Dr. Thrivikramji speaks

My hatayoga practice

2019-07-18T06:24:00.002-07:00

New Mining Policy: Kerala

2018-08-29T19:51:00.000-07:00

Scientific Mining Policy

PREAMBLE

The National Mineral Policy, 2008, declared by the Government of India (GoI) replaces the National Mineral Policy, 1993. The new policy allows for large presence and participation by the private sector in the mining sector in order to augment the contribution of mining sector to the national gross domestic product (GDP) and more employment for the skilled and semi-skilled or unskilled people in the employable age group and secure supply of minable minerals and rocks for the mills, smelters and factories.

The quantum leap in the mineral production under the new policy will also guarantee steady supply of finished products like steel of all specifications, cement, and rocks (for the aggregate producing mills). India is also a world leader (with a place among the top ten nations) in respect of certain natural minerals like Muscovite mica, iron ore, manganese ore, coal and lignite.

Undoubtedly, even though the mining of minerals and rocks (whether strip mining or subsurface mining) are an essential input in the economic activity of nations, it is not without environmental and social consequences. Or else, the quarrying/mining operations create large scars on the land surface transforming the natural topography, soil cover and micro and macro flora and fauna. Gladdeningly, the National Mineral Policy, 2008 adequately addresses such issues in relation to the environment and societal impacts.

BASIC FEATURES

The new Scientific Mining Policy document appropriate for the state to ensure at least 5% growth in the State gross domestic product (SGDP) is presented in the following pages. In Kerala, the extracted natural materials from the upper most crust of the earth have been coming from quarries, mine pits, beaches and also from the river channels. There are no other large endowments of other industrials/metallic minerals in the state. Historically, gold was panned from the sand of Nilambur valley, Phlogopite mica from Vattiyurkavu, graphite from Vellanad and cat’s eye variety chrysoberyl from the river alluviam of Neyyar and Vamanpuram Ar.

The extractive industry [Mining and Quarrying (M&Q)] is the primary source of raw rock or partially prepared sand, metal and rock-rubble to maintain the existing infrastructure and/or making new ones in the state specifically in the sectors of roads, multilane highways, railroads, dams for drinking water supply, homes, schools, colleges, hospitals, seawalls, groynes, breakwaters for ports, new airports and seaports and such other installations.

FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES

Basic issues in the M&Q sector are the reluctance of the operators to follow the newer stipulations and regulations in regard to the opening of new M&Q, operating these with adequate safety and security (to the workers and public in the neighbourhood), belittling the social and environmental concerns and implementation of a decent exit policy.

This mind set on the part of the industry and the growing environmental awareness and deep concern of the common public about the perceived harms to the environment inflicted by the M&Q operations have led to sort of a stand-off leading to delay in supply of M&Q products to the needy clients.

What is called for in this background is formulation of this new scientific mining policy that will redress the concern of the public on the one hand and on the other ensure the supply of the material of the required volume and quality to the clients without long lead-time.

REGULATORY FRAME WORK

The growth of any industry, including the M&Q industry in the state is essential for the welfare of the people, new jobs for the employable group and better quality of life. Industry gives away money as wages to the ones directly employed by them and takes away money from the consumers of their wares. One Nobel winning economist recently wrote that “my expenditure is your income and your expenditure is my income”.

In other words business is a two way street. Minimal interventions and regulations are the fertile soil for industry. It is true in the M&Q sector. The government therefore shall promote the M&Q industry with equanimity, but shall ensure on the part of operators compliance with the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Social Impact Assessment (SIA) framework governing such activities.

ROLE OF LSGS-DEPARTMENTS/AGENCIES

The authority to dispense permissions or withhold permissions vested in the Panchayaths is not congenial to the growth of the existing industry or new investments. Therefore, when it comes to issues like Q&M operations, the final decisions shall be dispensed at the District level by an expert committee presided over by the District Collector. Currently at least 10 or more government agencies need to grant approval of one or other sort before the mine or quarry is opened in the state.

VISION

Under the scientific mining policy, it is the bounden duty of the state to ensure free and fair supply of minerals, rocks and value added rock products (like for e.g., coarse and fine aggregates) to meet the internal needs (in the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors (both for upkeep and creating new ones) as well as export across the state’s border. The government shall pursue this policy with due diligence to the environmental health of the mining/quarrying landscape/land parcels as well as that of the land area in the downstream.

MISSION

In India, excluding petroleum and natural gas, other mineral resources of the country are jointly managed by the union government and state governments, whose framework is stipulated specifically in the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act). The union government also framed the Mineral Concession, 1960 for regulating the reconnaissance permits, prospecting licenses and mining leases in respect of all minerals other than atomic minerals and minor minerals. With an eye on the conservation and systematic development of mineral resources of the country, Central Government has framed the Mineral Conservation and Development Rules, 1988 (MCDR) primarily with the intent of ensuring national needs and demands as well as a sharp focus on the environmental health. Keeping in mind the national policy, states framed rules governing the extraction of minor minerals.

The State of Kerala, as a matter of policy (but within the regulatory umbrella of the EIA and SIA) shall allow exploration and scientific extraction of minerals, rocks and ores primarily for use and consumption within the state or for export across the borders.

OBJECTIVES

The new scientific mining policy is like a three legged stool. The leg one is uninterrupted supply of extracted natural materials like mineral, rock and value added rock products – the essential inputs in mineral based industries and in keeping and making modern infra-structure. The second leg is minimising the environmental damage, while the third one is minimising the social impact of M&Q operations.

STRATEGIES

a. Resource Mapping and Delineation

The State shall encourage a fast track mapping of mineral/rock resources by Mining and Geology Department as the nodal agency, in cooperation with the Geological Survey of India (Kerala unit) and such other competent agencies to assess the state’s potential of utilizable mineral/rock resources for industry, new infrastructure creation and upkeep of the ones in place (e.g., roads, rail tracks, breakwaters, seawalls etc.).

Further, government shall notify such proven mineral/rock bearing areas and parcels of land. Also, the state shall require the Directorate of Mining Geology Department of Kerala, the Geological Survey of India (Kerala Unit) and such other statutory agencies to map to identify the potential sites for “Opening super mines/quarries” in parts of the state and on a scale of 1:25000 or 1:12500 or better to assess the minable/quarriable reserves in the state.

b. Technology Adoption

Generally speaking, with the exception of a very few operators, most of the M&Q activities in the state continue to follow the human intensive and classical methods. When the country is undergoing a modernisation of the day to day operations and governance, the M&Q sector or administration in the state of Kerala cannot continue to stay insulated from the structural and procedural reforms and mineral and rock inventory, quarterly/annual rates of production etc.

Therefore, the e-Governance policy promoted by the state shall be expeditiously extended and implemented in the Directorate of Mining and Geology, Govt. of Kerala (DM&G of GOK) in order to inject efficiency of governance, provide public access to the potentially extractable resources, and eliminate delays in delivery of service to public. Therefore,

A. The DM&G of GOK shall design, implement and maintain a GIS based geodatabase with data, charts and thematic maps of all the extractable mineral/ rock resources, and operating and abandoned mines and quarries. All quarriable and minable resources of the state in a geodatabase shall be published in the website in the public domain (of the DM&G of GOK).

B. Also, Digital photogrammetric mapping of operating mines/quarries shall be implemented and monitored periodically to assess the quanta of material already extracted with utmost precision in order to prevent or eliminate revenue loss to the state.

C. High resolution Remote sensing satellite images shall be appropriately used in conjunction with topographic maps to expedite and speed up the reconnaissance and mapping and updating of rock/mineral resources of the state.

c. Environmental Responsibility

An old Chinese proverb reads like this “If you cannot grow it or buy it, you got to mine it”. Yet, mining, another form of quarrying is not a harmless process to the landscape, soil, ecosystem and finally the ecological balance.

The steadily growing population of the country and of the state has placed newer and steeply rising demands for more food grains and agricultural products, and infrastructure such as new homes, schools, colleges and play grounds, hospitals, multilane highways, metros, airports and sea ports etc.

Further, creating opportunities for earning a decent wage/salary and leading a meaningful life for its citizens is also the states responsibility. In order to meet most or all of these demands directly or indirectly, we need to look at the crustal skin of solid earth for extracting materials for input in creating, augmenting, supplying and fulfilling such needs.

The M&Q business feeding the needs of consumer with or without value addition certainly affects the topmost part of the crust of the solid earth, but to variable depths. The need to be environmentally responsible the extractive-industry-sector need to implement the policies proposed by the Indian Bureau of Mines and the stipulations there of by the DM&G of GOK. Our society and the administration have bestowed equally serious checks and controls to ensure minimum or slight damage during the M&Q operations.

The EIA of the new projects are mandated only to secure the health of the ecosystem in and around the operations and to reduce or eliminate loss/damage to the environment. The implementation of recommendations of EIA study will guarantee a responsible M&Q operations. Equally important shall be the compliance of the operator with respect to the SIA recommendations.

d. Processes and Practices

Current responsibilities, processes and practices bestowed in or followed by the DM&G is disproportionate to the existing professional/technical manpower at its disposal and hence leads to delays and postponements of immediate action and resolve on the issues before them. In other words, DM&G of the state is kind “over burdened with” a variety of tasks like proper monitoring of mining /quarrying activities, regulating the issuance of permits/leases, estimating the reserves of minable/quarryable resources, maintaining a “near real time inventory” as well as plugging the revenue leaks in the mining/quarrying sector.

The government shall therefore suitably expand the professional/technical workforce of the DM&G of GOK based on the proposal by the latter.

The GOK shall approve appointment of a Regional Environmental Officer each in the southern, central and northern regions under the DM&G, to oversee the operations, expedite processing of the applications for permits by scrutinizing EIA document (and if need be after field verification/studies), and compliance with the mandated regulatory framework, etc.

e. HR Development

The M&Q sector of the state badly needs professionals like Mining Engineers and Geophysicists besides Geologists. Therefore, government shall identify universities, Engineering Colleges and Polytechnic Colleges for launching new course of study, viz., M.Sc in Applied Geophysics, B.Tech Degree in Mining Engineering and Diploma in Mining Engineering. To begin with, during the AY15-16, sufficient funds shall be made available for a M.Sc. Degree Course in Applied Geophysics (in University of Calicut), B.Tech degree in Mining Engineering (College of Engineering, Trivandrum) and a diploma course in mining Engineering (the Central Polytechnic College, Trivandrum).

f. R&D

The EFG based numerical designation of mineral/rock resources takes into account economic and social aspects in the E axis, while in the F axis is embedded the environmental questions. The G axis is set apart for geological feasibility. Therefore knowledge of UNFC-2009 based numerical EFG classification of minable and quarriable resources of the state, be reckoned, along with EIA and SIA while granting permission or otherwise for mining/quarrying of a resource. This new scheme of classification of mineral/rock resources are perhaps a leap forward in respect of scientific and economic profiling of the deposit which is very useful for the extractive industry.

g. Socio –Economic Factors

M&Q are certainly industries that contribute to the SGDP (state gross domestic product) and therefore the state shall promote such industries. Nevertheless, this industry will be effectively brought under the scanner to decipher the environmental and social impacts. The government shall require all new applicants seeking lease/permit to successfully pass/clear what is known as SIA (Social Impact Assessment). In other words SIA and EIA compliance shall be mandatory.

h. Labour – Industry Relation

All along, in Kerala the labour-industry relations have been occasionally volatile. Truly there is a huge demand for transparency in this sector. With the advent of “aadhar” now it is easier for transferring the financial benefits like wages, bonus, sick pay etc., to aadhar linked employee bank account.

In fact, the government shall welcome and promote such policies of direct remittances to the employee’s bank account linked to aadhar. Labour laws and community health benefit provision will be enforced effectively in the M&Q sectiors.

i. Import- Export

In today’s globalised economy has put in place a new regime of very few restrictions on trade across the national borders. It is more so between the state borders with the implementation of the new GST regime from 1-1-15. Therefore the government shall not impose restrictions in the interstate trade of raw or value added products of M&Q origin. Further, the state shall not go against the national policy/ies on trade of minerals and rocks.

j. Reviewing Regulatory Framework

Existing Rules governing the M&Q operations are largely based on the stipulations of the GOI framed by the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM). In fact, these rules undergo amendments and modifications to accommodate the new national policies. In respect of minor minerals also, the primary prescriptions are by the IBM.

The lease and permit stipulations and several tiers of clearance (for e.g., local body or panchayath, DM&G, Department of Environment and Climate Change, State Pollution Control Board etc to name a few) as practiced today in Kerala are again based fully or partly on the IBM guidelines.

In order to attract more operators and to scale up production, the government shall put in place a single window clearing system in respect of new operations in the M&Q sector at the district level instead of clearance at the level of panchayaths. There shall also be a review mechanism or a state level appellate authority to redress the decisions at the District level.

k. Procedures and practices of Agencies

Current practice of decision making on the permit/lease applications or issuing stop-work-memos, at the state level and approval by the concerned Panchayath is cumbersome, time consuming from the point of view of investor.

For achieving the national level of growth for the SGDP, the current practices and procedures followed by the agencies involved need a review and scrutiny. The rules framed decades ago will not serve any useful purpose in the current environment and might be unattractive to the prospective investor. The government shall therefore appoint a committee to identify the anachronistic /redundant rules and if required shall remove them from the statute books.

l. Rehabilitation and Mine Closure Policy

The IBM from time to time has stipulated rules, regulations and conventions governing the M&Q initiation, operation and exit processes. The environmental and ecological restoration of abandoned M&Q is among the responsibilities of operator/company.

Further, the relevant recommendations by the scientific committee on REUSE OF ABANDONED QUARRIES AND MINE PITS, 2011 (vide. GO (MS) No. 57/2011/ID dated 25-02-2011) shall be invoked as and when required. The recovery and reclamation of the mined /quarried land shall be made mandatory and be declared as the responsibility of the mining company. The mining policy fixes the responsibility of reclamation of mined areas to mine owners failing which suitable clause of penalty may be imposed on the mine owners

m. Co-ordination/Integration/Interfacing of Departments/Agencies

A mining/lease or permit issuance currently needs clearing by the Gram Panchayath, revenue department, M&GD, Directorate of Environment and Climate Change, State Pollution Control Board etc.

This is a serial process and incurs great deal of time/delay. Therefore the government shall modify this process suitably, for e.g., by a single window clearance system at the district level.

CONCLUSIONS

The Scientific Mining Policy of Kerala proposed in the foregoing paragraphs is an approach addressing, the states need for natural extractable raw materials, like minerals, rock and aggregates manufactured from rocks.

Secondly, and equally importantly, the scientific mining policy shall bestow diligent care and committed concern on the varied aspects of earth’s environment viz., water, air, soil and ecosystem (WASE) and aim to minimise or eliminate the impairments done, if any.

Thirdly, the new scientific mining policy enshrines the Social Impact Assessment as one of the three pillars of the policy.

Within the framework Scientific Mining Policy is included modernisation of the systems and processes in the issuance of leases/permits, closure plan adoption of new technologies, also considerations and with-in the state creation of HR or technical manpower.

Application of modern technologies like GIS based geodatabase of the mineral and rock resources of the state shall ensure transparency and expedite decision making.

Equally important is the digital photogrammetric monitoring operating mines and quarries to precisely asses and estimate the off take of the extracted material and hence immensely afford plugging of revenue/royalty loss to the state.

Alternatively, a new process of plugging revenue loss by taxing the end-user, as proposed and recommended in the ABANDONED QUARRY REUSE REPORT can be very efficient and transparent. This process is now in practice in the states of Odisha and Gujarath.

A single window clearance of lease/permit for opening new Mines and Quarries is considered extremely effective instead of the serial process of approval by at least 10 or more agencies of the government.

There shall be a state level Appellate authority to review the decisions at the District level.

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(Compiled by Dr.Thrivikramji.K.P., Chairman of the Committee appointed by the State Planning Board, vide (Vide:Order No 7037/KSPB/ 13/I&I/SPB Dtd. 26-2-2014)

thrivikramji@gmail.com

(M) 7012995842

2018-08-25T22:12:00.002-07:00

EDUCATION-TV 2035 VISION

Dr. Thrivikramji.K.P.

thrivikramji@gmail.com

Introduction

TV 2035 needs to ponder deeply into the facet of education. As far as the state of Kerala is concerned the Kinder Garten (3-5y) Elementary (5-10 y), High School (10-15y), Higher Secondary (15-17y) finally leads to a 3y Tertiary or college education.

The PG is 2y long while, the Ph.D. will take anywhere between 3-5 y before submission and award of the degree.

Though, from several quarters complaints about falling standards in the arena of primary to Tertiary education are raised time and again, as an answer only revision of syllabi with introduction of new was the answer.

There has been alongside attempts to revise the qualification of teachers at all levels, as well as requiring retraining of teachers in Tertiary education sector by making mandatory attendance and involvement in the refresher and orientation courses through the system of Academic staff colleges.

Yet the overall Tertiary education standards remain appallingly low.

Present scheme

Structure

Three year long degree education devised to substitute the 2 y long education leading to Bachelors degree and implemented in the mid 60’s or a little earlier continues without any structural change (but for syllabi revision, marks and letter grades or only letter grades).

Currently, what we follow in Kerala is not very different from the rest of the Univ. and colleges in the rest of the country, i.e., a 3y Bachelors degree plus 2y Masters and 3-5 y Ph.D degrees. Though the M.Phil. Program exists in most universities of the nation; expressly it is no specific or basic qualification to help land in a paying job.

