CHENNAI: The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) has granted environmental clearance to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) for drilling 20 onshore exploratory wells in Ramanathapuram district.
The clearance, issued on March 11, allows ONGC to explore a designated block spread across 1,403 sq.km in the Ramnad sub-basin. Each well is expected to be drilled to depths of 2,000–3,000 metres, with operations lasting up to four months. Though environmental clearance is granted, the ONGC can commence the work only after obtaining Petroleum Exploration License (PEL) from the State industries department, for which an application has already been filed and is pending for approval, sources told TNIE.
Environmentalists say the block where the 20 exploratory wells are proposed is close to the ecologically sensitive areas like Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park and several notified bird sanctuaries. The environmental clearance has also raised questions over transparency. Instead of being posted on the Union Environment Ministry’s Parivesh portal, the official platform for tracking environmental approvals, the EC document was uploaded on the outdated environmentclearance.nic.in website. Activists allege this was a deliberate move to escape public scrutiny.
"Even as early as November 2023, we urged that ONGC's application be rejected. Yet, disregarding all objections, clearance has been granted. This deserves our strongest condemnation," said G Sundarrajan, coordinator of Poovulagin Nanbargal. He added, "Chief Minister MK Stalin himself promised not a single hydrocarbon well would be permitted in Tamil Nadu. This approval is a betrayal of farmers."
Critics also point to the government's failure to release the report of an expert panel led by soil biologist Prof Sultan Ismail, which was submitted in February 2022. The committee had reportedly warned of the grave ecological hazards posed by hydrocarbon drilling, but the report remains under wraps. "Whose commercial interests are being protected by suppressing this critical document?" Sundarrajan asked.
In 2020, the state had enacted the Cauvery Delta Protection Act which declared delta districts—including Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Thanjavur, Cuddalore, Pudukottai and later Mayiladuthurai—as protected agricultural zones where new hydrocarbon projects are banned. Since Ramanathapuram and Sivagangai were not a part of the Act’s ambit, farmers have been demanding the government to amend the Act and extend the protection to these two districts since they too are considered agri-dependent.