the CARE hospital in Visakhapatnam every two or three weeks, spending Rs 10,000-15,000 every month on medication.
Another family had lost two men to kidney failure in one way. K. Jangamia, 59, had died on the way to a hospital in Bhubaneswar on May 14, 2016, when his condition suddenly deteriorated. He had contracted a kidney disease soon after retiring and returning to his village from serving in the Indian army. He succumbed two years later. His wife K. Mahalaxmi said, “We always feared for his life so long as he remained in the army. We were happy that he had come back. We never knew that death was awaiting him here.”
Only six months later, his son K. Tulsi Rao, who was only 35, was also diagnosed with a kidney ailment. He died on May 7, 2017. He is survived by his wife and two young daughters.
When we visited the family, Tulsi Rao’s wife was away in the kewda fields, guarding the bushes from marauding monkeys. The family depends on kewda cultivation for its income – Rs 50,000-60,000 annually. They have also put their land on lease. It yielded 16-17 quintals of paddy annually. They also earn an income from selling cashew and coconut.
The rare-earths industry
Monazite, a reddish-brown phosphate mineral, contains rare-earth elements like thorium, uranium and lanthanum. The mineral’s crystallised form is found abundantly in sandy beaches. Odisha has the third highest concentration of monazite after Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
The demand for monazite surged in international markets when the demand for thorium and uranium surged. As such, rare-earth minerals including monazite are also vital ingredients of many gadgets, from iPhones and laptops to smart-bombs and tank armour.
In the world, China has been the biggest exporter of rare-earths. Over 90% of rare-earth metals used to be mined in China for export – until it slashed its exports by 70% in 2010 and compelled Western powers to look for alternatives. It was a decisive move by the country to protect itself against foreign ownership of strategic resources and create incentives for foreign companies to bring their manufacturing to China. After being able to provide rare-earth metals at the most competitive rates, China is now more in control of the industry, where the availability of rare-earths and their relation to manufacturing is regulated on its terms.
IREL, the public sector company, had been established in 1979 under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and subsequently intensified its operations as the demand for monazite climbed, especially as the defence sector expanded.
Monazite had earlier been classified as a ‘prescribed substance’: only the Union government could control its mining and transportation. The DAE sought to revise this so private miners could help as well. The department’s goal was to secure at least one million tonnes of monazite sand that private miners could then process.
In recent years, the Centre has stated (p. 29) that it plans to “achieve 40 per cent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy sources by 2030”. Uranium-based reactors are set to be augmented by thorium-based ones.
The search for non-fossil-fuel energy sources is also not without its own set of implications weighing on environmental and public health. For example, in August 2013, the National Green Tribunal had banned sand-mining in the beaches of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. According to Down to Earth, “The ban was in response to a petition filed by the NGT Bar Association, which, among other environmental risks, enumerated risk of radiation from the mining of beach minerals, mostly consisting of rare earths.”
A look at the literature available on monazite mining describes the impact of its radioactive content on public health and the ecosystem – as well as the health hazards posed by the waste generated during processing and the creation of tailing ponds. In a report published in December 2012, the US Environmental Protection Agency clearly states that placer deposits containing monazite are typically associated with higher concentrations of minerals containing radioactive elements.
A report published in 2010 by the British Geological Survey (BGS) discusses the many environmental issues associated with the production of rare-earth elements. These commonly result from insufficient environmental regulations and controls in the areas where the minerals are mined and processed. One of the most significant relates to the radioactivity of some ores. For example, xenotime, a rare-earth phosphate mineral, in the Malaysian placer deposits contains 2% uranium and 0.7% thorium. The BGS report states that this was the reason the Malaysian processing industry failed (p. 15), and that this is also why the processing of beach sands containing monazite has been banned in Australia, China and Europe.
So which safeguards were in place when India inaugurated a 10,000-tonne per year monazite-processing plant?
Need for investigation
S. Vaikundarajan, the founder-chairman of V.V. Mineral. Credit: Sandhya Ravishankar
India’s eastern coast has long been mined for monazite. V.V. Mineral, a Tamil Nadu company, had been charged with illegal sand-mining and a PIL was filed in the Madras High Court in January 2013. However, the company has denied any allegations of illegal mining: it claimed to have environmental clearances and pointed to the lack of substantial information to link kidney ailments and its activities.
There have also been reports from the Vatsavalasa area in the neighbouring district of Srikakulam, in Andhra Pradesh, of a company called Trimex Sands Private Limited. The company’s CSR initiative spent around Rs 1.5 crore on a dialysis unit. Patients do not have to go to Visakhapatnam or Srikakulam for dialysis any more. But in the same year, it was reported that Trimex had been making thousands of crores by extracting minerals from beach sand, and that monazite and other beach sand minerals worth about Rs 30,000 crore are exported every year from the northern coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh.
Instead of opening hospitals and clinics and such, the causes of CKD need to be studied.
This also needs to happen sooner because sites containing hazardous waste can become particularly problematic during or in the aftermath of natural disasters. Strong winds and rains can exacerbate the problem by transporting the waste through air and water. Odisha’s Ganjam district was severely affected when Phailin hit its coast in 2013, and Badaputti’s monazite plant reportedly suffered damages of over Rs 80 crore. However, the run-off from the tailings into the groundwater has not been explored to this day.
“There are stray reports and possible reasons why chronic kidney disease may happen but it is not at all concrete,” Vineeta Bal, who recently retired as a scientist from the National Institute of Immunology, Delhi, told The Wire. “Uranium in itself is toxic to the kidneys. Once deposited, these heavy metals stay there for a very long period and hence there is always cumulative toxicity. Besides, once there is kidney damage, phosphates that are a part of monazite sands will make it much worse because they are normally cleared by the kidney and an ailing kidney won’t be able to do it. But phosphates will get deposited in kidneys too and make matters worse. This is what is possibly happening to the people in terms of medical information cum speculation.”
Prafulla Samantara, a noted environmentalist who hails from Odisha, said in an interview to The Wire, “This is certainly a matter of investigation. It is not only about kidney disease but other diseases caused by radiation. If only the data of cancer patients from this area who went for treatment to Vellore hospital be made public, the trail of illness and deaths would become longer. They probably have been exposed to radiation since a long time now.”