I equate the offer of global quality higher education to the eligible and academically readied youth of this country today is a vital investment for the future of the nation. It is like a Direct Investment for the next generation India – a sort of FDI now practiced in other sectors of the economy.

Proposal

1. As an academic involved in the University education for nearly four decades, I hold the view that a revision of structure in the Tertiary education system of the state (and even the country) is an imperative now. India can emulate the example of our next door neighbor and an Asian powerhouse, i.e., China.

2. After a “private” visit to the US, in 1977, Deng Xiao Ping (the supreme leader of China who succeeded Chairman Mao) introduced vast structural and qualitative reforms in the Tertiary education, such as an aptitude test score based admission for Tertiary education, four year long Bachelors degree program and corresponding modifications in MS and Ph.D. programs.

3. Therefore, I propose that we implement the 4 y Bachelors degree program in the colleges in India in order to achieve the TV35 dreams in education sector.

4.There can be a proviso for those seeking clerical desk jobs to earn an associate degree at the end of the second year of the 4 y course. Others seeking higher degrees alone need to go for full 4 y program. This will allow smart kinds to earn double majors at Bachelors level enabling MSc admission to one or other major subject.

5. It is high time that the partition of Biology into Botany and Zoology are done away with. Perhaps we are the only nation in the planet that follows this artificial separation. One of the reasons for “mediocrity” in life sciences is the continuation of this artificial barrier. The proponents of the duality the UK also has done away with this.

Thank you

Dr. Thrivikramji.K.P.

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Note to Chief Minister of Kerala:

2018-08-25T22:04:00.002-07:00

Note to Chief Minister of Kerala:

on the prevention strategies in the event of a ‘future OCKHI’ like disaster

Sir:

Recent OCKHI cyclone is an eye opener to the public and, administration especially on the ‘lapses’ of state agencies at the time of a disaster. Globally, India (standing third from top in the list of nations) suffers 93% of disaster related deaths. We Indians are keen about rescue and rehabilitation, rather than preparation, early warning and management prior to the disaster strike, i.e., during years of normalcy.

In contrast, Japan, ‘frequently’ exposed to earthquake and tsunami disasters, sits at the top of a global list of nations with the lowest loss of life by a synergy of modern technologies like internet, geostationary satellites (for India it is INSAT), chain of sensors monitoring the Earthquake and Tsunami waves over land and sea and warning the public through radio, television, SMS, tweets, loud speakers and sirens during a disaster and practicing disaster management (DM) related drills, warning, education, drills and best practices.

After the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, the GoI had put in place land and seabed and surface based sensors for earthquakes, tsunami waves, and oceanic earth quakes (all under the IMD) and linked wirelessly to dedicated computers in INCOIS, Hyderabad. who are serving the. In addition, Only item missing in their portfolio is issuance of advisories when disasters strike. In addition, INCOIS maintains wireless and dynamic electronic display boards in coastal villages to issue advisories to fishers on Tuna fishing forecasts and potential fishing zones and static warning sign posts about the last Indian ocean Tsunami.

However, Emergency warning by INCOIS or IMD, goes only to only the governments and not the public. Only the state authorities and agencies are authorized to step in during disaster events to make public announcements. Thus the ‘golden hour” is efficiently ‘missed by this ‘through proper channel’ approach.

The warnings by IMD (India Meteorological Department), in future, should be directed directly to fishers at work in the ocean closer or far off from the shores through the network of INCOIS (Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Service), Hyderabad, an agency of MoES, GoI. INCOIS, founded after the 2004 Tsunami, efficiently advises Indian Fishers in finding PTF (Potential Fishing Zones) in the ocean and in looking for tuna through TFF (Tuna Fishing Forecast). These advisories are never routed through government channels. However, the same agency does not probably have a mandate to inform the ‘concerned public’, viz., fishers directly on impending disasters. Instead, it is seemingly through a labyrinthine procedure of files and approvals for actions involving the top echelons of secretaries and ministers. This is unique to India which even now follows a king and country model in governance at all times.

1. Traditionally, Indian administration follows a ”through proper channel approach” both is times of peace and at times of emergencies such as the OCKHJ. Instead, a new system (like what is practiced in Japan or USA) shall be in place, whereby the agencies, without waiting for administrations orders, should spring into action in respect of implementing the plans for warnings, advisories etc., to reach out to affected citizens at work in the sea or land and families. What is urgently called for is a devolution of powers to the various agencies involved in DM to act on their own by the first receipt of warnings through INCOIS like systems to save lives and property. Moreover, INCOIS is very much an example of Internet of Things (IoT). first through technologies such as IoT ( Internet of Things).

2. Current top down approach followed in DM finally boils down to rescue and rehabilitation. This shall be replaced by early warning systems directly to distressed, through SMS, Tweets; but by FM radio channels, TV channels to shore based teams.

3. IoT, a synergy among things in the physical world with the cyber world. Every object, such as the vessels large or small going out to the ocean for work shall be linked to the INSAT through an embedded device and GPS receiver on board the vessels at the sea, regarding their location in the ocean on a 24/7 basis. INCOIS shall be the nodal agency for advising the rescue boats/navy/coast guard, regarding the location of the distressed group in the ocean.

4. Similarly, crew members (with an adhar ID card) before sailing in a fishing vessel, shall register themselves through a device like “thumb reader” linked to the ‘unique ID’ of the Fishing Vessel. All such data shall be linked to a server managed by an appropriate agency of the GOK. This will solve forever the current mismatch of number of missing people.

5. Rehabilitation of the bereaved families and safe transition to normality is a task perhaps fulfilled by the government. It is time to consider extending EPF benefits to people who work in riskier environments such as the sea.

6. The sea level is rising at the rate of 1.0 mm annually due to climate change. The homeless and landless among the fish workers shall be provided free apartments in multistory apartment complexes built on the landside of the CRZ limits. By the way stand- alone-home is throwback from our archaic mind set.

Prof. Dr. Thrivikramji.K.P.

thrivikramji@gmail.com

Professor Emeritus, Univ. of Kerala

7012 99 5842

Dear Javadekar Ji

2018-08-25T22:02:00.002-07:00

Dear Javadekar Ji

While appreciating the scarping of UGC, as old as independence of India, with huge funds and no futuristic vision but enjoying the centralism from top to bottom, I make the following suggestions in respect of University and college education in our nation.

The admissions to all colleges in the country shall be made through a National College Admission Test like it is done in Peoples’ Republic of China or Japan or USA. There shall not be any passing score, instead it is up to colleges to accept or admit students belong in a score band. That is top colleges will accept top scorers.

The college (undergraduate) education shall be of four year duration. Courses shall cover all fields of science, arts, social sciences humanities and languages. But the students shall choose their major field of graduation in the third and fourth years. There shall be option for majoring in more than one subject.

Four years of college shall educate our young Indians as well knowledged citizens when they come out of college. And exposure will be in a wide-ranging area of all the disciplines at least at an introductory level and individuals will be mentally readied for understanding many things that go on around. What I have in mind is the Chinese/American system.

The Post graduate (as we call it in India or Graduate school elsewhere globally) admission shall be again based on a screening test and again without out specifying a passing grade and very much like GRE – an equivalence rating test. The higher the score band, better is the chance for admission with fellowship for Masters and Ph.d. Programs.

In the school education for twelve years there shall be a college stream and non-college stream. With such structural reforms, the kids will have either an opportunity to learns science, mathematics, languages, history and humanities or highly employable skills soon after high school.

Further, the current system of grouping the college pursuing students into science and non-science streams in the longer run will not be any help to the future these kids when they grow up as a national workforce. The non-college stream kids will come out the high school as wage earners if they are ready to work in scores of skills. There shall be a non-college stream at final school leaving stage.

What I have also in mind is a course content framework, that is a downsized version of liberal education at the college level.

Minister Ji, the present government has brought in deep structural reforms in the country. The area of education shall be far more futuristic and call for immediate action as the future of the nation will be affected drastically by the reforms implement or not implement now in the field of education.

My mind says that the NEET exam is flawed in that there is a cut off score disproportionate to the number of potential seats or slots. This needs rectification.

Thanking you

Sincerely

Dr. Thrivikramji.K.P.

Thrivikramji@gmail.co

6 DECADES OF SEAWALLS; YET MISERY GOES ON UNABATED.

2018-08-25T21:55:00.000-07:00

6 DECADES OF SEAWALLS; YET MISERY GOES ON UNABATED.

6 DECADES OF SEAWALLS; YET MISERY GOES ON UNABATED.
thrivikramji@gmail.com

Advance summary
The erosion of beaches during the SW monsoon was long known to the administration, public and the beach-erosion-refugees. Even during the days of British Raj, engineering solutions were implemented (like building of groins and seawalls) in locations like the sea cliffs south of Papansam and at Anjego fort. In the post-rai India, despite huge investments and 290 km of sea wall of all ages, problem of beach erosion continues unabatedly. Settlers on the backshore of beaches in Kerala, continue to cry for protection of their property by building more seawalls. From time to time, Government and politicians afford a very patient ear to such demands as the seawall projects are obviously, are acts of pork barreling.

Instead, I take a point of view that the anti-erosion-project-funds also should be used for construction of clusters of tenements for the immediately affected.

BACKGROUND
Kerala, one of the littoral states of the union, with a shoreline of about 560 km. has a coastal land (elevation.= <7 .5="" a="" added="" and="" as="" attributes="" barrier="" beach.="" beaches="" br="" branded="" by="" cliff-lined="" contest="" country="" cover="" earning="" favour="" geographic="" got="" gradients="" green="" high="" in="" inlets="" kerala="" lagoons="" land-fast="" large="" m.="" m.s.l="" many="" more="" must-visit-world-destinations="" named="" national="" nick="" number="" occasionally="" od="" of="" or="" organized="" own="" s="" score="" since="" small="" society="" steeper="" streams="" that="" the="" these="" win="" with="">
Yet, this patch of land stuck at SW edge of the peninsular India, has problems and opportunities, primarily due to relatively higher density of population, better average literacy in comparison with the rest of the country (of course with the exception of New Delhi) and relatively a commendable better quality-of-life-index.

Kerala is handicapped by very few occurrences of economic mineral resources (with the exception of Black mineral sand and china clay and some gold that becomes viable in the new gold price hike), and practically low level of industrialization.

Yet the only glimmer of hope is the plantation sector (viz., coffee, tea and cardamom in the higher elevations), where fortunes are typically in roller-coaster and especially rubber plantations in the lower elevations including large swaths of midland (elevation=7.5-75.0 m. above m.s.l.). But for Palakkad dist., paddy farming as a pursuit is facing nearly insurmountable difficulties.

COASTAL EROSION
Historically speaking, the British tried to afford protection from wave erosion to the Anjengo Fort and the eroding cliffs south of Papanasam beach at Varkala, (both in Trivandrum Dist.,) by placing a battery groynes (circa 1935 AD), which are shore perpendicular stone “walls” of relatively low-length-to-width ratio .

Soon after independence, to prevent the monsoon-season-erosion of the beaches, construction of seawalls and beach nourishment with sand of design gradation was the chief engineering interventions.

These were tried and experimented in the sector of a beach in Thottapally (now in Alappuzha dist.). Two American engineers (Mr. Watts and ) in fact demonstrated the efficacy of seawall - a pack of rubble with a cladding of large blocks of designed size –with a relatively deep foundation with its toe facing the sea and heel turned landward.

During monsoon beach erosion, the promise of sea wall became an integral part of relief package with shelters for the displaced population in schools along with free soup kitchens, primary health care and some amount of financial compensation to those who lost homes fully or partly.

Truly, the foundation of seawall is very much comparable to human feet. This structure is given a cladding of huge dimension stones and size of each block is a determined by the hydrodynamics, wave characteristics, nature of beach material and so on. Beach nourishment, however, was never pursued later.

Seawalls: a great porkbarrel
Funds for seawalls are part of central grants. According to one estimate, about 300 km of the 560 km shoreline has been protected by seawalls belonging to several generations and through all the five-year-plans. However, “this sweet-pot” has started drying up. A rough estimate says that at so far, least (300km x Rs.2.00 crores/km) or Rs.600 crores of rupees have gone into the seawall, and the mind set of the immediately affected population is such that they are crying for seawalls. Until now, no civic leader or political out fit in Kerala, had searched for or thought of any alternative. That is the intention of this note.

A different model
Are seawalls the only remedy? Way back in the late 70’s, in a brain-storming session organized by the CESS, a famous Marine Geologist at that time with the Geological Survey of India, but later joined as Director of the NIO, Panaji, (late) Dr. Siddique,H.N., proposed and I restate, ” possibly nothing tangible could be done to prevent wave erosion of beaches and coasts of Kerala, which is only a manifestation of SW monsoon waves dissipating their energy. Further, SW monsoon is triggered by an atmospheric condition prevailing in the central Indian ocean, say at least 500 km, away from the west coast of India.

Or else, by way of a permanent solution, there is not much one can do about erosion of the beaches during SW monsoon. The erosional phase of monsoon wave climate, is closely followed by, just like the two sides of a coin, a beach reconstruction phase by re-deposition of sand from the seabed.

Interestingly, it is during this phase of reconstruction of eroded beaches in the Chavara-Kayamkulam segment, that large volumes of ilmenite rich black sand (running into a few million tons) along with subsidiary monazite, garnet etc are welded to the shoreline. This raw sand has long been the chief source of mineral separation plants operating this region, which produce rutile for the titanium dioxide pigment industry (and recent program for the possible manufacture of sponge Titanium metal-a joint sector initiative between KMML-and ISRO with Russian technology).

Yet another offshoot of ferocity of SW monsoon waves, is what is known as mudbanks (named so by Mr. Bristow, the founder of Cochin Port), a unique phenomenon a suspension of fine sandy-mud in sea water in the inshore region, which also acts as a very effective off-shore breakwater, affording protection to the beaches on the shore-side.

An attendant-bonus of monsoon wave setup is the mud-bank-fisheries, which has been around right from the days of organized commercial fishing. For instance, the story of the movie “Chemeen”, based on a Malayalam novel of the same name by late Thakazhy Sivasankara Pillai, is set in the background of fisheries or fish-harvesting during the eruption of a mud-bank at Purakkad, a coastal hamlet in Alappuzha dist.

I might also add that this phenomenon, in the coastal waters of Kerala (between Thirkunnapuzha and Kozhikod), has been enjoyed by the fisheries sector, ever since the monsoon had set in the proto-Laccadive sea.

New Potential Strategies
With this background of Kerala monsoon’s bounty on the one hand and the and influx of “monsoon refugees” on the other, the points I state below might be an interesting side bar for you. The State Planning Board (SPB) also could examine these.

Long-term measures for to protect coastal population
Instead constructing the seawall at the current price of Rs.50 million/km, ( I could be little bit anachronistic about coasts, but that is beside the point any way), at your behest, SPB can recommend construction (using the same fund) of 3 or 4 storey (or say 9.0 or 12.0 meter tall) residential blocks to permanently rehabilitate the affected families, that had to move to the relief shelter annually and consecutively during the last 5 yr. (A better basis can be worked out by the SPB).

Such residential blocks would have free ground floor (as if the building stands on stilts) open of the block (Carpet area can be again some thing board can identify. Further, such blocks are to be constructed with a set back of at least 500 m, landward of the high-tide-line as stipulated in the CRZ act. The required land needs to be acquired by the government.

On the contrary, whenever land scarcity and acquisition process bogs down the construction project residential blocks standing on concrete stilts can also be considered. Such blocks can effectively handle and survive the backshore flooding and potential loss to the residents.

Piped in safe water to the coastal population is now met locally from the coastal aquifers, which get salty in the lean months of the summer. Another”brilliant” proposal Is to construct large reservoirs in the midland or low highland to store water and then distribute the same to coastal population. Alternatively, RO desalination of brackish (lagoon) or saline (sea) water needs active consideration of the board. For cities in the coastal land, supplementing the drinking water from desalination (based on reverse osmosis) can alone solve their water shortages.

2018-08-23T22:49:00.001-07:00

The recent floods in Kerala has caught attention of the global communities in the leading nations. BBC weather all along predicted incessant rains for several days in a row. Our mantris never got correct advice. But the chief secretary in an affidavit told the apex court that the opening of shutters in ill famous Mullaperiyar was the reason for the ruins. The kseb controlled dams shoould have been dewatered by the authorities to get rid of the accumulated water prior to TN opening Mullaperiyar.
Then we as a society least worry about science. Gods and god men are powerless in the fury of nature.
All said and done the balance sheet is devastation of homes built in the flood plains of the rivers in Kerala. Unfortunately no advisor or people wielding power are ignorant of the scientific under pinnings of the day to day manifestations of natural disasters.
At least the admin will now order a remapping of the flood plains of the rivers. secondly, hopefully while issuing pattas to settlers the lay of the land given pattaya for will be taken into account.

Further it will be interesting to know the counts of lost lives and property in the recent issued patta for people for which both parties contested in issuing pattas.

Thrivikramji.K.P.- Landslides of Kerala

2017-10-08T19:09:00.001-07:00

Scientific Mining Policy, 2014 (Draft)

2015-02-25T19:54:00.000-08:00

KERALA SCIENTIFIC MINING POLICY, 2014(Draft)

(Vide:Order No 7037/KSPB/ 13/I&I/SPB Dtd. 26-2-2014)

Introduction

1. As the state enjoys a typical tropical monsoon climate with alternating wet and dry spells, the actual quarrying/ mining (strip or surface) operations are feasible only during the rain free days of the calendar year.

