On 12 March, fisherfolk communities from Kerala gathered at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, to voice their strong opposition to the deep-sea mining activities proposed by the Union Government. Trade unions, political organisations and concerned citizens from across the political aisle, many of them travelling from Kerala, 2570 kms away, gathered at Jantar Mantar condemning the recent unilateral moves by the Union Government to auction off mineral blocks to private players.
The rally followed a 24-hour state-wide coastal strike that occurred on 27 February, where fisher communities under the aegis of the Fishing Coordination Council shut down the entire coast of Kerala — sacrificing incomes, livelihoods and registering their strong dissent against the proposed mining off the coasts of Kerala.
Offshore mining refers to the extraction of minerals from the seabed, including polymetallic nodules, phosphorites, and heavy mineral sands. This is in line with the Union Government’s Deep Ocean Mission and the Blue Economy that heavily relies on a approach that views the ocean as a sector with limitless economic value — even if it comes at the cost of adverse environmental impacts such as coastal erosion, habitat destruction, threats to biodiversity, and displacement of coastal communities.
While an earlier law, the Offshore Areas Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, 2002 (OAMDR Act), had come into force in 2010, no mining activity had yet been undertaken in offshore areas. Parliament later passed the Offshore Areas Mineral (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2023, that sought to reform the prevailing Act and incentivise the involvement of the private sector by allowing offshore mineral blocks to be auctioned to private players through competitive bidding.
Fishermen’s collectives have repeatedly emphasized that they have not been taken into confidence about what might transpire as a result of deep-sea mining and the possible impacts it will have on fishing stocks and sea ecosystems.
AITUC General Secretary, speaking at the March Jantar Mantar protest, said, “The government is on a selling spree. The Public Sector is sidelined for the interests of private corporations”. Vadakara MP from INC, Shafi Parambil, was quoted saying, “They are doing this without even studying it. They want to sell everything to the Adanis and Ambanis. They have sold ports, airports, and now they want to sell the coast”.
Under the new framework, offshore mineral blocks are being auctioned exclusively to private players, with production leases and composite licenses being granted. On 28 November 2024, the very first e-auction was conducted for 13 mineral blocks spread across the Arabian Sea and Andaman Sea, containing resources such as construction sand, lime mud, and polymetallic nodules and crusts.
The Union Government has identified 600,000 sq. km of offshore areas with mining potential, claiming that these minerals are essential for high-tech manufacturing and infrastructure projects. However, fisher communities view this move as an existential threat. According to the Ministry of Mines and the Geological Survey of India, 3 blocks around 27 kms off the coast of Kollam in Kerala measuring 242 sq. km and accounting to 302 million tons of Construction-grade sand had been opened for auction, alongside 3 blocks off the Gujarat coast for Lime sand and 7 blocks off the coast of the Great Nicobar Island for Polymetallic nodules.
These lie beyond the territorial waters of India and are in its Exclusive Economic Zone, an area that spans ~2.3 million sq. km, equivalent to 70% of India’s land area, and if it were a country, it would rank as the 12th largest globally. The proximity of the proposed mining site off the coasts of Kollam, an area with rich fish stocks, is likely to impact coastal fisheries and marine ecosystems, posing an existential threat to both biodiversity and the livelihood of coastal communities.
During the Rajya Sabha Question Hour, IUML MP Haris Beeran had asked the Union Government about the clearance granted to auctioning off mineral blocks to which Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate, Vardhan Singh, replied that the Ministry had not received any study report from the Central Geological Programming Board regarding the environmental impact concerns related to deep-sea mining.
All while the government explores mining these minerals through proposed methods of mining like bucket dredging, where a bucket is dragged along the sea-floor by a ship to gather minerals, to methods like suction-vacuums and underwater submersibles. The National Institute of Ocean Technology had also recently conducted an exploratory deep-sea mining trial in the Andaman Sea using an indigenously-built underwater mining vessel, Varaha-3, named after the third avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, depicted as a boar.
The priorities of the Union Government and the scientific establishment appear to be concerned with technological innovations to further exploit marine resources while diverting attention away from scientific exploration and biodiversity conservation.
“While most focus goes to pointing at the Union Government, I believe we need to scrutinise the role of marine scientists and the scientific community at large who have not studied the coastal areas off Kerala adequately, leading to a lacuna which gives the Union Government courage to go ahead with this move and outsource environmental impact studies to the very companies involved in harvesting these resources”, Robert Panipilla, founder of Friends of Marine Life, told Maktoob.
“If they had studied the coastal shelf like how we have reports on the Western Ghats through the Madhav Gadgil Report that led to conservative efforts to demarcate ecologically sensitive areas, we would not be in this situation. The obsession with species-oriented research over ecosystems-oriented research has allowed for a large gap in enumerating marine ecosystems and scientific knowledge that could have been used to critique plans for deep-sea mining and its impacts. There is a pertinent need for the scientific establishment to perform its advocacy role and guide conservation, policy-making and habitat mapping.”
The Faults of Deep-Sea Mining
Fisher communities and environmental groups argue that deep-sea mining will irreversibly damage the fragile marine ecosystem, disrupting fish breeding grounds and depleting fisheries. In Kerala, this will impact over 10 lakh people engaged in the state’s fishing industry, who rely on marine biodiversity for their survival.