Complaints by villagers to the district administration and the plant officials have not made any difference. Behera says, “After we sent the letter to the Collector in September last year, we even gave a notice for dharna, if the authorities did not pay heed. A few days later, the Sub-Collector met people and assured them of finding a solution for the problem within a month after the planned meeting. The said meeting never took place.”
Indeed, the demand for rare-earths in the global market cannot be met at the cost of human habitats and the environment. Badaputti can’t be left to its own devices. It is perhaps paying the price of the red alert in urging our attention to a range of interventions by both state and society.
The authors express deep appreciation to the people of Badaputti as well as Tejasvi Hora, University of Waterloo, Canada.
The court’s interim order raises crucial questions on why the Centre has failed to monitor and curb the illegal mining of atomic minerals from Tamil Nadu’s shores.
The court’s interim order raises crucial questions on why the Centre has failed to monitor and curb the illegal mining of atomic minerals from Tamil Nadu’s shores.
Madras High Court. Credit: Wikipedia Commons
As the saga of illegal beach sand mining drags on in the Madras high court, an interim order pronounced on March 27, by the first bench comprising acting Chief Justice Hulavadi Ramesh and Justice R.M.T. Teeka Raman, has finally called into question the role, or the lack thereof, played by the Centre over two decades in monitoring, curbing and enforcing laws preventing the mining of monazite, an atomic mineral found in the beach sands of Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari and Tuticorin districts in Tamil Nadu. The mineral is found in the sand of the shores of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha as well.
In its interim order, the high court said:
“Being high value mineral and a natural wealth, it should be preserved and should not be leased out without proper approval of Atomic Minerals Directorate (AMD) and the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM). The said mineral has to be isolated from crude form of sand mining and it can be best utilized in atomic power generation and manufacturing of Uranium and other types of heavy materials. In fact, by order dated 22.07.2016, this Court has taken note of the aspect of monozite (sic) mining and observed that it is for the Central Government to take a policy facilitating the utilisation of the monozite (sic) mined, however, no such policy had been brought… Having regard to the high value of the mineral Monozite, which is a rare metal and considered quite valuable and could be used as a replacement for Uranium in nuclear power generation, the Central government has to take a policy decision and regulate the mining of the same.”
Monazite is a heavy mineral found naturally mixed in the sands of the beaches of the southern coastline of India, especially in Tamil Nadu. It is an atomic mineral – meaning that it can be processed to yield thorium, which can be further enriched to uranium for use as nuclear fuel. As per existing laws, no private player can mine or process monazite. Private players can mine and separate other minerals found in the beach sand mixed along with monazite – such as garnet, ilmenite, rutile, leuzoxene, zircon and sillimanite. These minerals are used extensively as abrasives, and in paint and pigments.
The court has also ordered that a special team be formed by the Tamil Nadu government to send experts from the AMD and Indian Bureau of Mines to take samples of sand in the coastal areas where illegal mining is rampant and to analyse these for the level of monazite present.
But the question that has arisen is this – why has the Centre not acted for so many decades?
Blame game
During the hearing on March 27, additional solicitor general G. Rajagopalan, representing the Centre, said: “We have made the law but we are not able to handle. Implementing authority is the state government. We are not able to do anything.”
The law is clear. Atomic minerals like monazite are solely under the purview of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), a portfolio held by the prime minister. The reason for not allowing atomic minerals like monazite to be mined by private players is that it is a question of national security. Only state and Central government agencies, such as Indian Rare Earths Limited, can mine and process monazite.
In an affidavit filed by the DAE in 2013 before the Madurai bench of the Madras high court, the Centre explained the logic behind not allowing private players to mine and process monazite:
“The risks due to radiation, to the general public, in an unchecked and commercially-motivated processing/cracking of monazite for extracting mixed rare earth chlorides/compounds are too high and completely avoidable.”
The affidavit also points to “security and strategic concerns” of the atomic energy sector, under the purview of which comes the mining and processing of monazite.
Why then has the Centre not acted upon the blatant disregard for national security? In first part of a four-part series on illegal beach sand mining, The Wire had reported on how the Tamil Nadu government had “included” monazite in 17 licences to mine other beach minerals granted by the Centre. No action has been taken by the DAE or the AMD on this for years. And in the latest court hearing, the Centre has simply thrown up its hands and said it is “not able to handle”. Not able to handle what is a question that begs asking.
A senior official in the state government asked why the Centre had not lifted a finger, despite the respective district administrations now cracking down on the illegality. “The issue is about atomic minerals. This comes under the purview of national security which is the Centre’s domain. The ports and airports come under the Centre and they can easily issue orders to seal the boundaries of the country so that these exports are stopped until the case is over. Why are they reluctant to do so?” asked the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“There is no comprehensive law on this as on today. Things are incoherent. Unless they bring a comprehensive law that deals with atomic substances and also include penal provisions in it, nothing much can be done to curb this. Central government is very dormant in various issues, very active in pro-corporate and pro-religious issues. Centre needs to act quickly on this,” said K.M. Vijayan, senior advocate practicing at the Madras high court.
Comparing reports
Another revelation has been made in the high court’s interim order. Glimpses of the 2014 report compiled by senior IAS officer Gagandeep Singh Bedi on illicit beach sand mining has now been made public by the high court’s First Bench. Bedi’s report, commissioned by the state government in 2013, has been in limbo for three years and has not been made public, as the miners went to court and obtained a stay on the report.
“… illicit mining in Tirunelveli District in respect of 412.99 acres and the quantity of illicit mining was 90,29,838 MTs and in Kanyakumari District, there was illicit mining in respect of 4.05 acres and the quantity of illicit mined minerals was 54,446 MTs,” reads the interim order. This amount quoted from Bedi’s report refers to raw sand mined illegally in the respective districts.
Case study: Tirunelveli district
According to the revelations in the interim order, the Bedi report has found illegal mining of raw sand to the tune of 90 lakh MT.
Now take a look at the district level committee reports of the Tirunelveli district administration – one report filed in November 2016 detailed illegal mining carried out between 2008-09 and 2013-14, the year when the ban on beach sand mining was ordered by then chief minister J. Jayalalithaa. The second report filed in February 2017 details illegal mining carried out between 2000-01 and 2007-08.
