The Tamil Nadu government has decided against allowing potters, farmers and members of the public to remove “gravel” free of cost from beds of waterbodies, which are under the control of various departments. They would be able to quarry “clay and silt” for free, but under a revised procedure.

Earlier, the Tamil Nadu Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1959, allowed quarrying of “clay, silt and gravel” for free from the beds of tanks, channels and reservoirs across the State, which are under the control of the Public Works and the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Departments (barring those in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts). The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, calls gravel a “minor mineral”.

Recently, the Natural Resources Department introduced a clause in the Rules, stating: “The removal of clay and silt free of cost for agricultural purposes from the beds of tanks, channels and reservoirs shall be a non-mining activity...” It has also removed the word “gravel” from all the sub-rules of rule 12 in the Rules.

Though an earlier proviso said that minerals were to be loaded onto the vehicles of the applicant by the respective government departments, the amended proviso states that the removal of clay and silt would be “monitored” by the Collector with the assistance of the respective departments.

Originally, the rules only provided for quarrying “sand, earth or silt” for free for bonafide domestic or agricultural purposes. In April 2017, the Tamil Nadu government amended the rules to allow quarrying of “clay, silt, savudu and gravel”. The quantity of earth, savudu and gravel proposed to be removed for other domestic purposes shall not exceed 30 cubic metres, it had said.

However, in February 2021, in a judgment, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court said that there shall not be any quarrying in colloquial or local terms. Any lease shall be in accordance with the minerals notified under Section 3 of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957.

Rules amended

Eventually, the State government amended the Tamil Nadu Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1959, in December 2022 to replace the word savudu with the term “ordinary earth”.