New Delhi’s choice to public sale, for the primary time within the nation, 13 offshore mineral blocks for deep-sea mining, vide the Offshore Areas Mineral (Improvement and Regulation) Modification Act, 2023, has met with a uncommon present of political unity in Kerala. Following protest demonstrations by fish staff’ unions, the ruling celebration and the opposition within the State have come collectively to unanimously oppose the challenge.
The protest has additionally prolonged to Delhi, the place Kerala MPs went on a protest march to Parliament looking for an entire halt to the tasks. Inside Parliament, calls for have been raised to conduct “neutral” environmental impression research earlier than allocating the blocks to non-public entities. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief of the Opposition within the Lok Sabha and former Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi demanded cancellation of the tenders floated for allocating 13 offshore mineral blocks. Rahul Gandhi acknowledged in his letter that whereas there have been grave considerations over the impression of offshore mining on the livelihood of thousands and thousands of fisherfolk, the tenders have been floated with none consultations with stakeholders or an evaluation of the long-term socio-economic impression on coastal communities.
Speaking to this correspondent, Charles George, president of the Kerala Matsya Thozhilali Aikya Vedi, an unbiased union of the State’s fish staff, stated: “Fishermen communities, whose livelihoods shall be impacted probably the most from offshore mining actions, weren’t consulted earlier than tenders have been floated for the auctioning of the mineral blocks. The Invoice to amend the Act governing regulation of offshore mineral assets within the nation was rushed by way of. It was not routed by way of a Joint Parliamentary Committee, which may have critically analysed its finer particulars. Moreover, the Invoice was handed with out correct debate and dialogue at a time when Parliament actions have been almost frozen by the opposition over the Central authorities’s apathy in the direction of the persevering with violence in Manipur.”
Efforts to unlock “blue financial system”
The amended Offshore Areas Mineral (Improvement and Regulation) Act of 2023 supplies for 50-year fastened composite licences (which means licences for exploration and manufacturing) to profitable bidders for offshore mineral blocks, as an alternative of periodic renewals as laid down within the Act of 2002. The brand new Act stipulates that the licensees ought to full exploration actions satisfactorily inside a interval of three years from the date of grant of the composite licences. The sooner Act stipulated that working rights of mineral blocks could be granted by way of a technique of discretionary allocation.
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The amendments, a part of efforts to unlock the “blue financial system”, have made method for the granting of licences by public sale by way of a technique of aggressive bidding. (In line with the World Financial institution, “blue financial system” is the sustainable use of ocean assets for financial progress, improved livelihoods and jobs, and ocean ecosystem well being.) However the amended Act additionally makes it clear that working rights for exploration and manufacturing of offshore atomic minerals—the ores of uranium, thorium, and monazite, for instance—shall be granted solely to government-owned corporations.
In November 2024, the Central authorities launched the primary tranche of public sale bids for offshore mineral blocks. Bids have been invited for grant of composite licences for 3 blocks of construction-grade sand off the coast of Kerala, three blocks of lime mud off the coast of Gujarat, and 7 blocks of polymetallic nodules and crust off the Nice Nicobar Island within the Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar. Though protests have erupted in Kerala, the place a Left Democratic Entrance authorities has been in energy since 2016, no opposition to the tenders has been reported so removed from Gujarat, which is underneath the rule of a BJP authorities, or from Andaman & Nicobar Islands, which, being a Union Territory, is instantly underneath the Central authorities’s rule.
Highlights
- New Delhi’s choice to public sale 13 offshore mineral blocks for deep-sea mining has met with a uncommon present of political unity in Kerala.
- Fish staff are opposing the plan and the ruling Left Democratic Entrance and the opposition Congress are additionally against it.
- There was no opposition in BJP-ruled Gujarat or in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which being a UT is dominated instantly by the Centre.
Parliament passsed the Invoice to amend Offshore Areas Mineral (Improvement and Regulation) Act, 2002—which opens India’s offshore minerals to non-public entities—in a tearing hurry. It was launched within the Lok Sabha on July 27, 2023, and handed on August 1, 2023, after simply 5 days, which included a weekend when the Home didn’t meet. The Rajya Sabha handed it on August 3, 2023, when opposition MPs staged a walkout over the violence in Manipur.