On collating the data of the submissions made by the various miners to the district level committee, The Wire found that all beach sand miners in the district from 2000-01 to 2013-14 had mined a quantum of 1.6 crore MT of raw sand.
Of this, 1.2 crore MT of raw sand was found by the committee to be illegally mined.
The miners’ explanation for mining over the permitted limit was that there was a rollover of sand from the previous year’s balance. But the committee did not accept this explanation – if the miners were to be believed, the recovery rate of minerals from the raw sand would be as high as 58.41%, an impossible amount. “This high recovery of heavy Minerals from the total quantum of raw sand permitted are not supported by Approved Mining Plan / Approved Scheme of Mining… Even after extraction of a high recovery of 58.41% of Minerals transported, the balance materials could be waste only and it could not be either raw sand or heavy minerals,” stated the November 2016 report.
Two independent reports of the state government have given two different figures of illegal mining – Bedi’s 92 lakh MT and the Tirunelveli district level committee’s 1.2 crore MT. It is unclear as to whether Bedi’s 92 lakh MT is in addition to the claim of 1.6 crores of raw sand submitted by the miners or whether it is within the already mined amount.
What is clear is that there is large-scale illegal mining. The quantum is large by any standard. More worrying is what has happened to the monazite tailings that should have been stored by these miners? What is the quantum of monazite tailings that should be there, considering the large quantum of illegal mining of raw sand?
These questions rest directly on the doorstep of the prime minister as he holds the portfolio of atomic energy.
The director of the AMD in Hyderabad was unavailable to take calls and an email questionnaire was unanswered until this report was published.
“Even in the absence of legislation or whether the existing legislation is not enough, the Centre should now immediately take effective steps in terms of the court order to put in place a policy,” said senior lawyer Sriram Panchu. “The Court has been very clear in its order. Centre should act immediately.”
Meanwhile in Tamil Nadu…
As the court hearing on March 27 neared, some miners got rather desperate as export obligations had to be met. With all southern ports blocked off, as detailed in The Wire’s earlier report, boundaries were shut to the miners.
To this end, on March 8, a letter signed by Krishnamohan, assistant director of mines for Tuticorin district, reached the Tuticorin Port authorities. The letter contained permission for a consignment of 420 MT of garnet to be shipped to Dubai by VV Mineral, the largest miner and exporter of beach minerals in the country. On March 13, the assistant commissioner of Tuticorin Port sent a letter back to the Tuticorin collector’s office stating that Krishnamohan’s letter was not in the correct format and did not carry the collector’s seal and other details. The next day, March 14, a letter was again sent back from the collector’s office stating that the first letter of permission was genuine.
Smelling a rat, the assistant commissioner of Tuticorin Port rang up the collector to check if the letter from his office was genuine. A shocked collector, Ravikumar, said he was not aware of any of these letters and swung into action. Krishnamohan was suspended and the consignment of garnet seized on March 22. The next day, the godowns of various miners in Tuticorin district were locked by the collector’s teams and 4.55 lakh MT of minerals were seized. Another 3 lakh MT of raw sand was also seized.
Tuticorin godowns locked by collector. Credit: Sandhya Ravishankar
On March 27, amicus curiae V. Suresh, appointed by the Madras high court in the PIL, brought this incident to the bench’s notice. Senior counsel A.R.L. Sundaresan, appearing on behalf of VV Mineral, stated in response: “We have validly mined mineral. I have asked the authority to give me permit. I do not know who the authority is.”
On March 19, the Dakshina Nadar Sangam, which has as its member S. Vaikundarajan of VV Mineral, met with and proffered support to the AIADMK (Amma) candidate in R.K. Nagar bypoll, T.T.V. Dhinakaran, V.K. Sasikala’s nephew and the man who is now the puppet master of the current Edappadi Palanisamy government in Tamil Nadu.
“Vaikundarajan is in a fix right now with respect to the case that is going on in the High Court and also with the Collectors and the Port authorities cracking down on him. He is now trying to get back into the good books of the ruling party. I think he might even succeed in effecting a patch-up,” said Jayaram Venkatesan, social activist and convenor of Arappor Iyakkam, an anti-corruption citizen’s movement.
The next hearing is scheduled for April 27 when the amicus curiae is expected to submit a comprehensive report on the issue of illegal beach sand mining. The state government has already issued orders for a committee to be formed headed by a secretary level officer as per directions of the court. This committee will consist of officials from all the departments dealing with beach sand mining, including the DAE and the AMD. As per the directions of the court, frequent patrolling of the beaches of Tamil Nadu has to be done by this committee to ensure that no mining of beach sand takes place. Senior officials of the DAE and the AMD have also been directed to sample the beach sand and submit analyses of monazite content.
In the letter submitted through the Tamil Nadu principal resident commissioner, the journalists have asked chief minister E.K. Palaniswamy to intervene in the matter and ensure Ravishankar’s safety in practicing her profession, in addition to making sure that those guilty of threatening and trying to intimidate her are brought to justice.
“We the undersigned women journalists, would like to bring to your kind notice the threats and sustained harassment faced by Ms Sandhya Ravishankar, a Chennai based journalist. It is a matter of grave concern that Ms Ravishankar has been targeted with threats to her person following her investigative stories,” the letter says. “We request you to kindly intervene in this matter and ensure that Ms Ravishankar is allowed to pursue her vocation without any intimidation of any kind. We also urge your good office to identify and take strict action against those who are threatening her.”
Signatories to the letter include T.K. Rajalakshmi of Frontline, Amiti Sen of Business Line, Santwana Bhattachaya of the New Indian Express and Shobhna Jain of VNI News.
President of the Delhi-based Indian Women’s Press Corps Sushma Ramachandran told The Wire that the organisation has written a letter to Ravishankar expressing their support. They are also planning to write a letter to the Tamil Nadu chief minister very soon, asking that the threats against Ravishankar be taken very seriously and she be offered protection.
Over a thousand people, including musician T.M. Krishna, social activist Aruna Roy, Kavita Krishnan, Annie Raja, noted activist Harsh Mander, Professor Lakshmanan, Evidence Kathir, Dr. Anand Teltumbde, environment activist Nityanand Jayaraman and independent journalist Cynthia Stephen have signed a petition condemning the threats that Chennai-based journalist Sandhya Ravishankar has been receiving since writing a four-part series exposing the corruption and environmental exploitation plaguing Tamil Nadu’s sand mining industry, published on The Wire.
