Row in Cauvery delta over methane extraction project

Cauvery delta districts faces another challenge in a project proposed to extract methane from lignite seams over 667 sq km, after the previous UPA government at the Centre gave the approval for a ‘Coal Bed Methane (CBM)’ pilot project to be executed in the ‘Mannargudi block’ by a Gurgaon company.

This has triggered more worries among the farmers in Tamil Nadu’s ‘rice bowl,’ which accounts for 25 per cent of the State’s annual rice production.

They fear the project will lead to a huge groundwater depletion, “aggravating” their livelihood uncertainties stemming from the non-release of water from the Mettur dam as per schedule.

Though Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in July 2013 constituted a committee of experts to study the project’s impact and urged the Centre to suspend it until the committee came out with its findings, farmers are in an “agitating mood.” They want the project stopped, says P.M. Natarajan, a veteran hydrologist and water resources expert