2a. Kerala has a relatively larger population of 31.8 million (Census 2011). In the gross total area of 38863 km2, the livable and cultivable area is roughly 27,000 km2 and consequently leads to a higher population density. As a result, several parcels of land with potentially minable deposits are under never barren or fallow, but are set apart or already set aside for agricultural/commercial/residential land-uses; in other words, anything but mining related landuse.

This is despite the use of tax revenue in the geo-scientific work of identification, exploration, valuation of mineral/s wealth and delineation ore/mineral bearing land. Sadly, it has been the practice or policy of the administration, to allocate ore/mineral bearing parcels of land to a variety of purposes other than mining and extraction of the valuable mineral wealth.

Recommendation: Therefore, it is strongly recommended that for land parcels with proven mineral wealth the first priority of use or allocation for use shall be for the mining/quarrying of the mineral wealth below the ground. Only after completion of the mining activity and reclamation and landscaping of the mine pit and restoring the surroundings, the land be allocated for other uses.

For example the strip mines of English-India Clays in Akkulam, Thiruvananthapuram are now the home of NCESS, NATPAC, Southern Air Command and so on.

Backdrop of mining in Kerala

Modern quarrying/mining in Kerala is focused on china clays, construction materials (extracted from the shallow skin of the earth’s crust) and the cyclically renewed blacksand beach placer deposits (from the beaches of Kollam and southern part of Alappuzha dist.) on an yearly basis.

The minable deposits of China clay occurrences are localized in the southern districts of Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam and the northern dist of Kannur. The clay mining in Kerala is undertaken by enterprises that are either wholly publicly owned or under private ownership.

Quarrying/mining operations for rock and byproducts is entirely vested with large and small private investors. In fact, in the immediate preceding decades, the demand for rock rubble and coarse and fine aggregates, showed an unprecedented upward spiral. Being rock rubble and its derivatives, these fetch only a very low unit value.

Contrary to this, the unit value of black-sand placers (or derivatives and separates), accumulating in the modern beaches of Chavara-Kayamkulam-Ambalapuzha section, is huge. This accumulation is cyclical, in that it is systematically annually renewed as a part of the beach building by the long travelled swells associated with the SW monsoon.

2b. In respect of china clay, quarry products and placer minerals varying degrees of value additions of one kind or other are already in place.

Observation: In the processing plants the ROM china clay goes through an elaborate process of clarification aimed at value addition. The beach placer sand on the other hand goes through a series of process by which the mineral species are separated. Only KMML, TTP Ltd and CMRL are involved in value addition.

Observation: The proposed Institute for Critical Materials, under the auspices of the KSCSTE and utilizing the monazite as the chief input, has a mission of research, pilot plant operations, incubation and transfer of technology for the commercialization of products.

2c. Without an efficient plan of transporting the finished product or material from the place of manufacture to the potential markets/s, already at hand, prior to the first day of activity, the profitability of the mining/quarrying enterprise could as well be uncertain.

The road infrastructure in Kerala continues to be insufficient or antique for modern multi-axle lorries or tractor-trailers. The poor upkeep of the single carriage east-west trending roadways that connect points in midland (and low highland?) where value added rock products are manufactured, is indeed a huge bottleneck in the supply chain. However, the rail transport network, with double-electric-traction lanes is nearly modern in Kerala.

Recommendation: Therefore the Committee recommends adoption of measures for improving the road infrastructure for the safe passage of heavy duty trucks ferrying products from quarries and mines.

2d. Recycling, brings into an average Keralite’s mind recycling of plastic, glass, paper and other metallic scraps. But recycling in the parlance of mining means entirely different input material.

Recommendation: The scientific mining policy shall encourage, require or make mandatory, the recycling of building rubble from demolition of buildings of all sorts through a suitable manufacturing process, whereby coarse and fine aggregates are manufactured for reuse.

2e.Glass bottles of various descriptions are in plenty in our communities and consequently in our state. If this excellent feed stock is recycled into fine aggregate, to a large extent the scarcity of this commodity in the construction sector can be relived. We need to keep in mind that glass is infinitely recyclable. The committee proposes incentives and encouragements for enterprises and entrepreneurs in the glass to fine aggregate conversion.

2f. In general, there is no immediate buyer or user of the stockpile of stripped overburden in rock quarries/mines. This overburden is an excellent source material to recover coarse and fine aggregates. Currently such material remains condemned from any further downstream use. It is yet another example of making wealth from waste.

2g. Disposal of unusable stripped waste is not without options. Once the service life of the quarry/mine is reached, the quarried land is recovered by refilling the void with quarry/mine waste and followed by landscaping.

Recommendation: The recovery or reclamation of the quarried/mined land shall be made mandatory and be declared as the responsibility of the mining company.

3. Adopting more technology oriented scientific mining.

In the pre-independence days, i.e., during the days of Raj/Maharaja, mining practice in Travancore state was purely either strip mining or quarrying and minimally mechanized. In place of machines, several types of hand-tools and human labour were intensively used.

In stockpiling of black sand of placers, gathering of in-stream sand (as fine aggregate), or collecting and washing of lime-shell for subsistence, human (both genders) labor was extensively used. Reasons for the low level of mechanization could have been the dull market demand and plentiful supply of workforce. .

In the post 90’s, a good deal of mechanization has come into the strip mining sector, primarily to raise the output in order to meet the market demand. Machines such as Bulldozers, Powershovels, Jackhammers, dynamite, heavy duty tipper trucks and trained and skilled operators are a common scene in the quarries/mines. Also used extensively are various sorts of mechanized pumps to dewater the operational area.

Recommendation: The mining sector truly needs use of more machines for capacity expansion, to meet market demand. The mines and quarries currently are one-shift operations. The Government shall encourage adding more shifts in the operations to raise the production to meet the demand from the infrastructure sector of the state.

4. Adoption of most efficient competitive and environmentally responsible method of mining.

The founding of EPA in 1970 in the USA, had set a new road for many nations of the world making them to take a relook at the large and small activities and interventions in the ecosphere of the earth. In 1976, by adding article 48A to the Indian constitution, the wildlife and forests which remained in the state list were transferred to the concurrent list of the constitution. However, mining and quarrying for minor minerals remained with the state. Regulations and rules framed subsequently by the MoEF governed and ensured the environmental safe guards essential to opening up of a mine to extract major minerals and fuels.

Truly, Mining never was and has been an environment friendly activity in any part of the world at any point of time in the past or in the present. However, new insights, knowledge, operational methods and modern technologies enabled modern mining to co-exist with a healthy environment and supportive and happy community or society.

In Kerala, though text book examples of reclamation and reuse of quarry/mine pits exist, these are exceptions and not the rule. For example, the IRE at Kollam has built a township in the backshore, over a parcel of land reclaimed after dredging to recover the valuable black or heavy mineral sand in the backshore.

Secondly at Thonnakkal, Thiruvananthapuram Dist., (on the eastside of NH47 and Asan Memorial), M/s English India Clays Ltd., reclaimed and landscaped their abandoned clay mine (roughly an area = ~15.0 ha) and sold the same to M/s Tata Consultancy Services. Outside of these examples, the reclamation of abandoned quarries and mines continues to be a far-cry.

In spite of the roughly 8000 rock rubble quarries (of which roughly 3000 are abandoned) of variable sizes and depth, recovery or reclamation of the land to the approximate original lay has not happened. This abandon is detested by the society or community in and around the extraction sites and shall not happen anymore now and in the future.

While issuing permit or license for mining or quarrying, the authority shall mandate the operator to backfill, landscape and reclaim the holes created by the extraction. Certainly, this shift in policy and mandating to reclaim and restore the “holed” area back to the near original lay might invite initially very strong objections from the industry. However, such objections will die off with time.

Recommendation: All prospective quarrying/mining operations are subject to a satisfactory clearance based on EIA and SIA stipulations specifically drawn up by an expert agency or group or institution. The list of expert agencies with latest contact information shall be displayed in the web sites of the Department of Environment and Climate Change, State Biodiversity Board, State Pollution Control Board, The Directorate of Mining and geology and KSCSTE.

The final assent or dismissal of request will be vested with the High Power Environment Advisory Committee of the state. However, first or second denial of request can be reviewed for a third time with revised documents on EIA and SIA.

5. Committee can also look into research and development and human resource development in this sector.

The Central Mining Research Institute, Dhanbad, a member institute of CSIR family, is in charge of developing new technologies, modifying existing technologies and practices in the mining sector of the country. Mining and quarrying cause “high” levels of noise and dust pollution due to drilling, blasting, bulldozers, tippers, and heavy trucks ferrying large volumes of cargo, and neo-sediment laden water discharge outside of quarry limits, and discharge of oil and grease from the machinery and vehicles.

Recommendation: The State Pollution Control Board shall continue the monitoring of noise and dust pollution from the various sources and stipulate remedial or corrective measures by way of adoption of new technologies or practices instead of existing systems.

In Kerala, the demand for Geoscientists is met combinedly by at least half a dozen or so colleges plus university departments. But a huge void exists in respect of professionals in areas of Mining Engineering or Applied Geophysics. South of the latitude of Hyderabad, there is no place where one aspirant could earn a degree in Mining Engineering. The Govt. School of Mines, KGF, Karnataka offers a diploma course in Mining Engineering. The scene is a bit better in respect of Applied Geophysics. Below the latitude of Hyderabad, the CUSAT and MS University, Trunelveli are the two places offering a PG course in Applied Geophysics. .

Recommendation: The Committee recommends starting a B.Tech. course in Mining Engineering in the CET, Thiruvananthapuram and a diploma course in Mining Engineering in the Central Polytechnic, Thiruvananthapuram. Also recommended is M.Sc., course in Applied Geophysics, in the Calicut University. The State Planning Board may recommend to the government to allocate adequate funds from AY 2015-16.

6. Adoption of capital and energy saving practices and zero-waste-mining technologies should be identified.

Capital and energy are closely linked. Capital input is essential first step in energy production, whether it is mechanical or electrical. The higher the capital outlay the more efficient is the energy production. The general area of mining or quarrying is one that is highly energy intensive and hence capital intensive. Better energy efficiency in the operations would mean less energy consumption. The proper upkeep of mining machinery (including bulldozers, tippers and trucks), pumps, air compressors and electrical equipments and above all scientific and efficient lighting systems would lead to efficient use of energy.

On the other hand, zero-waste-mining technologies are in realm of reality. As long as value addition of the strip mining waste is practiced, the bulk of the waste can be sharply reduced to the satisfaction of all.

Recommendation: The quarry waste-->fine aggregate technology is full of promise and the quarry permit issuing authority of the state shall demand inclusion of this technology in the flowchart of operations and at the stage of implementation.

7. Role of government, PSUs and private indigenous and foreign industries should be identified.

The government may involve in mining and quarrying only indirectly. Perhaps government role in this sector shall be one of regulator and not the operator which can be achieved by putting place appropriate acts and rules. The PSUs are already involved in the core sectors of mining and downstream processing as exemplified by the KMML, TTPL, Clay mining at Madayi and Kundara.

Attracting Indian private capital in this sector is subject to many considerations. New investors will look for a host of concessions and subsidies. The private capital will go to states where they can maximize their benefits.

Foreign tie ups in the mining sector or fully owned foreign operations are perhaps a pipe dream primarily because of the limited mineral wealth in Kerala.

Recommendation: The Committee could not scope a sector suitable for the foreign private investment in the state.

8. Labour-industry relation and socio-economic factors should be identified.

Currently Kerala labour market or bank is rife with non-Keralite human resource and in the near future there will be no scarcity of the same. In the quarry industry, large number work men (both semi-skilled and trainable) are engaged in different phases of the operations.

Unlike in the early days of industry, or in the pre-90’s instances of loss of working days due to labour scarcity or unrest is not wide spread. The wages are perhaps decent and comparable to the other sectors of the similar skills. The non-Keralite workers enjoy the work opportunities in the state irrespective of the sector they are in and quarry/mining is no exception. In fact the employability and opportunities in Kerala as well as the social acceptance of the migrant workers perhaps are some of the reasons for the peace and harmony in the work site as well as social life.

Recommendation: First and foremost of all an adhaar based or connected registry of the work force need to be readied to enable the welfare and well being of these workers and payment of wages, and health benefits on time and with legitimacy and transparency.

9. Environmental management, sustainable quarrying technology and sustainable resource should be given due importance.

As a state, Kerala cannot lag behind the rest of India in upgrading and expanding the infrastructure as well as their up keep at par with the rest of India. In fact the basic inputs like Portland cement and steel can be out sourced nationally or internationally. What is impossible or non-remunerative is sourcing rock rubble and coarse and fine aggregates as well as large block of rock from the neigbouring states. The environmentally sensitive groups in the neighbouring states are more vocal and stronger lobbyist than their peers in Kerala.

Therefore if the vision and mission of the administration is to keep up with the rest of India in respect of the port and harbor infrastructure, repairing or building new seawall, building and repairing of the breakwaters of the fishing harbours from the south to north in coastal Kerala, sustainable quarrying/mining of rock rubble of varying sizes and weights will be indispensable. The state with roughly 1.62 lakh km long roads of different classifications is bound to consume once in 3 to 5 yr, a several km3 of rock material. Then our railways will call for the track upkeep a similar volume of coarse aggregate. The only recourse before the state is sourcing such material from within.

Recommendations:

a.The state shall implement through the various scientific departments a sustainable quarrying/mining policy based on science and technology and not the current “rat-hole” mining/quarrying. Any ban of activities in this domain will only help the deterioration of the quality of infrastructure in the state.

b.Therefore the state shall require the Geological Survey of India to map on ascale of 1:25000 or better and asses the volume of quarriable basement rock in parts of Kerala but outside the special zones like ESAs or delicate areas for meeting the growing needs of rock rubble and aggregates in the near and mid-future.

c.The Government in future shall not allow any quarrying/mining operation below a “bench mark” prescribed based on the floor elevation of a lower order stream draining the watershed in which the proposed quarry or mine will be located. Besides if the EIA and SIA clearance or permissions are earned for the operation or granted for the operation the sustainability also shall be met.

d.The recommendations of the Committee on reuse of quarries and mine pits lying with the government be resurrected and points or recommendations drawn up in that report also be utilized in making the quarry/mine operations environment friendly.

e.The vigorous but scientific placer sand mining shall be the declared policy of the state. There is a huge resource of black sand sitting in the sea bed off the Chavara-Ambalapuzha sector in the offshore. Offshore mining however is under the control of the National government. The value and criticality of the offshore or placer mineral wealth to the nation is unintelligible to the lay citizens. However, the government policy shall be couched on the long term benefit to the society as well as the state and nation.

10. Area of export and import of minerals should be focused.

Import of minerals is sort of a policy in the horizon and is not of immediate relevance as the highest profit is made and is possible if the minerals are value added by refining and manufacturing closer to the site where the mines/quarries are located. The pithead-thermal plants are a case in point, so are the steel mills and zinc smelters now in operation in the country.

Recommendation: The export of monazite shall be banned as it is one of those minerals coming under the source of critical materials. In addition, thorium, (a component chemical element in the mineral monazite) has a major role in the nuclear power production if an appropriate technology is developed and commercialized.

In respect of aggregates and rock rubble of varying dimensions, due to the comparatively low unit value, local sourcing is deemed profitable by the business class or trader and user.

11.A full-scale scientific assessment of the mineral and fuel resources a country is the keystone of the foundation of economic growth, resource management and scientific utilization of the resources. The UNFC-2009 is a generic scheme wherein the resource quantities are classified based primarily on three specific criteria viz., E, (economic and social viability), F (field project status and feasibility) and G (Geological knowledge) and uses a numerical code making it language free. This proposal or scheme is a valuable infographic that addresses the economic viability, feasibility and geological judgment. This scheme i.e., UNFC-2009, substitutes a variety of assessment schemes that were in vogue globally so far. The Geological Survey of India adopted and practices this frame work of assessing the nation’s mineral/ore/fuel wealth.

Recommendation: The EFG based numerical designation takes into account economic and social aspects in the E axis, while in the F axis is embedded the environmental questions. Therefore knowledge of UNFC-2009 based numerical EFG classification of quarriable and minable resources of the state, be reckoned along with EIA and SIA while granting permission or otherwise for mining/quarrying of a resource.

(thrivikramji@gmail.com)

In 1990, I donated 40 bound volumes of Bull. AAPG

2014-10-04T03:47:00.000-07:00

In 1990, I donated 40 bound volumes of Bull. AAPG to the library of Dept. of Geology, Univ. of Kerala, Kariavattom.

But for the ONGC library in Chennai, the Bulletin of AAPG is practically unheard of in the geoscience libraries in south India. When I earned the Fulbright post-doctoral fellowship in early 1989, I was not only enthused much about the prospect of going back to the US with a research and this time to a Midwestern geoscience department, but also by the chance I might get to extend my research to the area of exact shape analysis.

This technology originated Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison and the geologist-mathematician duo - rather new to the UWM- happened to be the innovators. The story has it that during the welcome party one evening in early Fall at the vice chancellors residence and after downing couple light drinks, the two-person team sat around a tea table and scribbled in a paper towel or back of the envelope the basics of the tool and approach. This algorithm authored by Robert Ehrlich, Bernhard Weinberg was printed in the pages of JSP 1972 as a paper “An Exact Method for Characterization of Grain Shape”.