Networks like the Women in Media (NWMI) have also come forward in support for Ravishankar.
Ravishankar has become a target for online abuse and harassment since detailing the functioning of the sand mafia in the state, which has led to decades of environmental exploitation and corruption.
The authors and signatories of the letter believe that the threats Ravishankar is receiving violate the constitutional right to freedom of press since her work is in the nation’s interest and it is the “collective duty of citizens and authorities to uphold that right.”
The document states, “Action must be taken against those threatening her, so that such intimidation is discouraged. It is a known fact that journalists face grave dangers and undertake enormous risks in reporting inconvenient facts about powerful lobbies.”
Magsaysay award winner and musician T.M. Krishna said of Ravishankar’s work, “She has given us an opportunity to declare freedom from the various goons who control our social, economic and political existence. It is the responsibility of every one of us to ensure that Sandhya is safe and continues her work. We are living in times when dissent has been turned into an anti-national word by the political powers at the helm. And to further establish that, they bully and frighten people who stand up to them courageously. Dissent is the core energy that keeps the spirit of democracy alive and it is beholden on everyone of us to protect, preserve and to actively express our dissent to every kind of violence that is perpetrated in society. ”
In addition to pointing out the constitutional importance of taking strict action against those behind the threats, the letter also highlights the gendered nature of the abuse Ravishankar is facing, stating, “The threats to Sandhya indicate attempts to silence her and the trolls have been hurling gender-based slurs. Such threats to women in the field of journalism need to be countered strongly by authorities as well as civil society.”
Social activist Aruna Roy said, “People often think of corruption as financial, or dealing with money and bribes alone. Sand is an important natural resource and therefore illegal sand mining is often not perceived as such by people. Chennai based Sandhya has brought this to light and shown through her work how this natural resource has been exploited by the powers. Sandhya through her extensive series of articles has raised some of these vital questions. Threats to her are an attempt to quell all awareness and discussion on the very subject of sand mining mafia, and is not merely an isolated attack on an individual.” Adding, “Moreover, the nature of the threats indicate how social media is falling prey to the hands of anti-social elements, who use this to target women freely.”
Noted Chennai-based environmental activist Nityanand Jayaraman spoke on the issue, saying, “If poets, artists, thinkers and independent-minded journalists are silenced, a country loses its conscience. At a time when kleptocracy is in the spotlight in the state, the brazen threats by the beach sand mafia assume increased significance. The police should act in a manner than inspires public confidence.”
Stephen echoed similar sentiments in her statement: “It is a matter of grave concern that a reporter who has done an investigative report on illegal sand mining in the state of TN is being threatened. That she is a woman is also very significant. When public interest is being upheld by her work, and the people of Tamil Nadu and the administration of the state are stakeholders, these threats to her are worthy of the highest condemnation. We call upon the government to ensure her tormentors are arrested immediately and brought to justice. Furthermore we call for full clarification on the violations uncovered by Sandhya Ravishankar and immediate action against the perpetrators of the illegal mining. The ill-gotten wealth to must be brought back to India and used for the benefit of the people of the region who are the true owners.”
The full petition is as follows:
Statement of support for Sandhya Ravishankar, Chennai-based journalist facing threats for reporting on sand-mining mafia
March 17, 2017
We, the undersigned, are concerned about the reports of threats and intimidation to Sandhya Ravishankar. We strongly condemn the same and express our support to her, as well as to other journalists and media-persons who undertake such courageous, investigative work of uncovering truths about established powers.
Sandhya Ravishankar has published a series of articles on the sand mining mafia in Tamil Nadu as part of her investigative work undertaken over four years. Ever since her article was published, she has been under threat and intimidation. As reported in The Wire, Sandhya has said, “I have been harassed online with trolls on social media using foul language against me, calling me a “corrupt” journalist, a “fake” journalist etc. My mobile number was published on Twitter and Facebook by the anonymous trolls supporting Mr S. Vaikundarajan, the largest beach sand miner in the country – my mobile number was published with a note in Tamil saying that I was “anti-Jallikattu” and asking people “not to call her”. Subsequently I received a flood of abusive and threatening calls – unknown people threatening to put chilli powder inside my private parts, threatening to beat me up and abusing me in the filthiest manner possible.” She has lodged complaints with the Press Council of India, the Indian Women’s Press Corps, The Editor’s Guild, the Chennai City police and the Cyber Crime Cell.
As citizens of India, we stand in full support and solidarity with journalists like Sandhya. We state that she is not alone, and that we stand by her. We demand that her complaint be taken seriously by the authorities, and that they take cognizance of the sensitivity of her work. Action must be taken against those threatening her, so that such intimidation is discouraged. It is a known fact that journalists face grave dangers and undertake enormous risks in reporting inconvenient facts about powerful lobbies. Moreover, freedom of press is a Constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right (Art. 19) and it is the collective duty of citizens and authorities to uphold the right. The threats to her are a violation of that very right.
Sandhya’s investigation into the issue of sand mining is, truly, in the interest of the nation. Her reports have highlighted long term and short term impacts on Tamil Nadu’s environment and its economy. Significantly, she has pointed out in her investigation how the law of the land is being subverted with impunity by a private conglomerate, even as law-abiding officials have only attempted to implement laws.
The threats to Sandhya indicate attempts to silence her and the trolls have been hurling gender-based slurs. Such threats to women in the field of journalism need to be countered strongly by authorities as well as civil society. This is a question of safeguarding fundamental democratic rights. We therefore urge that speedy and exemplary action be taken so that a strong message is sent to those behind these threats and intimidatory tactics.
Social activist Harsh Mander said of the issue, “Sandhya’s case is emblematic of the climate of permissive intolerance that we see around us today. That she is trolled, with sexually violent threats, and that too for exposing corrupt nexus of the sand mafia, is a sad commentary on our times. We need to all stand in solidarity with Sandhya and all the Sandhyas around us.”
And Mumbai-based independent journalist Geeta Seshu asserted, “All journalists are standing with Sandhya Ravishankar and her work. “
Ever since the series came out, Sandhya Ravishankar says she has been harassed by online trolls and on the phone, receiving multiple threats of violence.
