Worry lines crease the forehead of 35-year-old D. Rajkumar, a post-graduate in microbiology who gave up a job to take up farming on his ancestral land in Devangudi village in Tamil Nadu’s Thiruvarur district.

His farm is one of the 80 points in Thanjavur and Thiruvarur districts, where Great Eastern Energy Corporation, licensed by the Centre to prospect for coal bed methane, will dig a deep bore well.

“The company asked for one hectare on 35-year lease, but did not specify the reason,” says Rajkumar. Now, there is talk of CBM and the threat to environment. Rajkumar says in the last three years, with rising Government support prices, a buoyant commodity market and mechanised farming helping to tackle labour shortages, agriculture is looking up. But if the fields are to be given up for mining, “should I stop putting in money and effort into this land?” he asks.

Yet, not all are worried like Rajkumar. Ask Paramasivam, busy overseeing paddy transplantation on his one-acre plot in Kovil Venni village of Thiruvarur district, about the CBM project, he shrugs in response. “I have not heard of anything like that.”

And there is another set, like V. Kamaraj of Vattakudi village, that is all for it. The shopkeeper, sitting inside his thatched-roof shop, is all smiles when he says, “Sure I will give my land to the company. My sister’s son has leased them a couple of acres. It is good money.” Poor and erratic rains have hit agriculture and the few acres he owns do not yield much “I make my living from this shop now,” he says.

Generating all this diverse emotions is the Great Eastern project, spread over 66,700 hectares. The Centre granted the company a licence in 2010 and in January 2011 the then DMK-led State Government entered into an agreement with the company to facilitate the project. With over 80 per cent of the project area being agricultural land, it sparked widespread protests from independent organisations, NGOs and the Left parties that have a strong presence among the farming community, particularly workers.

Bowing to farmers’ demands, the present AIADMK Government has stopped the project, pending a report by a three-member expert committee that is expected to submit its report in three months.

Despite all this action, P. R. Pandian, Deputy Secretary, Tamil Nadu Farmers Association, Thiruvarur district and CPI party functionary, says public awareness of the threat posed by the project is still low. Methane production involves the extraction of large quantities of water present in the lignite deposits deep underground. This water can contaminate the soil because of high salt and metal content. He has filed a public interest litigation in the Madras High Court against the project.

The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, he says, has not cleared the project. Central clearance was based on a public hearing in January 2012 in which, Pandian says, the farmers’ representation was not fully considered. Even the announcement was not adequately publicised — they got to know about it just a day earlier, he says. The environment impact assessment of the test phase by the company’s consultant says more than 80 per cent of the project area is agricultural land.

Pandian says that the morale of small farmers is down because of inadequate water supply and poor crop, and commercial interests should not be allowed to take advantage of the situation.

S. Ranganathan, Chairman, Centre for Cauvery Delta Development Studies, too says nearly one-third of the most productive agricultural land will be impacted by the project. There cannot be any debate when it comes to protecting food security. Ranganathan asserts farmers were not adequately informed about the project. “I got to know about the public hearing just one day ahead and barely had time to prepare.”

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