Later, Prof. Bob Erlich moved to Univ. of South Carolina. I was fascinated by this new tool and corresponded with Bob, about their brain child and asked for help for me to do the exact shape study. And very kindly this man gave me xerox of the step by step tools of the procedure for doing the two D shape study with pencil and divided paper. In the late 1987, the UGC announced PD fellowship to US, I jumped in by applying for the offer through the u of Kerala.

To my great luck, a benevolent mind in the syndicate was in charge of selection at u of Kerala level. The UGC bluntly stated that only two nominations from each university in India will be entertained. Another condition was that the contestants already should have identified a university and a mentor. Luckily then I had Prof. Erlich corresponding with me which enabled me very well as a firm candidate.

One of the preconditions of the award of fellowship also was that the recipient has the burden of lining up a place of work along with a scientist to associate with. I had always in mind the Univ of South Carolina and Prof. Bob Erlich (Bill Full's own advisor for Ph.D), However, Bob turned me over to Bill Full of Wichita State University.

I won the final selection at the UGC but in the meantime I had Bill Full of Wichita state as mentor. This change was ok with UGC as Prof. Bob Erlich himself wrote to UGC and me of the changes of mentor and laboratory.

So I chose to go to the Geology Department at WSU, Wichita. In fact, I landed in the Wichita Airport around 10:00 pm local time on a Monday evening and in the month of Aug. 1989. There was Dr. Bill Full, a boy in the early teens and a woman or the Bills girl friend. For them locating an Asian Indian was no sweat and in fact shouted hey Vick and waved at me.

We boarded the car and drove through the night towards the hosts home. In about an hour we got to the home, where I was supposed to sleep that night. After some snacks and a drink of coke we retired for the night. I had a good nights sleep through the night, and in the morning Bill told me to make myself comfortable in the house and enjoy whatever food that was in the fridge. He was going to the lab in the university, and I may stay back home till he is back. Bill also told me that he has a large dog, and for no reason I be afraid of that animal. In fact the dog was allowed to sniff at me and get my scent for sure.

The same evening, I went to see the room in a condo, along the edge of the campus that Bill identified for me. I felt very much satisfied with the room- one with heating and air conditioning and an indoor swimming pool in the complex. There is a kitchen I might share with another tenant adjacent to my room. Really the kitchen is sandwiched between the rooms. All these for a monthly rent of 600 US Dollars

We went back in Bills car to the home to pick up my two piece luggage and some grocery like milk, cereals, and banana and so on. On our way back we dropped into the Big Mac for a burger dinner. Bill left me in the condo in my room, and I was on my own from that point on wards.

I slept well and deeply. Next morning I was up a bit late like 9 am. After a shower and breakfast, I walked toward the Building that housed geology and geography. A two story building had Geology on the second floor. The building had a basement also which housed some labs.

While I was getting ready to go to India, I casually enquired if there would be some journal that I could carry home a gift or donation. The answer of the HOD was indeed a large yes. He immediately took me to a very large lecture hall kept under lock, opened it for me and announced he would be too happy if I carted off all the journals stacked on the floor.

Well I would disappoint him as I was only looking for Bull AAPG. And the response was that I blessed him that day by taking away a smaller burden of the department which did not know what to do with all the donations that kept arriving year after year.

Stunningly in the US university system according to a Federal law, any donation of any kind coming off from alumnus cannot be turn down. The story is that when one of the geosciences alumni dies invariably in his will there will be a clear mention of donation of books and journals invariably to the alma mater.

Thus the universities keep accumulating such donations without any known means of disposing the redundant books and journals. Perhaps I did a favor to my friends in the WSU Geology department by agreeing to ship to Geology Department of the University of Kerala 50 volumes (each volume in 12 issues) of Bull AAPG. Certainly I paid like 159 US$ as shipping charge to the US Postal service.

Then on return I got all these volumes red rexin bound before donating it to the Library of the Department of Geology. The glass and steel almirah to store these volumes also was donation from a project fund. Though the almirah with Bull AAPG copies were aptly named, “Prof. K.K.Menon Corner” to my disdain that label was torn off.

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Creating an informed citizenry

2014-04-12T21:47:00.001-07:00

In any modern society the responsibility of informing the public about government policies, new issues and solutions, possible solutions etc is with the government and hence the leadership. Take for example the oil and gas price. Every one is under the impression that the govt. is with sort of enmity to the public when it comes to pricing of oil and gas or for that matter the essentials. All political parties and communal groups look at the govt. as enemy number one and blame the govt for everything from price rise to climate change and water scarcity. Any manufacturer and supplier will stay in business as long as he gets his profit share finally. Similar is the case with millions of retailers.
So the price rise is a phenomenon in which the business, clients, buyers importers and such other people need to make a buck.
All are part of the society and the gov. Is forced to play a careful role to satisfy all stake holders, which a bit acrobatic. The was only one country in the world where price rise was unheard off - the former USSR. I had luck to live in Mo scow for six months in 1986 there was no price rise in the communist system. The fellowship I had was 300 doubles per month. The predoctorals had a fellowship of 100 Robles pm. In 1965 also that was the rate of fellowship which a good friend of mine enjoyed. To quote him "during the last week of every month the foreign students used to check into some city hospital so that they get fed correctly with at least steamed potato" the hospital crew knew all about it and allowed it. It was one the ways to stave off hunger by the end of the month.

Well that system of govt. is history. So, whether we have grand old party or the substitute party ruling, there will not be any different governance. For reasons we do not like to delve into.

Edakkal Caves, Wayanad, Kerala

2013-08-24T06:46:00.003-07:00

1. The Edakkal cave is not a cave; instead it is a cove (or a sheltered nook in a cliff face) on the near vertical face of a rocky hill. A typical cave has an entrance created by tens of thousands of dissolution by natural waters and the entrance will lead to a hollow chamber. It is typically formed in limestone terrains only. In the crystalline basement rocks of peninsular India natural caves does not exist as the rock is insoluble practically, in spite of the monsoon rains and water supply.

2. Edakkal cave is then only a nook or cove in near vertical face of a rock cliff. In fact the “aboriginals” took shelter in such spots and during leisure time got involved in carving and painting the free and clean, algal growth free face with their mental impressions of what they went through daily or whatever.

3. Obviously the tropical monsoon season with more than 100 t0 140 moist days not only endowed our rocky hills with a universal black coat of dead algae, but made it indelible through decades and centuries and millennia of rain fall.

4. However by the sheltered nature the nooks on the near vertical face escaped the intense black coat instead the coat ended where the water drops disappeared or escaped by evaporation.

5. Evaporation is a process that takes place even at the ambient temperature. But the path of the water drops on the roof of the nooks will receive some degree of lichen growth and to that extent some degree of camouflaging of the details of the lithogyphics like it happened in the Edakkal cave.

6. The proposition before us then is the either removal of the pathways of water drops to the roof and/or wall of the cave, or limiting it entirely or completely. Perhaps this is the only recourse before us now. This process needs to be implemented by doing no harm to the natural setting and perhaps very unobtrusively. This therefore needs very careful analysis of the topographic, climatic and environmental setting of the Edakkal cave.

7. The orientation of the rock ridge, dominant rocks forming the ridge, their internal structure like joint systems, their depth of penetration, foliation sets, quartz veins and their attitude, and such others need a detailed mapping in a 1:200 or 400 scale and not more, like we do the lithological and structural mapping of a dam site.

8. A slope map of the ridge, like when we make a plan for landscaping, in a 1:200 or 400 scale needs to be created as an aid in designing a system of sheet flow diversion away from the cliff façade.

9. Once this is achieved one need to assess the volume of surface water flow over the ridge in all directions to assess, whether or not most of the rain water follows downward through cove or nook face. Luckily if the major surface run off is away from the nook’s façade then solutions will be far more easier and repair or maintenance more cheap and Affordable in the longer run in the deeper future.

10. If the structural discontinuities in the ridge are proved to be leading water away from the nook, it is a great relief in the refurbishing of the cave and its treasures.

11. This can be proved only by an experiment in the field by a dye test in several selected points on the ridge and during the early or late stages of monsoon. As we do not hold power knowledge about the end of monsoon it is better to do the same during the early days of onset of SW monsoon.

12. This will unequivocally tell us a) there is influx of water into the roof of the nook or not. If the latter is proved true, then we have to implement a host of designed interventions to divert the “gushing” of drops and droplets or micro-sheet flow of water over and through the roof and then over the cave face.

13. Now the next set of experiments is meant to quantify the water volume wetting the roof and face as well as the humidity and temperature in the cave. Once such data are with us and then we could go for a design of diversion measure of the streams of rain drops freely entering the cave roof and then to the face.

14. Remedial measures for avoiding the lichen growth, primarily address the removal of the growth conditions (Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a fungus and a photosynthetic partner growing together in a symbiotic relationship. usually either a photosynthetic green alga or cyanobacterium.)

15. The design shall be construction of micri-gutters across the slope3 of the hill face or side to take the flow off the façade of the cave. The spacing frequency, dimensions etc need to be designed on the basis of knowledge on the quanta of sheet flow down the face. Such solutions are to be based on the actual data and not general presumptions of conjuctures.

16. The Lichen growth and the ambient environment for their healthy growth need to be understood unequivocally to design certain measure that will deflect such conditions for growth and then at the end infestation by lichens.

17. Therefore, the GoK may order a study to assess the physical and biological environment before a conservation plan is designed for the Edakkal cave – a heritage site that may one day come under the umbrella of UNESCO.

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thrivikramji@gmail.com

Singing Sands of Sankumukam beach, Trivandrum, India.

2013-07-31T10:23:00.000-07:00

Singing Sands of Sankumukam beach, Trivandrum, India.

Singing sands are known to exist in some beaches in different parts of the world. One example near home is the beach sands of Sankumukam, Trivandrum. In fact, the Sankumukam beach sand is near glass quality sand and its black sand component is noticed in the beach immediately to the north of Kovalam headland where the former ITDC hotel complex stands.

Now some points about the singing sands. What is this sand and why is it designated so? Unfortunately, the masonry construction in the backshore to erect a Broad walk, is an intrusion into the natural system. The SW monsoon wave erosion removes practically all the sand stored in the summer berm.

However, when the beach is rebuilt after the monsoon, with a distinct summer berm there is a wide backshore. If one walks over this beach bare footed, and kicking the sand under the feet with the heel an audible squeak is created due to rubbing of the sand by the heel. Such sands are described variously as booming or roaring sands. In fact, this nature of the sand earned the name singing sand for the beach sand of our own town beach.

What is the source or what are the attributes of this sand that generates an audible squish? According to Sir C V Raman, (who took time out to walk this beach in the early 1950’s, when his flight was delayed by two hours or so and decided to check out this character of the sand in the Sankumukam beach), the moisture content, shape of the sand particles, size and degree of sorting as well as nearly uniform mineralogy, or pure quartz are contributing factors. Sir Raman made this comment to the young geologist, Mr. kVK Nair (then of the Division of Mineral Survey and Research Central Research Institute, the Travancore University) in the presence of Dr. CS Venketeswaran( then Principal, University College, Trivandrum). However, so far an instrumented study of this characteristic never came under scrutiny. The only attribution is that the Sankumukam sand qualifies for designating as glass quality or glass sand like the Chertala Glass sands deposits and makes the audible squeaking sound.

Similar sand occurrences have been reported from other parts of the world, like California and Nevada (dune sands), Kazhakastan, UAE, Abu Dhabi etc).

A NOTE ON VIZHINJAM CONTAINER PORT SUBMITTED TO THE CHAIRMAN

2013-06-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

A NOTE ON VIZHINJAM CONTAINER PORT SUBMITTED TO THE CHAIRMAN

(of the Public Hearing on June 29, 13)

I wish to bring to the attention of the chairman (Dist. Collector) of open forum discussing the EIA /EMP of Vizhinjam Container Port (VCP) under planning. I am very concerned about the impending siltation into the harbor basin by “wrongly” placing the gateway to the port facing southerly along a shoreline with dominant northerly drift. Inspection of the google earth scenes or the topographic sheets of SOI published in the 1920’s as well as the 1980’s and the bathymetric chart, is just enough to get this insight on the sediment drift. This port’s gateway is facing southerly to let in sediment that travels from Kanyakumari to Vizhinjam. There are three small rivers (Rao ‘s terminology) viz., the Neyyar, the Kuzhitura ar and Pazhayar. The following points are in support of my concern.

1. The Kannur Fishing Hof Kannur (KFH) and the Vizhinjam Fishing Harbor (VFH) are the textbook examples of correct design based on a poor data set including waves and currents. The break water of Kannur port was designed by Perr Brunn (who also designed the Alexandria harbor, Egypt and one other major harbor in Australia), a world renowned harbor engineer who regularly came to India to the National Institute of Oceanography for academic exchanges and research pursuits.

2. However, design of breakwater of KFH due to “bad” data, became a text book example (in Brunn’s own text book) of right design leading to adverse results. The result is very simple, siltation in the sheltered harbourwaters. The dominant northerly current in coastal waters of Kerala drove the sediment straight into the boat basin, as the gateway to the harbor faced southerly. (This warranted construction of a second breakwater/wharf to block the northerly drifting sediment from getting into the harbor basin).

3. The same bias persisted in the design of the breakwater in the VFH, which led to intensive silting of the boat basin and erosion of bluffs facing the breakwater shelled tetrapods, (on the backshore over which a large church building stands). Consequently then, the authorities had to develop a second breakwater in the VFH to rectify the error.

4. The Chinese designers while designing the Sri Lankan Container Port apparently understood the scientific nuances on the west coast of the island nation (as well as that of India0 and consequently to curtail siltation and consequent dredging, kept the gateway to the port facing northerly.

5. I am indeed upset by the designers of VCP, choosing to keep the gateway oriented southerly which invites huge sediment influx into the harbor basin. I am very uncomfortable with this design.

6. In 1980-81, a team that I led to study the sediment drift around the VFH, reported to the harbor engineering department of the state the intense northerly drift of sediment and hence into the boat basin. Huge volumes of sediment are mobilized during the SW monsoon season. VFH added the second break water after our report.

7. The depth to the seafloor in this region is projected as an excuse for keeping the gateway facing southerly.

8. Well, I am suspicious of the claim hat siltation will not be a major problem hence. All that I would caution about is the fury and intensity of the SW monsoon wave climate is something very difficult to predict by modeling.

9. The monsoon cycles can be intensified by the climate change phenomena affecting all the littoral nations of the world, and VCP is no exception. I am sure with severe monsoons the intensity of sand transport will be on the rise and I am sure that northerly dominant drift along the Kerala coast will not reverse by itself to save the VCP.

10. Thank you very much for allowing me to voice my concern about the southerly orientation of the gateway, in spite of the scientific basis.

Sd/-

(Dr. Thrivikramji.K.P.)

Professor Emeritus

thrivikramji@gmail.com

94464 25842 (M)

Thrivikramji earns shipboard break

2013-03-28T09:42:00.002-07:00

Thrivikramji earns shipboard exposure.

It was like the last quarter of 1980, I believe, that I was introduced to Comdr. Duke, who was then stationed at the Naval Base, Kochi. I did not know how Director C. Karunakaran of CESS got acquainted with Cdr. Duke, but one thing was sure they were very good friends. Whenever, Duke had free time he used to come down to Trivandrum to see the pursuits of the MSD group. hen I joined, Cdr Duke came down and held fairly long discussions with me as to the programs I was planning for the MSD, CESS.

One of the visits, Duke asked me if I ever went to the sea. My answer was yes, which made him quite curious. I narrated my experience, and I did not think my narrative impressed that man. (Details, elsewhere). In fact, CK sort of chided me for not having gone for a cruise in a ship out to the open sea in spite of being the Head MSD. Duke also suggested if I were ready he will work out a plan that will give each one in the MSD a cruise break in the ocean.

In fact, I suggested that I will show the lead and go for the cruise as soon as Duke could arrange one. CK was impressed and so was Duke. Within a week of that meeting, on a Wednesday I took the morning Venad express to Kochi. Baba’s driver picked me up from the Ernakulam south station and dropped me at the Kochin Naval base where I was received by some cadet officer. In fact, I met the station commander briefly and that man ordered a tour for me in the INS Venduruthy. In the late afternoon I boarded a naval frigate berthed in the naval jetty. It was sort of one escort taking me over to another official or station where someone else will take over.

The commander (I cannot recall the man’s name) welcomed me on board. After a brief chat about what I do and what the research plans of the MSD are, he walked me through the ship right from the engine room to the bridge explaining everything to me. By sunset we sailed off, through the Kochi channel out to the sea and then on a line toward east of south, and roughly parallel to the sea coast.

The bridge the controls in there and A to Z of what happens in the bridge etc were explained to be briefly but not losing the content. A mistake on my part was that I did not do any noting of the points. The commander sits in a very tall chair at the rear end of the bridge room, while the men take charge of each instrument. There is a voice pipe connecting the bridge and the engine room, and all the verbal commands were shouted out through the voice pipe. The same pipe functions as the mouth piece and ear piece. The voice pipe is made of brass and the visible part of duct is kept with neat polish and shining brassy yellow.

A navigator is in charge of a navigational chart spread out between the commander’s chair and the crew manning the bridge. The navigator will read out the azimuth of the course, which is repeated through the voice pipe to the engine room from where another set of crew will steer the vessel. N fact there is a rudder in the bridge too. It was quite a new experience for me.