Ever since the series came out, Sandhya Ravishankar says she has been harassed by online trolls and on the phone, receiving multiple threats of violence.
New Delhi: Chennai-based senior journalist Sandhya Ravishankar, who published a four-part series on Tamil Nadu’s sand mafia in The Wire, has alleged that she has been constantly harassed by supporters of S. Vaikundarajan (owner of the largest sand mining conglomerate in the country, who is mentioned extensively in the articles). The series, published in late January this year, documented the illegal sand mining, political collusion, and methods used to suppress competition in the south and is the outcome of four years of investigative journalism.
Ever since the series came out, Ravishankar says she has been harassed by online trolls and on the phone, receiving multiple threats of violence.
In a letter to the Press Council of India, Ravishankar has said, “I have been harassed online with trolls on social media using foul language against me, calling me a “corrupt” journalist, a “fake” journalist etc. My mobile number was published on Twitter and Facebook by the anonymous trolls supporting Mr S. Vaikundarajan, the largest beach sand miner in the country (refer to Part 03 for details about him) – my mobile number was published with a note in Tamil saying that I was “anti-Jallikattu” and asking people “not to call her”. Subsequently I received a flood of abusive and threatening calls – unknown people threatening to put chilli powder inside my private parts, threatening to beat me up and abusing me in the filthiest manner possible.” Ravishankar had mentioned some of this harassment as well as previous attempts to intimidate her in part four of the series, on her experience of writing this exposé.
Online blogs have also come up in both Tamil and English that target Ravishankar, using terms like the ‘Phoolan Devi of journalism’.
Ravishankar filed a complaint with the Chennai city police earlier this week, in addition to one with the cyber wing when her phone number was released on the internet last month.
Vaikundrajan’s legal team has also sent Ravishankar a notice saying they will be filing a defamation case against her, but the case has not been filed as of yet. According to her letter to the Press Council, Ravishankar is not the first journalist to face this kind of intimidation from the sand mafia in Tamil Nadu.
“It is a situation of great concern that a rich, powerful and politically connected man is using all means to harass, stalk and intimidate an independent journalist such as myself into not writing anything about illegal beach sand mining, which is an issue of size and scope beyond any scam the country has seen so far, with concerns over national security thrown in.
Tamil magazine Vikatan, The Hindu (Tamil) and others are also at the receiving end of the miner’s ire and false defamatory claims when they refer to the subject of illegal beach sand mining. Most mainstream newspapers and publications are afraid to write on this subject, fearing exactly such harassment and legal issues.
If this continues, I am afraid that the freedom of journalists to write on core key issues in Tamil Nadu will face a death knell. Every individual has the right to file any number of cases, of course. But slander and falsities being circulated viciously on social media and through WhatsApp are issues that cannot be dealt with easily or stopped. It will only lead to a chilling effect on every journalist who wants to take up a tricky and complicated issue that is of prime social importance and in public interest.
…Today this is happening to me. Tomorrow it could happen to any journalist in Tamil Nadu or elsewhere in the country.”
A journalist’s account of the perils of investigating illegal beach sand mining in Tamil Nadu.
A reporter’s account of the perils of investigating illegal beach sand mining in Tamil Nadu
The reporter Sandhya Ravishankar, pictured here on assignment in Chhattisgarh. Credit: Special Arrangement
Chennai: Journalism 101 drills a particular ethic into our heads – the journalist can never become the story. The use of the word ‘I’ is generally abhorred. ‘Attribute, attribute, attribute’ is the mantra. The journalist is the fly on the wall – watching, mirroring and making sense of the world around her.
Drastic situations though, call for drastic measures. A temporary break of the rigid code of journalism, perhaps. All in the interest of the truth – to help the reader make up her mind about whether this journalist’s work is to be trusted or binned. Investigating the rich and mighty, the politically connected, is never an easy job and many Indian journalists have paid the price for daring to do so. Some have even paid for it with their lives. Luckily I have not yet come to that pass.
Since the publication of my series in The Wire on illegal beach sand mining, a number of anonymous online Twitter and Facebook accounts have cropped up to harass and target me personally. Blog posts have been written alleging that I have written stories on behalf of the rivals of S. Vaikundarajan, India’s largest beach sand miner, for an unspecified remuneration. One Twitter handle, after a series of tweets referring to me as “paid journalist” went on to tweet my mobile number along with a message stating that I was against jallikattu and asking people not to call me and abuse me.
Since then, as expected, there have been a series of phone calls, some threatening, some abusive; many of these callers simply fall silent when the phone is answered. By way of abundant caution, I was compelled to file a complaint with the cyber crime division of the Chennai city police. Police commissioner S. George has responded promptly, beefing up patrolling and providing support to myself and my family.
This is the fourth year I have been on the story and the fourth year I have faced harassment and intimidation. What began as a regular news story on the mining of rare earth minerals found in the beach sands of Tamil Nadu turned out, to my astonishment, to be one about large scale illegal mining. One estimate of the loot pegs the amount at least Rs 1 lakh crore – the details of which I have provided in my series of reports. Rare earth minerals include an atomic mineral called monazite – when processed, this mineral yields thorium, a nuclear fuel, which can be used in nuclear weapons (if used to breed uranium-233). My investigations pointed in the direction of massive looting, not just of rare earth minerals but also monazite – a potential threat to national security.
Investigating the companies that mine beach sand also meant investigating mainly one family based in Tirunelveli – S. Vaikundarajan and his brothers – who has a virtual monopoly over the country’s beach sand mining and export industry. Tamil Nadu’s southern coastline is in danger – rampant illegal mining has destroyed the natural ecology of our shores. While a large number of residents of the area benefit from the mining jobs created by the family’s business, a larger number of villagers and fishermen live in fear of this family and their associates. As is usually the case with the rich, they are also powerful – politically connected and protected by the powers that be, no matter who is in the seat of authority in the state and at the Centre.
I knew this was a story that would have enormous and wide ranging ramifications. It would also serve public interest in varied ways. And so my investigation was on.