“All that the federal government has finished up to now by way of public participation within the auctioning of the blocks is holding roadshows and webinars. This, nevertheless, has been met with opposing roadshows by fish-worker communities who’re prone to be affected by the challenge,” stated George.
“Coastal strike” in opposition to Centre’s roadshow
In Might 2024, the Union Ministry of Mines organised a workshop in New Delhi to focus on the untapped reservoirs of minerals in offshore areas and their potential to catalyse financial progress. After floating tenders for the 13 blocks, the ministry organised a webinar in December 2024 wherein officers shared “detailed insights into the geology and mineral potential of the recognized offshore blocks”. The Centre additionally held a roadshow in Kerala in January 2025 to focus on its imaginative and prescient of turning India into a worldwide chief in offshore mining.
In response to the roadshow, a 24-hour “coastal strike” was known as on February 27 by fish staff’ unions allied to the Congress and Left events in Kerala. On the day of the strike, fish-landing centres and fish markets throughout Kerala remained shut whereas fish staff in giant numbers took to the streets in protest in opposition to the proposed public sale.
The Nice Nicobar shoreline. In 2024, bids have been invited for grant of composite licences for seven blocks of polymetallic nodules and crust off the Nice Nicobar Island.
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Getty Pictures
In March 2025, the Kerala Meeting unanimously handed a decision moved by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan opposing the Central authorities’s plans to permit deep-sea mining by way of non-public entities by amending the Offshore Areas Mineral (Improvement and Regulation) Act, 2002. The decision expressed considerations in regards to the potential of the tasks to adversely impression marine ecology and biodiversity and have an effect on the livelihoods of fish staff.
Notably, the native unit of the Congress in Ernakulam district has known as out the Left authorities’s ambivalence on offshore mining by declaring that the roadshow organised by the Union Ministry of Mines in Kochi on January 10, 2025, was partly funded by a state-run public sector unit of the Kerala authorities.
After the issuance of tenders for the 13 blocks, many fish staff’ unions from Kerala got here collectively to write down to the Union Ministry of Mines, urging it to re-examine the choice within the mild of the catastrophic penalties that the proposed mining tasks may have on ecology and fishing actions.
Centre guidelines out evaluate of choice
Nonetheless, however the protests and the opposition, the Central authorities has categorically knowledgeable the Lok Sabha that any query of “reviewing the mining tender course of doesn’t come up”. Union Minister of Mines G. Kishan Reddy has stated that there are ample provisions within the Act (and the Guidelines made thereunder) to safeguard ecology and biodiversity and to guard the pursuits of fish staff.
“Earlier than notifying the above blocks in offshore areas, the Central authorities had consulted a number of key Ministries, together with the Ministry of Atmosphere, Forest and Local weather Change (MoEFCC) and the Division of Fisheries underneath the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying, amongst others, as mandated underneath Rule 5 of the Offshore Areas Working Proper Guidelines (OAORR), 2024,” stated Reddy in a written reply to the Lok Sabha on March 26, 2025.
The ministry has recognized 5 zones alongside Kerala’s coast to excavate roughly 725 million tonnes of construction-grade sand. These are alongside the coasts of Alappuzha (Alleppey district), Ponnani (Malappuram district), and Chavakkad (Thrissur district), apart from Kollam South and Kollam North in Kollam district. The three sand blocks put up for public sale within the first tranche are in Kollam North. These blocks span 342 sq. kilometres and include roughly 302 million tonnes of sand.
Of their letter to the Union Ministry of Mines, the unions acknowledged that Kollam district accounts for over 25 per cent of Kerala’s complete fish manufacturing and that livelihoods of roughly 1,00,000 energetic marine fishers, together with their 5,00,000 relations, could be affected by the choice to undertake sand mining off the coast. In addition they stated that almost 10,00,000 people in ancillary sectors of the fishing trade could be affected.