In fact the commander told me in private that he has a sort of prohibition during a cruise. But liquor is allowed once the vessel is berthed. I think the vessel was like INS Krisna or so, which was later decommissioned and these days it is sort of a museum.

I had a dinner with commander anyway in the late evening. Then one of the men camein and escorted me to the sick bay in the ship on the star board side. I could see the nightlights on land. Or else everything was dark. In the bunker I had a glass window through which I could see the outside. It was announced that we will call on shore in the early hours of the following day.

I could here the wave splashing on the iron sheets of the ships body. As night became really late the noise was louder. But that did not bother me and indeed I had a good night sleep, but for the intimation that we were somewhere south of the latitude of Kollam and turning around on there to begin the return leg of the journey.

When the day broke, the vessel was waiting in the sea off the mouth of ship channel to Kochin port. The sailing from the sea to the berth at naval jetty was indeed slow and took almost forty minutes. Once we berthed, the Commander invited me for a brunch, beer and liquor. I profusely thanked the team for the wonderful experience I earned in the trip on my behalf and on behalf of CESS.

Around twelve noon, Baba send the office car for me to go to town to the Rgional Center of CESS. I had a discussion about the shipboard experience without any sea sickness. Premchand in fact told me, if I had downed couple of large drinks, the sea sickness will not brush with me.

By mid evening I travelled to Ernakulam south to catch Venad express to Trivandrum, reaching around 9:30 pm at Trivandrum central. It was wonderful for me and CK never had asked me or nudged me on this account.

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Glauconite in the Quilon Limestone, (Age:Burdigalian) India.

2013-03-28T08:13:00.000-07:00

Thrivikramji’s Glauconite story.

Glauconite is one of the minerals that is essentially a product of marine environment and entirely an authigenic mineral formed during diagenesis. The Glauconite I started on as a piece of research, when I "rejoined" the Department of Geology as Lecturer in the University of Kerala. I resigned my position as Asst. Geologist in the Mining and Geology department to join the university as a teacher. Those days the department was housed in the west wing of the first floor of the Finance department of the university. In fact 18-3-1968 was my entry to the Geology Department of the University of Keraka.

The Glauconite is a interesting mineral and it is a clay in respect of structure and purely of marine authigenesis and hence of great repute in respect of correlating unfossiliferous sedimentary formations. The work I did with pyrite framboids, had in fact indicated the presence of green pellet all grains which were in the fine to very fine sand grade. So it was easy for me to get to the samples, and line up the laboratory to quickly launch the study.

I aggregated sufficient quantity of Glauconite, needle picked for purity and about half a gram of the stuff was safely forwarded to SV university, where then Prof. Chakrapani Naidu was presiding in the geology department. A geochemist in the department had agreed to do a chemical assay of the sample to verify whether it was Glauconite. The answer was negative. The sample had no element potassium, a critical chemical element for the sample to qualify as Glauconite.

When a portion was send to USSR, to Rajendran Nair, he too did the examination and verification of the stuff with help of a senior faculty there who too could not agree that my Glauconite indeed is Glauconite. I was not disappointed or displeased. I went back to the library and to the American Mineralogist, where one Burst had a paper or two on Glauconite, where he suggested the chlorite may occur along with typical Glauconite in the pellets which in fact are fecal pellets only. These pellets are created by the filter feeding organisms in the sea, which cast the injected micro grains of minerals into pellets. Among these the capsular pellets are commonest.

Those days like in the early 80's a review paper on Petrology of Glauconite authored by DM Triplehorn appeared in the journal Earthscience Reviews. This paper was in fact a game changer as far as the Glauconite of Quilon limestone was concerned. This researcher divided Glauconite into four categories, of which one is mixed mineral Glauconite (it is exactly like mine) which was a great "eureka" moment for me. Then time was moving past and by the fall of 1972, I joined Syracuse University on a Fulbright Fellowship. I continued my Glauconite studies after the conclusion of my PhD and rejoining the department of geology at Kariavattom campus.

At Syracuse we were a trio in the geology department. Swapan ghosh, Ghan srivastava and me in the department. Swapan did geochemistry, Ghan computer applications and me in hydrodynamics. Swapan joined the Shiraz Univ, Iran, Ghan joined CITGO and I rejoined U of K, Kariavattom.

I then forwarded some samples of Quilon limestone to Shiraz for Swapan to do some minor and trace element chemistry. but when the results emerged Swapan was in trouble due to the revolution that brought Khomeini to Iran to the presidency. When revolution peaked in 1980 Swapan wanted to know if I can help find job somewhere in India. I immediately went and saw Prof. C . Karumnakarana, the founder Director, CESS, Trivandrum and made a strong recommendation for the case Swapan. The Director then asked me to get the biodata and in about two months Swapan's CV was given to Director. In fact Swapan had SE job offer quickly and he joined like Dec.1980, roughly six months after my joining CESS.

Swapan had the results of analysis ready. We sat together in the late evening hours to put together a joint paper on the "Pyrite-Glauconite assemblage in the Quilon Limestone (Age: Burdigalian) from the type area etc.." It was forwarded to the Geological Society of India, Bangalore, which was promptly published without any revision in about six months from the date of submission.

I also read a paper on the Glauconite in the Indian Sedimentologists Congress, at Banares Hindu University, in 1981.After the presentation during lunch break Dr. R.A.K.Srivastava, came to me and said it was an interesting presentation and he would like the full paper for inclusion in a book he was planning on Glauconite. My paper appeared in the book "Glauconite -form and function" that Srivastava edited and published.

There was also a nasty incident in regard to Glauconite. There was one Dr.Raha, PK in CESS and another Dr. Sinha Roy, both were from the GSI. When the manuscript that I and Swapan made was accepted for publication, this Raha-Roy team preempted our publication through another short paper that reported Glauconte for the first time to Bangalore Current Science. This happened in spite of the diligent Director's office and Swapan more of a compatriot of Raha-Roy duo.

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Prof. Anirudhan Sahadevan officially bows out from University of Kerala.

2013-03-22T10:07:00.000-07:00

Prof. Anirudhan Sahadevan officially bows out from University of Kerala.

This month of March, 13 is quite important to me as my good friend Prof. Anirudhan (aka ani) is getting ready for the mandatory retirement. I wish to flag some among many of miles we walked together in the road of research, until I retired in Jan., 2004 leaving behind the ENVIS Center and the tech. staff of the center. When I look back, the closing down of the ENVIS center in the Department of geology, Kariavattom campus gave an opportunity for the staff to re-energize and fly new heights in their own lives. Now back to ani and me.

I met ani as a young and determined man for the first time in my office in CESS, at Sasthamangalam, Trivandrum. He dropped into my office; say in the afternoon to get acquainted with me. We did not meet each other earlier anyway. For some reason, ani knew that I am planning to get out of CESS and to the free world of th university.

The universities are by far the most unique places where freedom is immense, formalities are rather informal. It is place where professors work like hermits. If one wanted to work hard to look for answers to issues and phenomenon, university environs are the right place. There is absolute freedom to think or not to think, think the way you wish to think, Work or not to work, and work on such mundane stuff you wish to work on. The work load of teaching is less compared to others. So, I was thrilled by the idea of getting back to my dream job in the department of geology of the University of Kerala.

All that ani needed to know was, the gossip about my jumping off the CESS boat was for real or just gossip. Ani felt good when I answered in affirmative. And he expressed his desire to work for a PhD degree under my counseling and directions. May be we went out of the office to the front street for a cup each of parting tea on that evening. Then, by mid June of 82, I departed to the Kariavattom campus of the university and from the next day onwards I restarted as reader in geology.

I would imagine that from the very first day on we struck a very friendly relationship, talking about the research topic. In a week or two the choice was narrowed down to the study of sediments of Bharathapuzha. This river had sort of attracted me like a magnet. It is a medium class alluvial river with seasonal floods like others in Kerala and otherwise a calm flowing system with large side bars and flats of sand.

In fact the original proposal was sort of open ended. In geology, our research questions are not very refined nor finite. Our path is what we call multiple workings hypothesis, credited to W Chamberlain, a famous American geologist and academic.

The field data collection and foot work indeed were tailored into the MSc student dissertation project. So ani and I used to go to field with the boys. We had very interesting groups like Shyam Sarma and team (camping at Chittoor), Varma, Mohan, Razak and Jose James (in Sreekrishnapuram camp), Vinod, Pradeep, Gangadhar and Abraham (in Manimuthar, TN) and so on. Chittoor camp was indelible as we were denied accommodation in the inspection bungalow by the caretaker, on the false basis that the room was already allotted. But we chose to sleep in the verandah of the inspection bunglow for the first night. We did that in spite of endless pleas by the caretaker, who initially said the place was full. The next day onwards we had absolutely no problem whatsoever regarding the sleeping place. Ani and I stayed there with the boys for all the ten days the teachers were ordered to stay.

However, Sreekrishnapuram camp was equally memorable but on a different count. In fact the place or rather two rooms we got on rental basis was the second floor space of a row shops. Second floor had all kinds of guys living. Most of them are vending stuff in the villages to make a living. Everything from bangles to vessels and fake medicines to food stuff can be seen in the list. Expensive items like children’s and ladies garments were vended. These guys after long day of roaming about in the villages, in a bicycle or even by foot are nearly passed out when they get back to their room. Hence they are practically silent at night. But our boys were the opposite, and keep on chatting with us for long hours at night.

The fun part of the lodge is the toilet. The mornings we need to go to the toilet to ease the bowels. This had to be done in open air inside a walled property. Entry is illegal as we had to jump over a wall on specific points to avoid landing on feces. Inside the compound, it is like the old roman style. You squat inn such a way that you butt does not hit the neighbors. Every one smoked, to overcome the stench of human excreta. The butt washing is also a community activity, whereby one uses a bucket and rope to lift water from the bottom of well. In fact, the bucket takes turns to meet the needy. You smile at the man’s face to get the bucket for yourself.

The women in the small town never passed by this walled property during the evening and morning busy hours. We initially took a bath from the water well. However, we soon discovered a temple tank and with permission from the temple authority we used to go to the small pond. Ani did not know how to swim. But all others did know. So we decided that we will put ani in the pond and make him practice swimming. Mohan took the lead to coax and coerce ani to start swimming. Really the truths of the matter was that by the seventh day in the camp, ani could swim across the pond, which is only say 15 feet roughly.

Another surprise was Mohan after bath along with us went to the temple. Being strangers there people were curious to figure out our intentions in the town. Our boys are very smart in conveying the purpose of our visit to the town and the mission at hand. This always earned some degree of reputation for us. The priest gave us routinely, fried flavored and sweetened rice cake to share and eat.

Mohan being what he is, offered to sit with the small crowd or choir and sang devotional songs say for about 30 mins or so. Mohan sang well and this led to a higher esteem for us. Plus two or three extra sweet fried rice cakes.

The work out in the field was tough but no way to avoid. This man Razack cleverly avoided the hard hot field days and went to Angadipuram, where he had a Railway employee uncle, in the pretext of treating tooth ache. The others stayed back to complete the work. But I and ani packed off back to campus.

The chitoor camp was good, but for the first night. The entire team took a night bus to Palani for darsan and stay overnight. We ran up the 900 or so steps, of course taking breaks.

The Manimuthar camp was equally good but for the first nights sleeps again in the veranda of the inspection bunglow. V.Radakrishnan (now Professor, Bharathidasan Univ., TN) joined us as he was looking at the sediments of Thamirabarani river for his doctoral degree. Ani and I went to Manimuthar in my Mahindra jeep, and en route at Tirunelveli gave the jeep to a workshop for some repair work.

Ani wrote the thesis in piecemeal and I sat and read the manuscript and did the essential modifications. It was nearly an eight month long mission. If this man was ready with one page I will read and finalize that page. Or if it is 20 pages long we sat right through the late evening to finalize that segment. My policy is to do whatever given to me in one go. That is what my teacher Bryce Hand did with my thesis. He would say Vic hand in whatever you have. The length is of no consequence. This great man never failed to give me back what I gave the previous eve, in the very next morning when he walked up the stairs at my office-end in the Heroy Lab., Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York

Finally, ani was kind of confused about my language skills. When we were closing in on the final leg of thesis, he wondered if, the thesis need be read by a language expert, late Dr Rajan. I politely told ani that this thesis will go to foreign examiners and let us wait for their comments.

Before I was leaving the country to Wichita State Univ., USA on PDF, I personally took say five copies of thesis to the concerned section in the administration section. It was like Aug 89, or so, and I flew out to JFK and then to Wichita, where Bill Full and his girl friend and step son received me.

When I rejoined on the first of January 90 two reports, including the one by Lee Suttner of Indiana was in the office. And ani was formally awarded the doctorate by the university, in April that year.

Later we were together in several research projects. I and ani supervised thesis work of Dr Sabu and ani sooner than later was appointed as professor of geology. So this young man is now senior and is readying himself to quit the active service as a geoscientist and academic.

Wish him very best wishes.

THOMAS RUSSELL MacLAREN LAWRIE

2013-03-09T06:37:00.001-08:00

THOMAS RUSSELL MacLAREN LAWRIE
BSc(StAnd)
Russell Lawrie was born at Sillyearn, Grange, Banffshire, on 30th May 1913. He spent most of his early years in Fife, where his father was a schoolmaster at several locations and he himself was thus educated at various schools, latterly at Buckhaven Secondary, where he was Dux Medallist in 1931. From there he gained a Taylour Thomson Bursary to St Andrews University, graduating BSc in 1935 with a First Class Honours in Geology, also being Class Medallist for that year. He had an active extra-curricular life and was a founder member of the University Mountaineering Club, Captain of the Hockey team 1935-36 and a Hockey Blue. In 1937 he took part in a University scientific expedition to NW Iceland, a trip which not only provided valuable experience for his later work in Skye, but stimulated his lifelong interest in the pastime of bird watching, an activity in which he became expert.
He commenced a postgraduate research study of the Ballachulish Granite, but gave this up after a year when offered a post with the Geological Survey of Great Britain (GSGB), some of his work being eventually incorporated in the revised GSGB memoir to Glencoe and Ben Nevis (1960). On joining the GSGB in 1937 he was first appointed to the relatively new Water Department in London and also worked as a field
surveyor in the Chepstow area. In 1939 he was transferred to the Edinburgh office where his Iceland experience was put to good use in the geological survey of North Skye, while he also worked in Fife. These surveys were discontinued on the outbreak of the War, when, in common with most of the GSGB staff, his work was directed to investigations more immediately concerning the War effort.In Lawrie's case this was the attempt to find alternative sources of strategic minerals and he was especially involved in the Scottish
Highlands in the search for, and the eventual discovery of, small but vital deposits of sheet mica, then needed for the electronics industry whose previously imported supply had been severely interrupted. (Although important at the time, winning this material proved too labour intensive to survive the War.) He was also concerned in the location of new sources of water supply.

Soon after the War ended his broad experience both in field geology and applied studies resulted in his secondment to the Government of Travancore State, India, as Director of Mineral Survey and Research. There he set up a small Geological Survey HQ and trained staff, but most unfortunately this work was much hindered by the transfer of power in India and he found the appointment personally most frustrating. On his departure in 1950 the Indian Central Government took over the work.

Back in Scotland he joined the small Highlands and Islands Unit (HIU). Basically engaged in the primary 6-inch survey of the Locheil (62) Sheet, much of the time of the Unit was taken up with advisory work for the North of Scotland Hydroelectric Board's construction schemes, at that time an innovative cooperation between geologist and engineer. Lawrie was particularly involved with the Garry-Moriston, Fannich and Strathfarrar projects. He also served as Geological Assessor to the Mineral Resources Panel of the
Scottish Council (Development and Industry).

In 1957 he was appointed District Geologist in charge of HIU, transferring in 1965 to take charge of the North Lowland Unit. He retired in 1973, but was reappointed to the HIU as a temporary Principal Geologist for a further two years, mainly organising records of mineral resources and assisting in an editorial capacity.
Lawrie was Vice-President of the Edinburgh Geological Society 1957-59 and Joint Scientific Editor of its Transactions 1952-59. He was also a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. He was elected FRSE in 1960. Over the period when Russell Lawrie worked in GSGB (now BGS) the emphasis was of course in its cooperative studies on which the maintenance of the National Geological Data Base depended (i.e. Maps, Memoirs, Borehole Records etc). His considerable director input to the science can however be seen in the credits to the 1-inch (or 1-50000) maps of Chepstow (England 250), and Scotland maps (40) Kinross; (41) North Berwick; (52) Tobermory; (53) Ben Nevis (2nd Edn); Northern Skye; (62W) Loch Quoich and (62E) Loch Lochy. He contributed to the Memoirs of Chepstow, Ben Nevis and Stirling, and was a part or main author of six 'Wartime Pamphlets', a title which does scant justice to the importance of the work carried out at that time.

When 'Russ' joined the HIU it consisted of myself and J E Wright, the 50% increase in staff being most welcome as we were engaged in the rather daunting task of mapping the mountainous area of Lochaber, then only known in the barest geological detail. West of the Great Glen the terrain was wild and inaccessible. It was also wet, and as the only practicable means of operation was working from small hike tents, personally carried, the life was rather rugged. Russell's early love of wild country of course helped here, but he also had an equable, humorous personality well able to cope with the conditions and we all became personal friends as well as colleagues. The 'Pioneering' aspect of the work was stimulating and he subsequently looked back on these days - as we all did - with nostalgia. Not the least of the plus points for him was the opportunity afforded to observe less common birds and he always carried a heavy pair of powerful binoculars to add to the load of rock specimens. I well remember his excitement when for two successive camp sites we inadvertently chose Blackcock 'Leks', on which our tents provided impromptu hides.