A raid and a transfer
This story begins in August 2013. It was a lethargic week at the Times Now bureau in Chennai (where I was then employed) as the top story on the channel was that of a young IAS officer, Durga Shakti Nagpal, in Uttar Pradesh, suspended for raiding the sand mining mafia in her state. No connection to the southernmost part of the country – Tamil Nadu – which remains largely and blissfully oblivious to the furore up north. On the morning of August 7, I received a message from an IAS officer whom I was in regular contact with. “Ashish Kumar is raiding illegal sand miners in Tuticorin. Speak to him. Some developments may occur,” I was informed. I called Kumar, then the district collector of Tuticorin, who confirmed that he had indeed raided a few mines and that he would be submitting a report to the state government. I alerted my boss, a senior editor at Times Now, Mumbai, adding that this might turn out to be similar to the Durga Shakti Nagpal case. My boss asked me to wait and watch – and alert him in case any action was taken against the collector.
By around 9 pm the same day, I received another message from my IAS contact in Chennai. “He has been transferred,” it said. I called Kumar once again, who reluctantly confirmed that transfer orders had arrived, dated the same day. “How did you know?” he repeatedly asked me, a question that went unanswered. I alerted my boss in Mumbai – the headline would be ‘Another Durga Shakti Nagpal? Tuticorin district collector transferred eight hours after raiding sand mafia’. But the channel’s editor, Arnab Goswami, had to be alerted first, as the news was sensitive. The Chennai team was primed – they had to move to Tuticorin at any moment, along with the OB (outdoor broadcast) van. Goswami was in the studio, anchoring ‘The NewsHour’ and he came on the line around midnight. “Why aren’t you in Tuticorin yet, Sandhya?” he asked. “Get there now.” A six-member team left for Tuticorin in the early hours of August 8. Our big story had finally arrived. We had broken it hours before anyone else had it.
From Tuticorin and Tirunelveli to Kanyakumari
Excitement built as we neared Tuticorin. First on the agenda was an interview with a reluctant Kumar, following which we shot the mines he had raided. Interviews with villagers pointed us in the direction of Tirunelveli – the epicentre, we were told, of large scale beach sand mining in the state. “Be careful madam,” I was warned repeatedly by villagers and local activists who had been protesting against indiscriminate mining. “Those guys are ruthless.” We conducted a sting operation on the then Tuticorin superintendent of police, M. Durai, who admitted that no FIR had or would be filed against the powerful miners despite the district collector’s orders. We realised that Kumar had only scratched the surface of a large and powerful mafia.
Our next stop was Tirunelveli. We drove along the beautiful southern coast, interviewing villagers, fishermen and priests from tiny churches in the area. One local activist took us to a village called Uvari. Fishermen there eagerly took us to the place where red beach sand was being mined using diggers (JCBs). Our local reporter, Paramasivam, too had accompanied us to this village. “Don’t worry madam, we will come with you and protect you,” said the fishermen of Uvari. “Many people who have seen this mining have gone missing – they are abducted, killed and thrown into the sea by these fellows. They are ruthless. But as long as we are with you, they will not dare try anything,” they said. A large group followed us to the mining site – around 20 fishermen, residents of Uvari, shielded us as my colleague, Manish Dhanani, filmed the mining activity.
When the workers realised that they were being filmed, the JCBs, equipment and trucks disappeared from view very quickly and soon enough we heard one fisherman mutter – “Adho varaanga paarunga” (See, there they come). An angry group of five workers had arrived in a jeep, asking us who we were and why we were filming private land. “We are journalists from Chennai,” we said repeatedly, as a couple of them stuck mobile phones in our faces, clicking our pictures and filming videos. “Why is he taking my pictures without my permission?” I asked one of them angrily. The fishermen quickly jumped in with soothing words, before a fight ensued. “Please leave now,” ordered the workers. One fisherman spoke on our behalf – “We are leaving, sir, they just wanted to see,” he said rather vaguely with an equally vague smile. Manish and I were quickly ushered back into the village by the fishermen. “We don’t want the mining to take place but we are afraid of him,” said one fisherman as we walked back to the car. “Who is he?” I asked. “Annachi (generic term for brother),” he said. “Who is Annachi?” I asked again. “Vaikundarajan.”
The name Vaikundarajan was first uttered in Tuticorin and by the time our team reached Tirunelveli, I’d gained a fair amount of knowledge about the man and his business activities by calling up other journalists and IAS officers. He was said to be all powerful in the three southernmost districts of the state – Tuticorin, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari. He mined beach sand minerals, also known as rare earth minerals – garnet, ilmenite, rutile, leucoxene and sillimanite. Don’t mess with Vaikundarajan, I was warned repeatedly by well-wishers and friends. He is only trouble and politically well connected.
Journalism demands that all sides of a story are given a voice – the alleged illegal miners had to be interviewed too. We headed next to Thisaiyanvilai, the village which serves as the headquarters and base for Vaikundarajan’s mining operations. We parked the car outside a house which we were told belonged to Vaikundarajan and went in without cameras to ask if he would grant us an interview. Vaikundarajan was not there but his brother Jegatheesan, a partner in the company, was. He agreed to talk to us. Manish ran to the car to grab his camera and microphone. “He complained about us, so we were forced to complain about him to higher authorities,” said Jegatheesan when asked about Kumar. “That is why he got transferred.” Once the camera stopped rolling, Jegatheesan asked us to sit down and began questioning me specifically. Was I married, where was I from, how many children did I have and so on. We took our leave on a cordial note, thanking the miner for the interview. “You must be living in a flat in Chennai?” asked Jegatheesan suddenly as we were readying to leave. I nodded slightly, not knowing where this was going. “Hmmm… stay safe. Chennai is a dangerous place,” he said. Nodding dumbly, Manish and I left.
“He was threatening us in a very subtle way,” said Manish, currently a senior video journalist with Times Now. “He was basically telling us to back off or else… that was quite a scary episode!”
Back in the car, we met a very rattled Jayaseelan, the young man who had been driving us around since we left Chennai. “A group of four-five men came and looked all around the car and under it,” he informed us. “They asked me who we were. I told him the reporter is inside Ayya’s house. They noted down my vehicle number. Please, let us leave right away,” he said.
As we left Thisaiyanvilai, our hearts beating rather wildly, we noticed two burly men clad in white shirts and white veshtis (dhoti), thick gold chains around their necks, on motorbikes – one on each side of our car. They would speed up, glare at Jayaseelan and me, and then drop behind. A few minutes later, in tandem, they would speed up and glare menacingly at us again. This continued for 10 kilometres. Once we were sure they had finally stopped following us, we stopped the OB and the car and almost cried in relief.
