New Delhi: The Union environment ministry and the department of fisheries have approved offshore mining blocks, including seven off the coast of Great Nicobar , union minister of coal and mines, G Kishan Reddy told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The others approved are off the coast of Gujarat and Kerala.
He was responding to a question from TMC MP, Sougata Ray on whether the government was granting licences for offshore mining; details of such licences granted by state; and whether it had conducted any scientific study on the impact of such mining on the fragile marine ecosystem.
In order to conserve marine species, the environment ministry has notified 130 Marine Protected Areas across the Coastal States and Islands and 106 coastal and marine sites have been identified and prioritized as Important Coastal and Marine Biodiversity Areas. These offshore blocks have been carved by excluding these areas, Reddy said.
The information is significant also in view of the fact that the Great Nicobar Holistic Development Project is also coming up in the remote island. Major components of the project include International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICCT); International Airport; Power Plant and Township. Niti Aayog’s Great Nicobar development project has been contentious mainly because of its likely impact on the pristine biodiversity, rainforests and endemic species on the island.
The Nicobar Islands fall in the Sundaland Biodiversity Hotspot and cover the western half of the Indonesian archipelago — a group of some 17,000 islands stretching 5,000 kilometers — that is dominated by the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Concerns have also been raised about the impact of such a mega infrastructure project on the Shompen, a particularly vulnerable tribal group, and the Nicobarese.
Section 16A of the the Offshore Areas Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 2002 provides for establishment of Offshore Areas Mineral Trust as a non-profit autonomous body. Accordingly, the Offshore Areas Mineral Trust has been established. Kerala, Gujarat and Andaman and Nicobar have been made members of the Governing Body and Executive Committee of the Trust.
“The funds accruing to the aforesaid Trust shall, inter-alia, be used for research, administration, studies and related expenditure with respect to offshore areas and mitigation of any adverse impact that may be caused to the ecology in the offshore area, due to operations undertaken, providing relief upon the occurrence of any disaster in the offshore area and for the interest and benefit of persons affected by exploration or production operations undertaken,” the minister said in his written response.
Deep-sea mining is the practice of removing metals and minerals from the ocean’s seabed at depths of more than 200 metres. There are different types of deep-sea mining, defined by the type of ore targeted for exploitation. The most advanced in terms of technology and process at the International Seabed Authority (ISA) is polymetallic nodule mining. But there are also deep-sea mining plans to mine the cobalt-rich crusts of seamounts and hydrothermal vents for polymetallic sulphides according to International Union for Conservation of Nature.
IUCN has flagged that deep sea mining can lead to irreversible loss of species and damage the seabed for thousands of years.
Researchers have demonstrated that polymetallic nodule fields are hotspots of abundance and diversity. Much of the highly vulnerable fauna lives attached to nodules or in the sediment immediately beneath it. The majority of species are yet to be discovered but scientists think that as many as 10 million species may inhabit the deep sea, IUCN added.