As DG of the (much enlarged) HIU and latterly of the NLU he was well liked and respected by his staff several of whom have made mention of his unstinting scientific and editorial help in the preparation of papers and reports. For a man who was certainly not extrovert, his rather pawky humour, especially on social occasions, made him very popular office-wide.

On his retiral he ceased to take an active interest in Geology. His wife Berne (MacDonald, whom he married in 1939) was much involved in Club bowling, and he joined her in this activity, which turned out to be a considerable commitment. With her he also continued his interest in birds and in orchestral music.
Suffering rather poor health in his latter years, he died in Edinburgh on 14 July 1993.

SCOTT JOHNSTONE

Road to Career-Thrivikamji and Baskaran

2013-03-02T09:07:00.000-08:00

Road to Career-Thrivikamji and Baskaran go to Dehradun, Aug. 1965 .

In 1965 May or early June or so, and after the M.Sc results were announced, I was indeed happy and thrilled about the prospects of getting a very decent job in one of the professional organizations employing fresh PGs in Geology from the colleges and Universities. Even in those days in spite of being a very lowly organization those days, ONGC was a good employer, especially because it was autonomous. The largest employer on the other hand was the Geological survey of India.

My class mates all decided first to go to the employment exchange to register as job seekers especially in the field of Geology. In fact for some reason, in August 65, I and Bhaskaran (B.K.Nair hailing from Vellanad) to the NE of Trivandrum, were called for an interview for the post of Senior Technical Assistant (Geology) in the ONGC and the excitement for both of us was that Commission would reimburse the travelling allowance.

We decided to go for the interview in Dehradun. It was a pretty long train journey in the II class coach. We took the Madras mail leaving TVC around 7:00 am in the morning to reach Madras the next day morning. The train chugged along the beautiful Quilon-Shencotta segment of the meter gauge through several tunnels before emerging into the plains adjoining Shencotta around 4:00 pm. From there on, train zipped through the various big and several small stations finally to stop at Madras Egmore. From the Egmore station we hopped into the electric train to Park station opposite of Madras Central. There around 12 o’clock or so we got into Grand Trunk express to New Delhi- another long haul taking nearly 40 hr or so.

We were very confident about ourselves and were unconcerned about the uncertainties of the trip and that too a maiden trip on our own. There were jawans in the coach and some Malayalees too. These guys were very helpful and properly guided us especially to run to the dining car for the three meals. The coaches those days were not vestibuled from one end to the other. Only upper most classes were that way connected to the dining car. Instead, we got our meals served in the coach from the dining car by the food vendors. On occasions the kitchen will run out of prepared food and occasionally even drinking water.

Anyway, finally around morning we reached New Delhi crossing the Akbar and Tilak bridges. But our next Train to Dehrdun was from the neighboring old Delhi station. Reaching that station, even though it is our first trip, was quite easy. The jawan crowd was always there to help us and guide and lead us correctly. We got into a II class coach (that is where we saw some empty seats), and proceeded to Dehradun say by the evening. The train reached Dehradun by the next day early hours. PKRN had suggested that there is a Birla Choultry in Dehradun that any Tonga (a one horse drawn wagon) man will take you safely. The attraction is that you do not pay any room rent as you slept in the verandah like place in front of a mini ward-robe fitted to the wall. But to be on the safe side one must use own lock and key to prevent possible burglary. Otherwise it is comfortable and safe place.

In the afternoon the duo went out to locate the ONGC HQ. It was a large compound that ONGC had with several two story frame houses and inside a mango orchard. We tried to pick some attractive looking mango fruit boldly to chew. There was no problem from any quarters on account of it. But when we started jumping to catch the low hanging frits we were apprehended, and of curse warned not to repeat it. We said sorry and escaped.

One other thing we enjoyed in Dehradun was the indoor roller skating rings, where college age and affluent boys and girls teamed up for roller skating. They were unlike in the deep south in Trivandrum holding hands and walking around tightly in the hall. Well the girls were good looking and of course at our age and their age all girls have good looks where ever we chose to look. We also found time to sit through two or three Hindi movies in the local theatre.

I believe on the third day the appointed day for the interview, we dressed up and walked over to the ONGC main office. We were promptly asked to go to canteen for breakfast, against coupons that were given to us. We also filled in certain forms as desired by one of the staffers. We finished all that and then waiting in the guest room to be called to appear before the selection committee. Even by one o clock, the interview did not happen. But then one staffer asked us to for lunch – courtesy of ONGC. After lunch we loitered back to the guest room again,. But then to our surprise our TA was disbursed by the office.

On our prompting only the office realized that the interview did not happen. Then they rushed through the process of putting together a selection committee. Around four I think I was asked to go in. I went in. I was greeted by the chair and I in my turn greeted the chair and members. Some questions were put to me. It was not at all a tough session. After 20 min or so I finished and it Baskaran’s turn. He also came back rather quickly say in 15 min. We were informed by the office that the result will be informed to us by registered post within a month or so.

The interview process was so light that we thought perhaps they already have posted the fellows or identified the persons and our appearing for the interview was just some formality so that they can complete the appointment process.

Anyway, in spite of the outcome of the interview, both of us decided to go to Mussorie, a hill station in the lower Himalayas. We took a morning bus to the hill station to reach there by about 11 O clock. We walked around the streets, ate jilebi from the street side shops and did lot of window shopping. We probably missed our lunch but not hungry though. The sunset is at about 8 pm as the winter was just around the corner. The presence of sun in the sky deceived us from the real time of the day. On realizing that chillness was setting in we discovered that the last bus to the Dehradun town is just passed by and we missed it. Then it is a field day for the taxis. The resnts were way high in several hundreds. There was no question of sleeping in the bus station premises as we were ill equipped for the cold night. We had only one choice left, get into a taxi and go to choultry. The cabbie charged Rs.150/- per person. Both of us got in. As the car wound down to the hair pin curves to the plains, the fare came down to as low as 50 rupees per head. We got annoyed by the fact that we were plainly cheated. But no point in complaining anyway.

Anyway we safely got back to the choultry and bundled up to a good night’s sleep. The following day by noon we got back to Dehradun train station to catch a train to New delhi- an overnight journey. Roughly, we were away from home for about seven days. We already made plans to see New Delhi in Panikkers Travel bus and to Agra to see the Taj again by a Panikkers Travel bus. On nights we slept in the platform no 1 of New Delhi station. All that we had to pay way was like five rupee per day to some police personnel. They took care of our hold-all luggage during our absence. We did not have cameras of any sort. After the Delhi darsan and Taj visit we promptly boarded a south bound train to reach Bhopal the following day to spend couple more days with Baskaran’s elder brother who those days worked in the Bhopal Steel Plant or so.

We lived in Bhopal for about four days and then started our homeward journey. Bhaskaran’s brother saw us off in t he station. On the third day of departure from Bhopal we we were back in Trivandrum in the evening by Madras mail to Trivandrum.

His and my parents were furious and agonized about our failure to contact with the families at least by letters. In fact the families were totally upset about the black out for about 16 days or so from the day of our departure. The family rage subsided the moment they got to see our live faces and bodies.

The final outcome of the interview was that we were not elected. The communication arrived promptly after a fortnight or so after our reaching home. That was no shaker of our minds. We had other things on our future path of life in the waiting. Yet it was a rich and rewarding experience and adventure. Anyway thanks to the ONGC.

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VIZHINJAM HARBOUR STUDY:CRUISE IN THE SEA OFF TRIVANDRUM.

2012-09-30T05:41:00.001-07:00

THRIVIKRAMJI: WORK STORY – 8

VIZHINJAM HARBOUR SILTATION STUDY -THRIVIKRAMJI &TEAM, CESS, INDIA

My boss (during 1980-82), Prof. C. Karunakaran (founder Director, CESS, Trivandrum), quite often made it a point, to query me if and when I was readying my team in MSD (Marine Sciences Div.) to go for sea-work. Prof. CK had a knack of making this poser to me, especially in the Heads of Divisions meeting routinely held once a month in his office.

Well, luck played a very interesting role in this respect, when the Harbour Engineering Department of the GoK came to CESS (in third quarter of 1980) to explore whether or not CESS could offer some scientific help in respect of abating the severe siltation in the mooring basin of the Vizhinjam Harbor (VH), south of Kovalam, near Trivandrum.

At the end of the first meeting itself, I made an offer to help answer the questions in respect of the current pattern and sediment sources. Based on this, the MSD wrote up a study plan for funding and implementation by the Harbour Engineering Department, GoK. In fact, I was hoping for a chance to launch the sea based work, and considered the VH study as a Launchpad.

The modern VH is set in a relatively small bay sheltered by a PC crystalline rock headland to the west and north while on the eastern side, what we notice is coastal cliffs of Tertiary Warkallis, overlying the crystalline rocks. A lower order stream originating in the east but on the west side of NH47, empties into the bay literally separates the crystalline rock territory from the sedimentary terrain to the south.

In plan view, the water-spread area or the shoreline of the harbor of the harbor makes a 2/3 U or sort of a J-shape with its longer arm pointing southerly. The shorter arm is (rocky crystalline) and is the abutment of the first N-S oriented breakwater armoured with a thick cladding of giant-reinforced-concrete tetrapods.

Soon after the completion of this breakwater, siltation that began during its construction continued unabated leading to the shrinkage of the water-covered area of the VH. Based on model studies, it was decided to construct the second breakwater (completely made of blocks of rock), roughly oriented along EW, but leaving a ship channel between the breakwaters. However, the completion of the second breakwater to a great extent diminished the rate of siltation. In fact, the CESS study was perhaps the reason to initiate the design and construction of the second breakwater. In fact, this study was very significant locally as this happened to be the first of its type as far as the organization was concerned.

I led the team of M/s Suchindan, Terry Machado, (late) Vasudevan et al to be in direct charge of the project. We had the services of two marine surveyors and sextants on loan from the Harbour’s department.

The workhorse was S/V.Rocket with the crew and owned by the ISRO, Trivandrum. This small 18 ft. single engine boat had no navigation or communication system (boat to shore) to speak of. The primary purpose of this craft was to work in the coastal waters to warn and caution the population engaged in the fisheries related activities to stay away from a certain area in the sea when rockets were test fired by the TERLS of ISRO.

Sextants and surveyors enabled position (and course) fixing in the sea. And S/V Rocket had no sea to shore communication system. Our own boat driver was asked to join the cruise as he would be of help chiefly in the deck work, like casting the devices and retrieving the samples. We had a van Veen grab for collecting seabed sediment. We also retrofitted the boat with a fish finder category of echo sounder. In fact we were all set to go off land on the cruise.

Then, we based on an approved project, went into the coastal sea to collect bottom profile data as well as seabed samples at certain fixed intervals with the intention of profiling the sea bed sediment of the inner-shelf and what they meant geologically. Our cruises did not involve overnight stay in the ocean as the S/V Rocket is seaworthy during daytime only. It was in fact early January when we went for sea-work.

However, on our way back to shore after work, sea became indeed choppy with white caps and the boat was pitching and rolling mildly, but quite sufficient enough to upset the stomach of one or two members of the party. However, on that account no one went for a leave of absence. The cruise covered six shore perpendicular tracks (water depths of up to 60 to 70 m and 12-16 km from the shoreline), between Poovar and Varkala.

One of the important outcomes of the study was reported in the Indian Journal of Marine Sciences, on the find of “ capsule shaped (fecal) pellets of Glauconite” in the relict sediment at the seabed off Trivandrum. The identification was purely based on the morphology of the particles of grass green grains in the medium sand fraction of the sediment. Some of the organismic casts (which we called micro-pelecypods and micro-gastropods) were re-designated as pterapods by Singh (CUSAT). Further, Rao (NIO), basing the results of his mineralogical investigations re-identified the capsule shaped pellets as a verdine.

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SAND MINING: PERSPECT, PROSPECT AND IMPACT

2012-09-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

Dr.Thrivikramji.K.P.,

Professor of Geology (Retd.) C/32, Sankar Lane,

Sasthamangalam, Trivandrum 695 010

thrivikramji@yahoo.com,

ABSTRACT.

Sand is of to two types, viz., the fine aggregate used in cement mortar and cement concrete and mineral sand primarily containing one or more valuable ore or industrial minerals and gravel, the coarse aggregate. Both are either natural (coming off modern alluviam) or machine made (by crushing stones and rubble of suitable quality).

Most of the sand (size = 2000 - 62.5 microns), is composed of the common rock forming mineral quartz, which dominates nearly all known accumulations of sand in the world, whether in beaches of seas and lakes or in modern or ancient river alluviam or in deserts. Fluvio-glacial deposits of the outwash plains in regions at higher latitudes and shallow-seabed have also been other important sources of sand.

Quartz, ubiquitously and abundantly present (say from about a quarter to a third by volume) in common crustal rocks (like granites, granite gneisses, diorites and as quartz veins), is a light mineral (sp.g @ 2.65) of good durability (due to chemical inertness, lack of cleavage, hardness @7, and conchoidal fracture).

Chemically inert quartz is liberated from its parent rocks (both igneous and metamorphic) chiefly by the process of chemical weathering (an extremely slow process) or chemical break-down of other rock-forming silicate minerals like feldspars and ferromagnesians. Weathering product of a rock is a mixture of clays, quartz and minor accessories like the heavy minerals (sp.g = >2.9).

Some better-known examples of mineral sand are: a) diamond bearing sands in certain beaches in western .Africa, b) ilmenite bearing black-sands of Travancore - now part of Kerala, c) red-sands of erstwhile Tirunelveli Dist., Tamil Nadu, d) dark-beach-sands of Narcondam Is., in the Andaman Is. chain, and e) gypsum sands of White Sand National Monument, in s.w. USA.

Processes of erosion and transport by running water or wind, work on the weathered rock particles to concentrate the sand grade quartz and deposit it in continental environments like flood plains and river channels, transitional environments like deltas, beaches of lakes and shallow seas or sometimes even as sheet sands in deserts.

However, mining of aggregate (i.e., sand and gravel) and its use are the foundation of prosperity of any nation and quality of life of the population. Nevertheless geological “lottery” has favoured at least some nations against others in respect of distribution of mineral sands.

Impacts of sand and gravel mining are very much similar to those of open cast mining or large scale quarrying or dredging sans drilling and blasting. Granular, poorly or semi-consolidated sandy sediment is excavated manually or with a power-shovel or such other machines. Chief environmental impacts of sand and gravel mining are very visible, like noise and dust from machineries and operations, trucks operating in and out of the sites, changes in water quality due to settling of dust, stress on aquatic life, lower esthetic value of natural settings, changes in surface water and groundwater regimens. Some plant or animal species may face certain adversities. Chemical pollution is practically absent in such operations.

Key words: aggregates, weathering, crushing and screening, manufactured ballast

INTRODUCTION

Sand and gravel or aggregate mining is as old as the first building of brick and mortar. Aggregate, defined as the material added to cement, lime, gypsum, bitumen or other adhesive to form concrete or mortar, can be classified into two types, viz., coarse gravel and fine sand (Table 1). Addition of aggregate provides volume, stability and lower wear and tear. Broken stones, pebbles, blast furnace slag, broken clinkers, burnt shale and burnt clay (e.g., in Mullaperiyar dam) are examples of coarse aggregate. Obviously, aggregates originate directly or indirectly from the rocks and sediments of the earth’s surface.

Aggregates are truly the backbone of development of any nation and its annual consumption is yet another index of development-status, rate of growth and quality of life of the population, and hence of the nation. All constructions with cement mortar, plain and reinforced concrete (wherein aggregate constitutes @85% by volume) would not have been possible in the absence of sand and gravel. Further, construction and maintenance of a country’s infrastructure like runways, roads, rail-roads, bridges, canals, various sorts of commercial and residential buildings and such others call for input of aggregates. In developed countries of the world like USA, Canada, Germany, Japan, China and others, annual consumption of sand and gravel is on the rise with rise of their GDP. Any addition to such facilities like houses, multi-storey complexes, schools, colleges, hospitals, churches, cemeteries, highways, rail roads, road and rail bridges, bus and train terminals, airport runways, harbours and so on, annually consume large volumes of coarse and fine aggregates.

Equally important is the role of mineral sands in manufacturing and other industries where in a derivative of mineral sand finds hugely significant applications (for e.g., titanium of ilmenite goes into making of airplanes and white paint). But one advantage with mineral sand is that in its absence, local or temporary shortfall, the particular metal or mineral can be imported from another country, which is untrue in respect of aggregates as the volumes involved are simply stupendous.

In India, the post-globalization emphasis on upgrading transportation sector, like making of 4-lane highways and 6 lane express ways, conversion of meter-gauge into broad-gauge lines, doubling of single lines to double-lines, construction of new Greenfield airports and expansion of existing airports etc., is calling for huge and ready supply of good quality aggregates. Like any other mining operation, mapping, assessment of volumes and grades, development, production and stockpiling to ensure delivery-on-demand to the client through a supply chain has a gestation time. One other great advantage of quarries or mines producing aggregates is that no drilling or blasting is involved. Instead bulldozers, front end loaders, dragline buckets etc are used in the excavation, followed by washing, screening and stock-piling. However, in a country like India, with very low occurrence of fluvio-glacial deposits, hard crystalline rocks need to be quarried for manufacturing of coarse and fine aggregates to meet country’s needs.