By this time the entire crew was rattled, so we decided to head to Kudankulam, where we knew some people who were protesting the nuclear power plant. “That is the only safe place I can think of now and it is getting dark,” I said. The team concurred. We had never driven that fast to any other destination before – and haven’t since.
Daylight brought with it renewed courage. We headed onward to Kanyakumari and found a derelict, abandoned beach mineral processing plant. As Manish and I walked around it, filming, we heard a shout. “Run, Sandhya,” said Manish who saw the man before I did. A man in a lungi (kind of dhoti) was running towards us with a sickle. “Wait Anna (elder brother), we are not doing anything,” I shouted out to the man. He lowered his sickle as he neared us. “What are you doing? You cannot take any photographs here. Get out right now,” he warned. Manish and I left quickly.
Times Now played our stories repeatedly on the channel, along with the hot issue of the UP IAS officer Nagpal. Tamil Nadu was in the headlines and ours was the top story for a week. (Two of the stories are appended below, others have been archived here, here and here.
Our relentless coverage of the issue appeared to have had its impact. Tamil Nadu’s chief minister at the time, J. Jayalalithaa, announced the creation of a special team to probe allegations of illegal beach sand mining in Tuticorin district in August 2013.
I continued my reportage on the issue with a follow-up story questioning whether thorium was being illegally exported out of the country.
A month later, after the probe team headed by bureaucrat Gagan Singh Bedi had handed in its report, Jayalalithaa banned beach sand mining across the state and directed the same team to probe illegal beach sand mining in four more districts – Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari, Trichy and Madurai.
Angered by this move, in August 2014, an organisation of beach mineral workers, backed by Vaikundarajan, sent out press releases to popular news organisations accusing me of “taking money to the tune of Rs 50 lakhs from Dhaya Devadass, a rival miner.” Another journalist with The Hindu’s Tamil daily who had also written about the issue was named in that press release as well. Along with this, blog posts with similar allegations began circulating online, all of which I ignored.
Going solo
By November 2014, I had decided to go solo, quitting Times Now after the excitement of election coverage. I wanted to write, do some meaningful stories – real grassroots journalism. In January 2015, a PIL (public interest litigation) was filed by geologist Victor Rajamanickam in the Madras high court. Between 2013-2015 – since I began investigating illegal beach sand mining in the state – a number of activists, rival miners and some officials from various state governments had got in touch with me and offered me various documents. Times Now, busy with the high voltage election campaign, was not interested in pursuing the story at the time.
The PIL alleged a loss of over Rs 1 lakh crores to the exchequer due to illegal beach sand mining. It asked the Madras high court to form a special investigation team to investigate the same. I now had in hand a large number of documents that allowed me to do a detailed story. I pitched the idea to the Economic Times, whose Sunday edition carries freelance contributions. The editor was excited and my story was published in February 2015.
While working on the story, I had written to Vaikundarajan’s son V. Subramanian, asking for a response to the allegations made in the PIL. Their company, VV Mineral, deputed a PR agency based in Delhi to contact me and organise an interview with a director of the firm in Chennai. The interview was to take place in the Economic Times‘s Chennai office and the PR agency’s head promised that all my questions would be answered. Vaikundarajan himself arrived for the meeting which lasted for about two hours and was audio taped with his permission, with the head of the PR firm simultaneously recording the same conversation. The meeting was cordial and fascinating, to say the least.
Following the story’s publication, a legal notice was issued to the paper’s editor and me on the same day and Vaikundarajan’s lawyers descended on the paper’s team like a ton of bricks. They alleged flaws and factual inaccuracies in the story. My response to all their allegations was sent to the Economic Times’s legal team, which held negotiations for months. Finally a few months later, an innocuous clarification was printed in order to avoid a lawsuit and a drawn out court battle.
In 2013 and 2014, Frontline magazine too wrote a number of reports on the issue, for which they too received legal notices.
That was the end of that. Or so I thought. I was wrong.
Summons here, slander there
In February 2016, my husband V. Prem Shanker and I both received a mysterious summons from a Tirunelveli court. Deeply engaged with covering the state assembly election campaign at the time, we were mystified by the case. We had been summoned to appear in person in May 2016. Prem heads the Economic Times bureau in Chennai and he requested his organisation’s legal team to find out what the case was about. It was a defamation case filed by a lawyer who worked with Vaikundarajan. One whole year later, they had decided to file a case against Times Internet and me, dragging Prem into the mix with bizarre allegations. The Madurai bench of the Madras high court has since dispensed with its demand for personal appearances for both of us. But the case is sub judice and therefore, I will not comment further on that.
In early August 2016, eight state officials were suddenly suspended by the Tamil Nadu government. These included a former chief secretary of state and the commissioner of geology and mining. Enquiring into the suspensions, I found out that these had something to do with Vaikundarajan and a report by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). “They have dragged you too into this madam,” said an IAS officer but refused to elaborate further. “You will find out yourself, I am sure.”
Curious, I began to dig once again. The Madras high court offered me answers in the form of a document submitted by VV Mineral’s counsel for its defence against the very same PIL that Rajamanickam had filed in 2015, which had since been taken up suo moto by the court. Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Mahadevan were hearing the case.
The damning document was an official report compiled by the union Ministry of Environment and Forests titled, ‘Joint Inspection report of mining lease hold areas and their adjoining areas in the coastal areas of Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Kanyakumari districts from 24.04.2015 to 27.04.2015’.
My 2015 Economic Times story precipitated an inspection by the MoEF, which instructed its regional office to investigate the claims about illegal beach sand mining in my report. Accordingly, the ministry constituted an 11-member team with officials from the regional MoEF office in Chennai, the state mining department, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board as well as other experts and geologists.
The report, while giving a clean chit to Vaikundarajan, went on to include statements in which he had slandered the author of the report – me. On page 7 of the report, Vaikundarajan is quoted as saying:
“Further, it was appraised that the Reporter Mrs. Sandhya Ravichandran has of late developed enmity towards V.V. Mineral for not getting employment to her husband Mr. Ravichandran in their TV Channel News 7 owned by the other partners of V.V. Mineral. Mrs Sandhya has reported to have threatened the VVM people from August 2014 itself and this has been documented in an article by the employees association president letter dated 21.08.2014…”.