The proposed auctioning of areas along the Kollam coast — with one of the richest fish stocks in the country — has raised apprehensions among coastal communities and experts about their impacts. “They want to auction off mineral blocks and then make the same companies set up studies regarding the impacts of deep-sea mining. It is like giving the keys to the thief”, a member of the Fishing Coordination Council said.
Deep-sea mining is said to be harmful to marine ecosystems by releasing sediment plumes that harm aquatic life. The International Seabed Authority has proceeded with a precautionary approach to seabed development given the need to balance exploration efforts with protecting Marine life.
Over 32 countries worldwide have either advocated for a moratorium, precautionary pause, or outright ban on deep-sea mining until more research is done. The Pacific Island states of Fiji, Palau and Samoa called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining to allow time to gather more scientific information on deep-sea ecosystems and coastal communities. In December 2024, Norway halted its deep-sea mining plan due to opposition by environmental groups and the threats it faced to marine biodiversity and the acceleration of climate change. New Zealand’s dairy farmers, surfers, schools, the indigenous iwi (Māori tribes) and environmental groups have voiced opposition to plans to mine the seabed off the coast of South Taranaki.
The right-wing coalition NZ government, whose Prime Minister was in India for a bilateral visit, has pushed for the rollback of earlier environmental policies and has shifted New Zealand’s stance on calling for a temporary moratorium on all deep-sea mining. Indigenous groups from over 34 countries wrote a petition to the International Seabed Authority calling for a total ban on deep-sea mining. This same sentiment was echoed by fisherpeople on the coasts of Kerala.
“The sea is our life. There will be a strong opposition for any plans to mine the seafloor”, a fisherman at the Chellanam harbour said, “If this goes through, many people will lose their livelihoods”.
Coastlines and Dispossession
The ongoing issue of deep-sea mining in India also reflects the erosion of federalism and the displacement of marginalised populations led by a top-to-bottom development approach. Mining falls under both the Central and State lists of the Constitution of India, with the central government having the power to regulate mining and mineral development, while states own the minerals within their boundaries. Fisheries on the other hand, specifically within 12 nautical miles from the coast, fall under the State List.
The proposal of deep-sea mining, however, appears to have the Ministry of Mines auction off mineral blocks off the coasts of states with opaque consent from the communities who depend on them. On 11th January 2025, the Ministry of Mines organised a roadshow in Kochi on Saturday on the maiden e-auction of offshore mineral blocks where the keynote address was delivered by Mohammed Hanish, Principal Secretary, Industries Department of the Government of Kerala.
On March 4 2025, the Kerala Government passed a unanimous resolution, backed by both the UDF and LDF, opposing the Central government’s plans to permit offshore mining along the Kerala coast. Alathur MP K. Radhakrishnan (CPIM), who formerly served as the Kerala minister for the welfare of SC/ST and Backward Classes and Devaswom, spoke at the Jantar Mantar protest saying, “The success of this struggle lies in its unity. Seas, forests and lakes are not meant to be sold off. Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and other tribal areas are also protesting the corporate takeover of Adivasi areas. They are destroying the lives of Adivasis for corporate greed”.
The Central Government, led by the Hindu Nationalist BJP, has often ushered in corporate monopolisation of critical infrastructure and natural resources under the guise of “pro-business” and “development”. It seeks, through the auctioning of mineral blocks off the coast of Kerala and other parts of India, an opportunity to further expand the privatization of natural resources, discarding the indigenous communities that reside along with them. Many belong to marginalised communities, which in the case of Kerala are often Latin Catholic, Muslim and oppressed caste fishing communities.
“The Police and the Army are with Narendra Modi and Adani. Bureaucrats sitting in air-conditioned rooms might design these plans. Even if the colour of the sea changes with our blood, we will not move – not an inch from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram”, a speaker at the protest in Jantar Mantar said.
“Many livelihoods depend on the coasts, which could come under upheaval if the deep-sea mining project goes through. We fisherpeople are the children of the sea and we won’t stand by while it is being sold to corporates”, Jackson Pollayil, President of the Kerala Swatantra Matsyayi Thozhilali Federation, said.
This comes as the CPI(M) unveiled its “Pathways to Nava Keralam” document at the CPM State Conference that has been criticised for its neoliberal leanings, such as encouraging private investments, welcoming private universities and downplaying social equity and environmental concerns.
“The Jantar Mantar rally, and subsequent Kerala gatherings, remind us of the protests that enveloped the Indian coastline in the 1970s and 1980s, rallying against the damages caused by the newly introduced trawl fleet”, Prof. Maarten Bavinck from the University of Amsterdam said.
“In the 1990s again, there was national protest against the allowing of joint ventures with foreign fishing companies. The 2000s then saw the coastal march against the privatization of the coast. The recent objections to deep-sea mining therefore stand in a solid tradition of mobilization of coastal peoples. It is important to realize that in many cases these protest movements were successful”.
Back in Chellanam, a fisherman lamented the fall in fish stocks amidst a bad season.
“The sizes of the fish we catch are not as big as before. The seasons are erratic and changing, while our incomes are decreasing. Now they bring this plan of deep-sea mining without even asking the opinions of those who live here. Will you agree to someone destroying your home? It is the same with us. If this plan goes through, there will be a revolution”.
Callistine J. Lewis is a student pursuing a Master’s in Conflict Analysis and Peacebuilding at the Nelson Mandela Center for Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