“The proposed mining space is situated close to the globally famend ‘Quilon Financial institution’, a important fishing floor that helps a wealthy number of marine fin and shell fish species, together with threadfin breams, perches, lizard fishes, priacanthids, white fish, in addition to deep-sea prawns, lobsters and oceanic squids, and cuttle fishes.… Threadfin breams with a catch price of 9,500 kg per hour has been recorded from this floor, which is fairly very uncommon from offshore fishing grounds,” the letter acknowledged.
The Vellayil fish touchdown centres in Kozhikode district have been abandoned on February 27, 2025, as fish staff noticed a 24-hour “coastal strike” known as by unions allied to the Congress and Left events in opposition to offshore sand mining.
| Picture Credit score:
Okay. Ragesh
Jackson Pollayil, an office-bearer of the Nationwide Fish-workers’ Discussion board, a national-level federation of commerce unions and organisations of fish staff within the nation, instructed this correspondent that the mining tasks wouldn’t solely impression households but in addition hit exports. “Earlier than making the choice to public sale the mineral blocks, the Central authorities ought to have ascertained if deep-sea mining would result in local weather change. These actions have the potential to wreck the ecosystem and deplete the inhabitants of juvenile fish,” stated Pollayil.
Examine vindicates fish staff’ considerations
A examine printed by the College of Kerala earlier in 2025 vindicates the considerations of the fish staff’ communities and concludes that there isn’t a must rush into large-scale offshore sand mining within the absence of complete environmental impression assessments. The examine, “Report on the Attainable Impacts of Offshore Sea Sand Mining off Kollam on Marine Biodiversity and Coastal Livelihoods”, which the college’s Division of Aquatic Biology & Fisheries ready, states that the Kollam coast has been a serious fishing floor for over 4 many years and an important useful resource for the area’s fishing trade.
“This fertile fishing floor, situated between Kollam and Alappuzha districts, helps a wealthy marine biodiversity, together with deep-sea prawns, shrimps, lobsters, sardines, mackerel, and export-oriented squid varieties,” states the report. It additional highlights that the Kollam coast is a biodiversity hotspot for coral reefs, which face the specter of extinction due to deep-sea mining.
It states that surveys “have recorded 5 species of laborious corals and over 30 species of soppy corals within the Kollam coastal area. Many of those are new data for the realm, indicating that almost two-thirds of Kerala’s recorded tender coral species are discovered off Kollam. These rocky reefs are thought of biodiversity hotspots, enjoying an important position in marine ecosystems by providing habitats, breeding grounds, and shelter for numerous marine organisms.”
The Mines Minister has, alternatively, identified in Parliament that the offshore blocks have been carved out by excluding 130 marine protected areas and 106 coastal and marine websites, notified as Essential Coastal and Marine Biodiversity Areas by the MoEFCC. He has additionally stated that manufacturing operations on the mineral blocks can’t be undertaken with out an authorised plan, which would come with an environmental administration plan, an environmental impression evaluation (EIA) report, and mitigation measures.
“Complete provisions can be found underneath the Act and the Guidelines to hold out EIA earlier than commencing manufacturing to safeguard atmosphere, biodiversity, and the pursuits of fishing group,” the Minister stated in his reply to the Lok Sabha on March 26, including: “Enough safeguards are in place in opposition to any manipulation by the challenge proponents whereas finishing up EIA.”
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Opposition MPs, together with Okay.C. Venugopal of Kerala, and specialists have requested for an “neutral examine” fairly than an environmental evaluation performed by the challenge proponents themselves.
“What number of ecologically devastating tasks have been suspended by the federal government on the premise of EIA assessments by challenge proponents or due to opposition throughout public hearings?” requested John Kurien, former professor on the Centre for Growing Research based mostly in Thiruvananthapuram.
A report printed by the United Nations Atmosphere Programme in 2019 highlighted weak governance within the administration of world sand assets and inadequate analysis on sand mining. There are different research that recommend that offshore sand mining is usually poorly managed, resulting in extreme environmental, social, and financial penalties.
Communities will finally have to just accept the results of those tasks as a fait accompli. Moreover, as Kurien requested: “Who will preserve a watch on unlawful mining actions within the deep seas when numerous State governments haven’t even been capable of regulate unlawful mining on riverbeds within the mainland?”
Ayaskant Das is an unbiased journalist and author based mostly within the Nationwide Capital Area.