In what follows, various attributes of gravel and sand, like origin, formation of gravel and sand bodies, mining or quarrying of sand and impacts of mining are reviewed along with an overview of importance of sand and gravel to the nation and society.

GEOLOGIC BASIS OF AGGREGATES

The process of Weathering attacks the rocks in a dual manner in that one is a physical modification and the other a chemical action, which jointly readies the rock for erosion by geological agents like wind, water and glaciers. Physical weathering or disintegration weakens the surface rock (Table 2) by alternate heating during the day and cooling at night, frost wedging by the pressure exerted by ice formed from water and moisture trapped in cracks and joints of rocks in colder climates, and wedging apart of blocks of rock by growing tree roots. These afford newer avenues for agents of chemical weathering (decomposition) to act on the constituent minerals.

Engines of chemical weathering are various natural chemical reagents, like, alkaline solutions, carbonic acid and humic acid. Dissolution, oxidation, hydrolysis and acid hydrolysis are the chief weathering processes. Despite their low concentrations, the constituent silicate minerals (but with the exception of quartz), are attacked steadily for very long periods of time (several 100,000s of yr) which finally transforms them to newer hydrous silicates or clays that are stabler at the earth’s surface conditions (Table 3). Process of denudation or chemical weathering is proverbially slow that we humans do not perceive any visible or even measurable change in the appearance of rocks or its constituent minerals. Moreover, as the process of weathering is climate, relief and rock dependent, it is less logical to come up with one single number for the rate. Though, estimates of weathering rates are nearly difficult to make, some site or climate specific estimates have been made.

For e.g., in our tropical climate, with alternating wet and dry spells, most rocks and sediments are transformed to Laterite - the typical ubiquitous cover in the midland of Kerala and many parts of India. Laterite is also seen in other parts of the world, where tropicality prevails. In French Guyana, studies by a French team (Freyssinet and Probst, 1998), led them to believe in a rate of weathering of 3.0 m/Ma. But in another report from Up.Niger basin, Boeglin and Probst (1998) estimated a rate of 1.3 to 3.7 m/Ma. Menard (1966) estimated the rates of erosion for the Appalachian region, Mississippi valley and the Himalayan region in the geologic past and present time. The data is very instructive in that the unsettled Himalayan region perhaps sheds the largest volume of sediment (118.47 m3/km2/yr or 0.12 mm/yr) to the tune of 0.12 mm annually (Table 4). Therefore, availability of erodible gravelly sand is much less than the expectations of a generalist. In fact, it is this truism regarding the rate of supply of sand to the rivers that never was correctly understood or perceived by citizens outside of the geological profession. Instead, the rule of thumb happened to be that the river bed is not only an everlasting reservoir of sand, but it is automatically annually renewed on a use-it-or-loose-it basis, unaffecting the river’s physical or biological systems.

Thus erosion of weathered rock material is what creates sand and gravel deposits in the stream bed. Gravel is characteristic of up stream reaches of the drainage; while in the middle and lower reaches finer gravel and sand are very characteristic. However, unlike the glaciated terrains of higher latitudes, the tropical terrains (including India) are bestowed with much less volumes of naturally washed stream bed gravel, and hence the needs for gravel or coarse aggregate have been met from rock-crushing-screening-units (manufacturing gravel) in the vicinity of quarries, or even manually breaking the rubble to required size.

PERSPECT: INDIAN SCENARIO

Soon after independence, with the vehicle of V-year plans India launched an ambitious program of building, very large cement and concrete structures (to the tune of several hundred thousand square meters) to house schools, colleges, hospitals, factories and office space as well as large number of dams, power stations, bridges, runways etc. In a vast majority of such cases, river sand was the fine aggregate while manufactured gravel equated with coarse aggregate. But private houses very strictly stuck to river sand. However, as cited in the foregoing, production of sand by nature being an extremely slow process, rate of removal of sand from river channels more often than not out-paced the rate of supply. The combination of waster water from homesteads and industry were piped into or discharged into one or other channel network, and removal of sand led to an “ecological demise” of a large number of rivers (at least in Kerala) and in rest of the country?.

Some of the consequences of removal of river channel sediment or sand documented Thrivikramji (1986) are summarized below. Sand borrowing affected a physical system of the river chiefly in 3 ways. Firstly, it led to fining of the texture of channel bed sediment, due to preferential removal of coarser sand fraction, resulting in a loss of spawning ground of the aquatic fauna. Secondly, abundance of finer sediment caused a decline or fall in the depth of the photic zone risking the abundance of primary producers. Thirdly, removal of sand resulted in deeper channels, causing a disequilibrium between the banks and bed of river or in a higher freeboard for the channel walls with reference to channel floor. Such slumps brought down and destroyed several hundred standing coconut trees over a river length of 20.0 km. and on either banks of the Neyyar (Thrivikramji, 1986). All these jointly caused a sharp decline of faunal diversity and as well as fall in population density of the riverine-aquatic-life. Over reliance on river channel sand both in public and private constructions deprived the rivers of Kerala, from their legitimate load of sand, resulting in the transformation of physical and biological health of the river. Moreover, this in combination with effluents originating from towns and villages, caused the “ecological demise” of most of the rivers of Kerala. In he Neyyar basin, sand borrowing activity reached hectic levels (i.e., 180,000 tons/yr, in 1985 calendar yr.), which truly was far in excess of the combined annual discharge of dissolved and suspended loads to Neyyar. Loss of income due to uprooting of standing crops like coconut palm by wall collapse or slumping, was estimated as Rs.750,000/- per annum.

Yesteryears: pre-1990’s

India lives in the villages and the state of homes, sanitation and quality of streets, schools and health centres on the one hand and that of the irrigation systems on the other serving the population of 400,000 or more villages of India are the best indices of quality of life of majority of Indian citizens. In fact, paved streets, permanent buildings to house the families, school classes and health care facilities have not yet been fully met with. For a long while, the well-to-do, accounting for a smaller percentage of the population, lived in good houses that used masonry. River sand and to some extent river gravel, certainly met the local demand for aggregates. However, predominant portion of coarse aggregate belonged to the manufactured category, leaving the rivers to mend themselves.

Current trend

Currently, the picture certainly changed (for good) drastically. Now, under the various programs of states and center, massive investments are made in the village sector and as a consequence demand for Portland cement and aggregates too skyrocketed. As per last year’s data (2006), cement production in the country stood at 160 million tons, accounting for an input of 906 million tons or 515 million cm3 of aggregates (@ a sp.g. 1.76). Use of “manufactured” aggregate is catching up in the construction industry along with ready- mix concrete. Recently, several large capacity rock-crushing-screeninging plants have come up in the various states, including Kerala associated with what are called super-quarries.

Truly with the government’s emphasis on modernizing the infrastructure in the surface transport sector, the level of aggregate and cement production is getting ready for a quantum leap. But, the rivers of India will not be in any position to meet the requirements of aggregate by the new growth centers or sectors spread across the country. Unlike cement and steel, as far as possible aggregate must be sourced locally, in order to offer a low or attractive price to the end user. For example, builders in Trivandrum dist, Kerala, due to non-availability of river sand, source it at a very high price, from places like Sri Vaikuntam (in the shore of Thamraparni Ar,) in TN – like 150 km. one way from the user site.

PROSPECTS: FUTURE DIRECTIONS

India, a large populous country (Population = one billion; area =3,166,414 km2) occupying little more than 2.0% of the land area of the earth, is developing at a relatively fast pace of over 7.0%. Majority of the Indians live in the villages, a colossus of about 400,000. But, the distressing fact is that about 1/3 of the population still lives below the poverty line. Truly in the first 4 decades after independence, no immediate attention was bestowed on the development of infrastructure of the country like modernization of roads, rail roads, airports, houses for millions etc., or securing a healthy environment in the villages.

Table 5 gives a picture of the present status of surface transport facilities in the country. All such constructions will require input of gigantic volumes of sand and gravel along with cement and steel. Mining or quarrying or manufacturing of both sand and gravel is bound to create environmental problems and this challenge can be faced up and tackled by a team of geoscientists, leaders of the society, mining company and regulators of mining. More over, with the ambitious plans in the real estate and infrastructure sectors in India, we must examine the possibility of sourcing aggregates from even the shallow seabed; mine waste storages, cinder or slag of industrial smelters and recycling of building waste etc. It is high time that construction sector buried the one-material-one-source mindset and instead one-material-multiple-sources.

In fact, new-divided 4-lane-highways, new express ways and undivided-2-lane-national highways would have consumed a large quantity of aggregate like 14.0 x 10 12 tons (or 14.0 trillion tons) only to build initially. Renewal or maintenance would demand an additional input of a lesser volume like a third of this, say once in three or four years. The story is not very different in respect of the Indian railways either. Indian railroad net work is one of the largest in the world (Table 5). In the rail road, ties and rails are placed over a track-bed of crushed stone or ballast of 4.0-6.0 cm. size and over a thickness of at least 30.0 cm. The construction of rail road system in India would have consumed a volume of 132.0 billion cubic meters or 232.0 billion tons of ballast. The renewal of track bed is one of the vital tasks of track maintenance, when older worn out stones are replaced with new ballast, needing a relatively large volume new material.

Mineral sand

The black sand (BS) deposits are chiefly seen in the beach placers in the states of Kerala (Chavara-Ambalapuzha), Tamilnadu (Manavalakurichi) and Orissa. Being what these are, at least in Kerala, there is an ongoing controversy regarding mining of BS, Due to the high population density (side of support squareof a person =32 .0 m) of the coastal land, this valuable mineral industry is yet to get a legitimate chance to expand or to permit entry of new private players.

Interestingly, the offshore of Kerala is a vast reservoir of a silty-muddy-sand carrying fairly large percentage of black heavies. The recent Tsunami of Dec, 26, 2005, offered the smoking pistol on the abundance of BS in the offshore. Very large volumes of BS were washed over the backshore by the Tsunami wave, blocking the coastal roads for days together and withholding the entry of automobiles carrying relief supplies. JCB’s had to be brought in to clear the road pavements in order to allow entry of 4 wheeled vehicles.

In fact, the mindset of public in respect of BS mining needs change as Kerala has one of the best-known BS rich sediment of the world sitting in the offshore, a portion of which is deposited on the eroded beach-face when the waves start rebuilding of the beaches after the initial erosional phase of SW monsoon. This renewal of BS placer takes place annually in association with the SW monsoon. The seabed sand deposit is a vast reservoir of sand deposited in the inner shelf during the last 65.0 ma (Vinodkumar, 2004). According to Anthraper et al., (2005) worth of the BS in Kerala, after mining and concentration and at to day’s price is in excess of Rs.40,000 crores during the next 30 yr. or at 10 or 5% royalty a whopping 4000 or 2000 crores of rupees. A portion of this money can be used for constructing first rate township/s for re-settling the population of the coastal tract of Kollam-Alappuzha sector, who otherwise are herded to and sheltered in school buildings or similar places to escape the wrath of monsoon waves.

IMPACTS OF MINING

Aggregate mining by quarrying or open cast mining is no different from strip mining, where the overburden is initially removed to expose the valuable deposit which can be accessed with mining machinery. It is not quite true in respect of granular, unconsolidated, accumulations of sand from the modern river beds and flood plains or from deserts. Conversely, in the Indian context, when all the aggregate needs to come from quarries after crushing, sizing and washing, a degree of drilling and blasting precedes making of gravel. The important environmental concerns are the following.

a) Noise pollution from the blasting, operation of large machineries in manufacturing aggregate (both fine and coarse); by the large trucks and moving in and out of the site

b) Dust pollution from operations like drilling and blasting; crushing, sizing, stocking and handling; as well as from the traffic of heavy duty trucks

c) Disfigurement of landscape due to the scars left behind by abandoned mines and quarries.

d) Modification of ground water as well as surface water regimens and geometry of stream network, and finally

e) Pollution of surface and ground waters due to unscientific disposal of used oil, grease and other petroleum products.

f) Waste water with fine dust laden water from the battery of screens

g) All mining activities will result in small and large scars of abandoned pits as well as some amount of stony waste.

Measures recommended for containment of negative impacts of strip mining are:

a) Some of the measures suggested to contain these negative aspects of strip or open cast mining are building of a green belt or living barrier along the perimeter of the mining and operational areas. Fencing by some strip-planting of fast growing tree species are generally recommended

b) Establishing a more or less continuous tree belt, around the mining and processing area to hold back considerable volumes of fine dust, as well as good deal of noise caused by the machinery. Tree strips also function as an effective barrier against air-flow or wind whipping the dust into the air.

c) Sprinkling or spraying water on the truck tracks and other possible sources of dust. Vegetating with suitable species of natural turf to minimize the bare patches or parcels of loosened soil.

d) Battery of water clarification tanks will create water that is suitable for wet screening. Ponding or storage of waste water in low capacity reservoirs is a process to be strictly adhered to prior to release of this water essential to lare essential to . reusable washing.

e) Careful design of mine plan must be adhered to ensure avoidance of blocking of stream courses, however small they be and especially in areas dominantly with wet and humid climate.

f) Large and small pits abandoned after mining needs to be restored to the original near natural state in respect of the soil horizons and vegetation, by placing the overburden back in, strictly adhering to the natural order of succession of the sediment layers. But in respect of aggregate quarries, it is nearly unfeasible due to the near total salability of practically all the material coming out of the mining operations. Further, the abandoned mine pits in crystalline rock areas, it is more impractical. On the other hand, such pits can be intelligently converted to huge water storage facilities, if required by applying some “friendly” seal to enhance water tightness of the basin. It can then be a site for water sports as well as recreation and picnicking. All it takes is an ingenuity of people in the immediate neighbourhood to come up with practical positive uses of abandoned strip mines. The sand and gravel pits are no different in this respect.

g) In respect of black-sand mining in the west coast (both Chavara-Kayamkulam tract in Kerala and Manavalakurichi in TN), operations are firstly along the beaches built by the latest monsoon wave climate, and secondly by using earth moving machinery like bulldozers, front end loaders, heavy duty scrapers/levelers and dump trucks to transport the mineral sand to the stockyard. Mining never goes below low-water-mark. Year after year blacksand placers are consistently rebuilt by the monsoon waves, However, mineral sand mining in the east coast of TN is primarily focused on the ancient coastal dunes, and hence a certain degree of disfigurement of the natural landscape is unavoidable. However, backfilling of the lows or shallow pits are with the waste from the mineral separation plants.

h) Yet another way of reducing the impact on the community could be by locating lease areas outside of the region of visibility of the members of the community. In general an alliance of the leaders of the community, mining company, local and state mining regulator and geoscientists can certainly contribute to minimize and even largely forestall the negative impacts from mining and related operations.

SUMMARY

“If you can not grow or buy it, you got to mine it”. This Chinese proverb aptly and bluntly tells us the need to mine the resources on or below or deeper below the surface in the crust. Distribution of minable minerals is far less uniform in the rocks that some continents and nations have more mineral wealth than others. Any mining activity is a special effort focusing on a target of anomalously large natural concentration of one or more minerals in the solid earth and results in a “huge” accumulation of waste. The latter will have deleterious and occasionally unpredictable impacts on the biosphere by the mediation of pedosphere and/or parts of hydrosphere. It is sort of an occupational hazard.

Yet, like any mining operation, aggregate mining can be pursued very scientifically and intelligently to provide for the ever growing needs of the society to build and maintain large infrastructural projects in the sectors like, transportation, housing, recreation and trade and commerce. For e.g., conversion of the undivided single lane National Highways of India, to divided, two and four lane highways and superhighways will initially call for nearly a trillion tons of aggregates. The requirement aggregates for the new generation airport runways and modernizations and maintenance of rail roads also point to a staggering bulk. CONSIDERING the large population base, needs of housing and commercial and recreation sectors are also bound to be very huge. With approximately 160 million tons of cement produced last year, the requirement of aggregates would be hovering around 906 or let us say 900 million tons (=511 million m3).

Scientific planning, design and execution of mines along with active co-operation of community leader, scientists and administrators, the requirements of aggregate of a district/s can be easily secured, ensuring minimal adverse impacts on the environment. But mining or gathering or aggregating black sand in the west coast (Kerala and TN) is targeting the blacksand placers annually accumulating in the beaches, during the latest monsoon. Contrary to this, Garnet separation plants in the east coast utilize the mineral sand in the ancient sand dunes in the inland, and modern backshore. But refilling of the lows or scars with the waste sand to a large extent restores landscape to near natural contours.

It is high time, to examine the feasibility of overburden of Neyveli Lignite Corporation or the granular waste came off the erstwhile Kolar Gold Mines are suitable substitutes for fine aggregate after a pre-treatment or clarification.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I sincerely thank the organizers especially Prof.(Dr). Ambazhgan (Periyar University) for encouragement and Mr. Praveen Kumar, a young geologist, for library search. Many of my thoughts in this regard heavily lean on a status study of the Neyyar in south Kerala, in the eightees, with funding from the MOEF, GOI.