The truth is that in 2014, my husband Prem, who is a senior journalist, had quit the Tamil channel Puthiya Thalaimurai and started a media solutions firm called Delta4Cast along with two of his friends and colleagues. Prem was contacted by a senior journalist in Chennai – who in turn had been approached by Vaikundarajan and his son – to launch a new channel called News7. This senior journalist has known Vaikundarajan for a number of years. Since the journalist had a print background, he wanted Prem to help him set up the television channel as his number two. Prem informed the journalist that he was not interested in joining the company as he had just launched his own firm. The journalist, however, insisted that he meet with Vaikundarajan’s son Subramanian, who was heading the channel. Prem again reiterated that he did not think it was proper, as his wife – I – had written exposes about the mining company and Vaikundarajan himself. The journalist told Prem that he could tell Subramanian this when they met.
When they did meet, Subramanian was insistent that Prem join News7 as the head of operations. Prem refused the offer. A business proposal was discussed instead, whereby Prem, acting as a consultant, would train reporters and the input team, although Subramanian continued to insist that Prem come onboard as an employee. Prem refused but sent a proposal for the training. Subsequently News7 hired another journalist to launch the channel. A warm series of emails were exchanged between Prem and Subramanian – Subramanian informing Prem about roping in the new editor and asking him to follow up on the proposal with him and Prem congratulating him on the good choice of editor and wishing him the best for News7. Prem did not pursue the consultation project and Subramanian did not communicate with him after that. In 2015, Prem even received a signed New Year greeting card from Subramanian in 2016. I too received a number of wishes – for Diwali, New Year and the like – from Subramanian over WhatsApp, as did Prem.
There has been no enmity between any of us, as alleged by the miners. There has been no question of revenge, because there was no question of a slight, perceived or real. What did happen is simply a continuation of the modus operandi followed by Vaikundarajan – if blandishments don’t work, then threaten. If unable to threaten, file cases, twist statements and events to suit the situation and slander and defame anyone perceived to be a critic. I hold no grudge against Vaikundarajan or his family. I have met him only once – for the interview in January 2015. I met his brother, Jegatheesan, for the Times Now interview in 2013. I have never met any other member of his immediate family, except his estranged stepbrother’s son, Sundaresan, whom I met recently in connection with some allegations, when there was a press conference on the subject.
The MoEF report was a surprise, to say the least. Upon seeing this, I wrote a series of emails to various officials in the union MoEF, demanding an explanation for why slanderous statements against me had been included in an official report, when I was not even contacted by the team for my version of events. I also pointed out various factual errors in these statements, including my name and my husband’s, and requested the ministry officials to clarify whether they stood by the report or not, since it was now a public document in court.
After weeks of relentlessly calling the offices of environment minister Anil Madhav Dave, principal secretary to the prime minister, Nripendra Misra, and joint secretary in charge of mining in the MoEF, Gyanesh Bharti, I am yet to receive any response. Bharti however, spoke to me over the phone once and admitted that personal attacks should not have happened and said that he would look into the issue and respond. His response, however, is yet to arrive. On October 17, a joint director from the ministry called me to inform me that my “petition” was being “processed”. After carefully hearing me out, he promised to have an official response for me by the ‘end of the week’.
This is where things stand as of now. More material has been unearthed in the course of my investigation, as well as during the court hearing itself. Publications that I approached were unwilling to publish the story for fear of legal repercussions and harassment – no editor wants to stand in court rooms all over the Tamil Nadu, responding to defamation cases filed for no other reason than to harass them. Finally The Wire agreed to publish a series on the vast illegal beach sand mining mafia that has almost literally taken over the southernmost parts of Tamil Nadu. I laid my cards on the table at the very beginning with the editor and warned that the publication is likely to be targeted legally. “As long as you have the documents, we will carry it,” the editors said. And so this story was written.
In January 2015, when I, as an independent journalist writing for the Economic Times, contacted the founder of VV Mineral, S. Vaikundarajan for a response to the allegations against him, he conceded to the request and gave a freewheeling interview – an audio recording of which is with me as well as the VV Mineral team.
In 2016, in view of the recent developments and with the larger public interest in mind, I contacted Vaikundarajan via a detailed email, asking for responses to the many allegations surrounding him and his firm, and also inquired if he had anything further comments or clarifications to add. He was also informed that excerpts from his January 2015 interview would be used.
Vaikundarajan responded with this email on August 31, 2016 – marked not only to me but to editors of all the top news publications and television channels in the country – both English and regional language media.
Dear Ma’m,
Thank you very much for the mail.
In the previous occasion also you asked some clarification from me, which were answered and we showed you all the documents and handed over copy of all the relevant documents. But the article did not cover any of our explanation, it was purely biased and one sided and focused only on a bogus PIL. The clarification asked by you and replies given by me are not reflected in any your previous article, even though you recorded the whole audio. All this only makes me believe you may be biased and are supporting our competitors Mr.Dhaya Devadas and Victor Rajamanikkam. The very fact that you are only asking about small baseless allegations on us, and you are not willing to talk anything about 39 lakhs tonnes seized form Dhaya devadas is only supporting my belief. None of your previous article talked about the 39 Lakhs M.Ton illegal mining of Dhayadevadas and the Monazite, Uranium, Thorium available on above said 39 Lakhs M.Ton, which was also confirmed by his own gang member Victor Rajamanikkam in the Mining plan. Copy of the same also was handed over to you.
Hence whatever reply I answer, I know that your article will definitely target me and will be against me. Moreover a lot of these issues are sub-judice and doesn’t warrant my comments.
We have already such enmity with you and criminal cases / proceedings are pending in Judicial Magistrate Court, Tirunelveli as well as Honourable High Court Madurai.
I reserve my right to initiate legal proceedings, if any adverse news is published by you against me or our companies in any name.
With kind regards
Vaikundarajan | Managing Director
Another legal threat. Another set of slanderous allegations hurled at a journalist doing her job. But the show must go on.
Sandhya Ravishankar is a Chennai-based journalist who has been investigating illegal beach sand mining for years. She tweets at @sandhyaravishan
