Overview

• In a letter to the Prime Minister, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister asked the Centre to scrap a September 8 Office Memorandum that removes public consultation for mining of atomic minerals and designated critical and strategic minerals.
• The memorandum, issued by the Environment Impact Assessment Division, also requires all such projects to be appraised at the central level regardless of lease area.
• Stalin warned that mining along Tamil Nadu’s Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay coasts threatens ecologically fragile habitats and local livelihoods, citing turtle nesting beaches, coral reefs, mangroves, and protective sand dunes.
• He cited National Green Tribunal rulings and the Supreme Court’s 2020 Alembic Pharmaceuticals judgment to argue that substantive EIA changes cannot be made through office memoranda.
• He urged transparent debate in Parliament and State Legislatures under the spirit of cooperative federalism and said Tamil Nadu remains committed to national strategic and defence needs, with no central response or withdrawal reported yet.