REFERENCES:

Anthraper, BJ, et al., 2005, Black sand deposits of Kerala: A cost-benefit analysis: Abst. of Paper in “Mineral Resources of Kerala”, Feb. 2005. Trivqandrum

Boeglin,J.L, and Probst,J, 1998, Physical and chemical weathering rates and CO2 consumption in a tropical lateritic environment: the Upper Niger basin: Chem. Geol., 170,, 133-151

Freyssinet, P. and Farrah, A.S. 1998, Geochemical mass-balance and weathering rates of ultramafic schists in Amazonia, Chem.Geol., 170,113-121

Menard, HW, 1961, Some rates of regional erosion, Jour. Geology, 69, 154-161

Thrivikramji.K.P, 1986, River Metamorphosis due to Human Intervention: A Neyyar basin experience: Final Report submitted to MOEF, GOI, 153p.

Vinodkumar, N, 2003, Sedimentology of the Placer sands of Kerala coast: Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Kerala, 117p

Wedephol, K.H, 1969, “Composition and abundance of common igneous rocks” in Handbook of Geochemistry, Wedephol, K.H,(ed), Springer Verlag, 227-249

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Table 1. Size grouping of aggregates (Encyclopedia Britanica)

Type	Size, mm	Size, in
Fine	0.025 – 6.5	0.001 -0.25
Coarse	6.5 – 38.0	0.25 – 1.5 or larger

Table 2 Abundance of intrusive rocks in a standard

section of upper continental crust (Wedephol,1969)

Rock type	Abundance, %
Granite & Quartz monzonite	44.0
Granodorite	34.0
Quartz diorite	8.0
Diorite	1.0
Gabbro	13.0
Others	3.0

Table. 3 Mineral proportions in plutonic igneous rocks (Wedephol,1969)

Mineral	Granite	G.diorite	Q.diorite	Diorite	Gabbro	Up.crust
Plagioclase	30	46	53	63	56	41
Quartz	27	21	22	2	--	21
P.feldspar	35	15	6	3	--	21
Amphibole	1	13	12	12	1	6
O.pyroxene	--	--	--	3	16	2
C.pyroxene	--	--	--	8	16	2
Olivine	--	--	--	--	5.	0.6
Magnetite Ilmenite	2	2	2	3	4	2
Apatite	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.8	0.	0.5

Table 4. Rates of regional erosion (Menard,1961).

	Ton/acre/yr	Ton/km2/yr	M3/km2/yr
1	0.55	135.85	51.264
2	0.50	123.5	46.60
3	0.74	182.0	68.697
4	0.10	247.0	9.32
5	2.62	647.14	244.2
6	12.00	2964.0	118.47

Note: Geologic (1) and modern (2) deposition rates in Mississippi basin- the rates are nearly same. Deposition rates (3) in the Appalachian region in geologic past and modern day (4)

Geologic deposition rate (5) in the Himalayan region and modern day rate (6)

Table 5. Road and Rail road network, India ( from website of GOI)

Roads, Types	Length, km	Rail road	Length, km.
Express ways	200	Total track	62195
National Highways	66,590	Double track	12617
State highways	128,000
Major Dist. Roads	470,000
Rural & other	2,650,000

QUOTA-AND-LICENSE SYSTEM IN RIVER-SAND MINING: A NEED FOR COURT REVIEW

2012-09-01T06:09:00.003-07:00

Dr. Thriivikramji, K.P.,

C-32, Sankar Lane, Sasthamangalam, Trivandrum 695 010

thrivikramji@gmail.com

Fine aggregate, a chief ingredient of cement-mortar and cement- concrete, in the construction industry parlance, has been river-sand as several of its properties very well satisfied the stipulations in the specification guide. With the advent of modern construction In India, river-sand emerged as the chief component of cement mortar and concrete, and Kerala is no exception either.

However, in the erstwhile states of Travancore or Travancore-Cochin or later in Kerala, given the size of then economies, use of borrowed river-sand was at a very low level, especially due to the native or ethnic building technologies of the region emphasized use of locally and easily available natural materials like stone, rubble, mud, Laterite, timber and thatch or tile and relatively little or very little cement based materials..

Spread of modern steel-and-concrete based construction technology, especially outside the government sector, warranted use of large volumes river sand (for fine aggregate), placing huge stress on the physical and biological systems of the source-rivers.

Unprecedented demand for fine aggregate or river-sand, resulting from the housing boom in Kerala in the 80’s and 90’s, driven by newly acquired wealth of west-Asian guest workers, steadily transformed and endangered river health, viz., by inflicting nearly-irreversible-damages to the ecology and ecosystem, changing ground water regimen of the river basin, curtailing the duration of base flow and finally disfiguring the channel morphology in the plan-view and section-view.

Steady and intense opposition to “unwise” removal of river-sand and the strong desire and determination of various activist-groups to save the rivers, finally culminated in the issuance of a direction by the Ho’nble High Court of Kerala, requiring every panchayat with a river channel or shore to get a quota-estimate-of-removable-sand from the respective sites in the channel or Kadavu’s after a scientific scrutiny either by CESS, Trivandrum (for southern rivers) or by CWRDM, Kunnamangalam (for northern rivers).

However, the license-and-quota-regimen, instead of maintaining the river health, led to extreme degradation of the river system in its entirety, expressly due to the licensee hugely exceeding the sanctioned quota of sand volume.

Only solution available now to save the rivers from “total morbidity” is for the state government to move the Hon’ble High-court of Kerala through with a review petition seeking a review of the earlier decision on licensing and replacing the former by a total ban on use of river sand as fine aggregate in the construction industry.

Such a river-sand-holiday in the construction sector, if properly designed, implemented and monitored will certainly regenerate the past glory for the ecology and the physical system of the rivers.

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Gcians on cliff walk-Varkala, Aug.27, 12

2012-08-30T22:20:00.001-07:00

Cliff Walk: Gcians on foot to Papanasam North Cliff, Geologycafecliffwalk, Aug, 27

(Reliving of my nostalgia)

The cliff walk invented, initiated and promoted by the GC, had participation by geoscientists of minimum three generations. The gen III, was represented by at least nearly half a dozen student gcers, gen-II by some five guys and gen-I exclusively by me.

Thus the program of GC naturally crossed the gen boundaries; aptly mirrored the vibrancy of the GC fraternity and confidence about the future too. The cliff walk started off at Panasam. Professionals (like Manu, Sajith Girinathan and Anil Das, Santosh), academics (viz., Jai kiran, Pradeep kumar and me) and a fellow geologist and GIS expert professional Riju Stephen added to scientific glitter social wellness to the trip.

The trippers who assembled at the Papnasam beach, were sincerely welcomed by Jaikiran (spirit and lead mover of GC), followed by a brief self introduction session by participants and finally toward the at the end Jaikiran sort of handed the “mike” over to me.

After brief introductory remarks, I narrated the generalities of the Warkalli series and then moved northerly along the beach to stop at the first exposure of the carbonaceous clay at the foot of the cliff.

The significance, specialties, implications of carbonaceous clay (argillaceous facies) were retold to the group. The alternation of organic matter rich and silt rich layers with occasional marcasite tubes of 4 to 6 mm are the hallmark of the carbonaceous clay (argillaceous) bed. Efflorescence of light yellowish Natrojarosite (first report appeared in the Bull GSI, by a visiting Brit. Geologist who was a member of the 1964 IGC, New Delhi) laces the surface of carbonaceous clay bed. The base of this bed is covered with a thick talus cover mostly of lateritic nature.

In addition the carb.clay samples in a dark room under a UV lamp fluoresced in orangish-yellow glow, indicating presence of uranium in the oxide state. By the way, uranium is a very mobile element and is deposited quickly in a euxenic environment and here in this case the carbonaceous cla forming environment just did that.

This bed is over lain by a bed of sandstone (arenaceous facies) coloured reddish brown at the bottom half of the exposure and yellowish brown on the upper half of the sandstone. Ripple cross lamination and dune cross bedding are characteristic of this arenaceous layer.

This arenaceous layer is overlain by an argillaceous sandstone and as one goes up section (team did not walk all the way up to look at this), what is noticed is its sort of gradual or imperceptible transition to laterite which is a very thick layer and more ferruginous at the top and less ferruginous at the bottom, i.e., toward the bottom transition layer of argillaceous bed.

This laterite capping stands at near vertical or even overhangs with a free face of roughly 10 to 13 m. Occasionally horizontal gashes, of far less lateral extent are noticed, which are interpreted as indications of original bedding or break in sedimentation in the sediment that transformed it self to laterite.

The free face, physically distinct from its base, has a cover of talus of blocks and boulders of laterite as well as the reddish sandstone. The free face is also called the waning slope, while the talus covered section is aptly denoted as waxing slope.

Further north springs are active, which emerges immediately above the carb.clay horizon. Legend has it that these springs are medicinal in nature. A piece of research exists in a MSc (chemistry) thesis submitted to Travancore University, where the attribution is to the presence of radon (?) in the spring waters.

Further these springs are ephemeral, in that they disappear at the peak of summer, while springs in the road to Sivagiri and flowing easterly are perennial in nature. Interestingly the easterly and westerly subsurface discharge in the springs indicate some sort of a subsurface divide doing this forcing.

My talk show thus ended with a thank you not to the GCians.

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thrivikramji@gmail.com

geology cafe cliff walk thrivikramji

Origin of Diagenetic Pyrite in the Quilon Limestone, Kerala, India K. K. MENON

2012-08-21T08:52:00.000-07:00

Letters to Nature

Nature 213, 1219-1220 (25 March 1967) | doi:10.1038/2131219a0; Received 28 November 1966

Origin of Diagenetic Pyrite in the Quilon Limestone, Kerala, India

K. K. MENON

1. Department of Geology, University of Kerala, Trivandrum, India.

Topof page

Abstract

ALTHOUGH microscopic pyrite from marine and non-marine argillaceous sediments of most geological ages has been extensively studied, its mode of origin has not been clearly understood. Berner¹ and Kalliokoski² attributed the origin to the reaction of hydrogen sulphide formed by sulphite reduction, with iron-bearing minerals in sediments; but these minerals were not discovered. I have recorded framboidal and other types of diagenetic pyrite in the thin bed of marine, fossiliferous, Quilon limestone³ of Burdigalian age⁴. Recent examination of the heavy minerals from limestone samples at Padappakara the type area has brought forward some new evidence, which clearly establishes that the fine-grained pyrite was produced by an alteration of detrital, iron-bearing mica, optically identified as biotite.

MINE SEA SAND - Why not?

2012-08-21T05:52:00.002-07:00

MINE SEA SAND - Why not?

Prof. (Dr.) Thrivikramji. K.P. (Retd.)

University of Kerala, Dept. of Geology

Kariavattom Campus 695 581

Sea sand – a part of the mixture of clay and sand that gathered in the sea bed during the last several 10’s of million years - finally graduated as a promising substitute for vanishing river sand or the fine aggregate, along with cement in the construction industry. The proposal for dredging of seabed is wrought with several objections, viz., a). Loss of the fishing ground (hence livelihood of thousands of fish workers and their families); b). “Death” of the mud bank and consequent “demise” of Chakara; c). Deepening of the seabed to the disadvantage of opportunities for fisheries; d). Aggravation of beach erosion by waves, and e). Aggravation of water scarcity in the already water scarce coastal belt due to water washing of salty sea sand to remove salt for sale.

Firstly, some unknown facts about sand. For the layman sand is the granular, nearly clean accumulation of relatively hard natural material covering the riverbed, the sandy beaches, small and large deserts and a chief component enhancing soil quality and hence profitability of the farmer. If sand is not available from any of these sources, then one will go blast the rock –the ultimate source - crush and grind it to manufacture sand.

For the specialist sand is mineral quartz, SiO2, and has no doubt about the existence of an extensive sheet of sandy-clayey sediment and associated heavy minerals, hidden below the vast expanse of seawater of the Laccadive Sea, adjacent to the mainland in the continental shelf with in a depth of 100 m. As far as Kerala goes, the area of the continental shelf is almost as large as 4 to 5 sixth of the 38, 855 Km2 land area.

Most people do not worry about the ultimate source of sand and for them, source is where it is found. It is untrue. Sand is an original constituent (~1/3 of the bulk) of the common crystalline rocks, The latter is now also marketed as sawed and polished slabs, as raw stone for foundation. Lions share of the 2/3 of bulk is feldspar – an aluminum silicate of potassium or sodium and calcium. The accessories (the ferromagnesian silicates) and heavy minerals (ilmenite, sillimanite, zircon, garnet and monazite) together contribute to 1 or 5 % of the total.

A process known as chemical weathering, Wc, unique to the monsoon climate of clear wet dry spells, is responsible for transforming the hard crystalline rock in to a state (soil formation) enabling running water to erode and transport the constituent rock minerals (soil erosion) to new sites of deposition. Wc also chemically converts feldspars and ferromagnesian minerals to a group of minerals called clays. Quartz and heavy accessories are an exception. This Wc, an extremely slow process, and a 1.0 m. thick slab of crystalline rock takes at least a million years to weather to soil or laterite. The water erosion did remove all the minerals including the clay. While the quartz and heavy (black sand) traveled down the river by rolling and jumping on the riverbed during flood, the micron sized clay physically floated down river in times of flood at the very same velocity of floodwater to reach the final resting place in the sea bed.

Land, Sea and Sand

In fact, a portion (6500 Km2. of the coastal land) of today’s land area (38855.0 Km2) of Kerala, is only a later addition, in the last 12,000 years ago, i.e., by end of the last glaciation. Coastal land added by deposition of SW monsoon wave driven seabed sand.

During the Pleistocene (1.8 ma ago), due to at least 4 different phases of continental ice sheet and glacier ice advances, the sea level did stand well below 100.0 m. exposing vast expanses of the continental shelf around the continents. Kerala was no exception. As a result, a shelf area nearly equivalent of present extent of Kerala stood above sea level, enjoying a sub-aerial environment and forcing the Kerala Rivers to have a longer run up, say 30 to 40 Km. more to the then shoreline. Thus, today a large alluvial deposit of sandy-clayey nature sits in the sea bed.

But then, on set of monsoon climate in Kerala ~50-55 M.a. ago, initiated Wc, Consequently during the same time span at least 50-55 m of crystalline rocks would have been transformed to laterite/soil, and that too along the length and breadth of the 30000 Km2 (pre-Pleistocene area) of the state. And handsome portion of the detritus (heavy mineral laden sandy-clayey sediment) must be now sitting in the Laccadive sea bed. A portion of the latter is has already been deposited (since the Pleistocene) as the low coastal land. This process of deposition continues even today, driven by the monsoon waves to renew the blacksand deposit in the Chavara – Neendakara – Thirkunnapuzha sector.

Myths of Sea Sand Mining Uncovered

The response of fisheries potential to sea sand mining is beyond my specialty and hence not addressed in the following. Let us examine the concerns one by one. The chakara, a relatively thick suspension of bottom mud (like a submerged break water) triggered by the onslaught of the SW monsoon waves on the seabed sediment appears between Thirkunnapuzha and Kozhikode. The nutrients stirred up from bottom, attracts large schools of fish and fish-workers like a magnet. The fundamental requirements for chakara are the wave climate and substrate of mud. The dredging process automatically enhances the mud content in the sea bed and hence only adds to strength and vigor of chakara.

The dredging removes large volumes of sand and hence will lower sea bed. Look at the ship channels in the Kochi harbor that require dredging of huge volumes of sediment to maintain a draft of 13.8 m. This dredging is due to reasonably fast redistribution of bottom sediment by the currents. In the sea, currents are much vigorous and probably of longer duration, tending to repair the depth changes at the heel of dredging. Further, the dredging related disturbance at no point in time exceeds a tract of 15-20 times the diameter of the length of the dredger. More over the monsoon wave climate should be a quickest sediment redistributor and a healer of the submarine scars.

The Chief Hydrographers maps do not show any depth changes either. The sea bed has a very rich in sediment reservoir. The plume of murky water of about 20 to 30 times the diameter of the barge is in fact very short lived, especially in a region with the monsoon wave climate. Secondly, the dredger will have to remain in-operational during the same period for safety reasons.

Secondly, the clayey sandy sediment with ilmenite and other placer minerals is stirred up by the monsoon waves and is transported shoreward toward the mining lease tracts of the IRE and KMML. But the finer clay particles do not settle in the beach and is kept in suspension and is transported seaward, southward or northward toward Thirkunnapuzha and beyond to nurture the source sediment of Chakara. The proof of northerly transport is absence of chakara in any place to the south of Thirkunnapuzha.

The acceleration of beach erosion is a natural concern of the public. In Kerala, no single beach is known to have consistently undergone erosion. It is always a mixed bag. When there is erosion it is featured in the press and media, but not when there is accretion and gain. In fact about 6000 Km2 area in the coastal land was created by wave deposition only and that too in the last 12,000 yr. Therefore, erosion and deposition are two sides of the same coin and dredging as such does not influence both as long as seabed has an optimal reserve of sediment.

Finally about the waste of water in washing the sand coming off the dredger before it is sold. Take a look at the bridge constructed by the L&T Ltd., connecting Kochi with Island or the wharfs in the Kochi harbour. These are structures on concrete columns bathed in brackish water for 24 hours of the day. There are salt water tolerant cements and hence concrete (e.g., Bahrain Bridge). That is the sand does not require to be washed to the purity of a downstream use in a pharmacy industry.

Therefore, we can always look at the sea not only for food but also for the mineral wealth including sea sand waiting to be mined or exploited. The choice of words is yours.

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thrivikramji@gmail.com