GOVT. OF TAMIL NADU DIRECTORATE OF GEOLOGY AND MINING DISTRICT SURVEY REPORT PUDUKKOTTAI DISTRICT Content I. Introduction 1 II. Overview of Mining Activity in the District 2 III. The list of Mining Leases in the District with Location, area and period of 2 validity IV. Details of Royalty or Revenue received in the last four years 3 V. Details of production of Minor mineral in the last four years 3 VI. Process of Deposition of Sediments in the rivers of the District 3 VII General Profile of the District 4 VIII Land Utilization Pattern in the District 7 IX Geology and Mineral Wealth. 7 X Conclusion and Recommendations 13 Annexure Annexure-I- The list of Mining Leases of rough stone quarry 14 Annexure-II- The list of Mining Leases of Granite quarry 28 Annexure-III- The list of Mining Leases of Gravel. 52 Annexure-IV- Details of Royalty or Seigniorage received and 56 production of minor minerals in the last four years. I. Introduction With reference to the gazette notification dated 15th January 2016, ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the district environment Impact Assessment Authority (DEIAA) and District -Environment Assessment Committee (DEAC) are to be constituted for prior environmental clearance of quarry for minor minerals. District Survey Report should be prepared with the assistance of irrigation department, Drainage department, Forest department, mining department and Revenue department in the district. The main purpose of preparation of District Survey Report is to identify the mineral resources and mining activities along with other relevant data of district. The DEIAA and DEAC will scrutinize and recommend the prior environmental clearance for minor minerals on the basis of district survey report. The district Survey Report is prepared with the assistance of Geological Survey of India, State Unit: Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, Chennai. Pudukkottai District is the seventh largest District in Tamil Nadu. It is located in the central part of Tamil Nadu State. It lies between 9°50′ to 10° 40′ North latitudes and 78° 25′ to 79° 15′ East longitudes in the valley of river Vellar. The District is wide spread with an aerial extent about 4,663 sq.km and population of 1, 43,745 persons according to 2011census. This District is bounded by the Districts of Thanjavur in Northeast, Tiruchirappalli in Northwest, Sivagangai in the West, Ramnathapuram in the Southwest and Palk Strait towards the east (Fig:1). It is situated about 395 kilometres (245 mi) southwest of the state capital Chennai and about 55 kilometres (34 mi) southwest of Tiruchirappalli. This District is divided into two municipalities, eleven Taluks and thirteen blocks for administrative purposes. The municipalities of the District are Pudukkottai Municipality and Arantangi Municipality. The eleven taluks of Pudukkottai District are Pudukkottai, Gandarvakottai, Alangudi, Thirumayam, Kulathur, Illupur, Arantangi, Ponamaravathy, Karambakudi, Avudayarkoil and Manalmelkudi These taluks are further sub divided into thirteen blocks namely Pudukkottai, Gandarvakottai, Kunandavarkoil, Viralimalai, Ponamaravathy, Thirumayam, Annavasal, Karambakudi, Thiruvankulam, Arimalam, Arantangi, Avudayarkoil and Manalmelkudi. These blocks are further sub divided into eight town Panchayats, 757 Revenue villages and 498 village panchayats. The city has a semi-arid climate with high temperatures throughout the year, and relatively low rainfall. Pudukkottai has a plain terrain with a few rocky hills intersped in the outskirts. Urugumalai, Athimalai, Chennaimalai are the hills that surround the city. The rivers that flow in Pudukkottai are Amaravathy, Noyal, Bhavani, and Kaveri. Fig: 1. Pudukkottai district map with accessibility and major rivers. II. Overview of Mining Activity in the District: The Department of Geology and Mining (DGM) is functioning in Pudukkottai district under the control of District Collector, Pudukkottai. The DGM is looking after the work of granting leases for dimensional stones, rough stones and river bed sand. The mining of dimension stone, rough stone (Jelly), laterite (gravel) and river bed sand are active in the Pudukkottai district. As per the details given by the O/o DGM, Pudukkottai, 10 no’s of operational & 84 no’s of non-operational dimension stone quarries mostly occupied in the NW side of the district i.e. in and around Illuppur, Kiranur taluk and 65 no’s of operational & 33 no’s non-operational rough stone quarries which are occupied in the NW and central part of the district are the main mining activity present in the Pudukkottai district. In additional to that, river bed sand mining activity was going on till 2015 in and around Arantangi taluk. III. The list of Mining Leases in the District with Location, area and period of validity: During the Field visit, the officer from Geological survey of India and DGM has visited all most all the operational and non-operational rough stone, dimensional stone and river bed sand quarries which were located in the Illuppur, Kiranur, Thirumayam and Arantangi taluks and it has been noticed that, these mines were located in the barren lands where no vegetation and no settlement is present .The details of quarrying leases are tabulated in the annexure I (Granite quarry leases), annexure II (Rough stone quarry leases) and annexure III (Gravel quarry leases). IV. Details of Royalty or Revenue received in the last Four years: The details of Revenue/Royalty received from the rough stone, dimensional stone and river bed sand quarries for the last four years is tabulated in the Annexure-IV. V. Details of Production of minor mineral in last Four years: The details of production from the rough stone, dimensional stone quarries for the last four years are tabulated in the Annexure-IV. VI. Process of Deposition of Sediments in the rivers of the District: Pudukkottai is a part of Cauvery Basin and parts of Vellar, Agniar, Ambuliar, Koraiyur, Kundar and Pambar sub basins. Vellar is the major river, which flows in an east southeasterly direction and confluences with the Bay of Bengal near Manamelkudi. Agniar, Ambuliyar, Koraiyar, Kundar and Pambar are the other important rivers draining the district. Almost all the rivers are ephemeral in nature causing floods during rainy seasons, which are structurally controlled. The Vellar River is responsible for depositional process of fluvial sediments in the district. Alluvial sediments like sand and silts are deposited by this river and their tributaries along their banks. This alluvium plains form one of the fertile cultivation areas of the district. The bed load sediments like sand and gravel are deposited along the stream bed. The sediment deposition is mainly depending up on the morphology of the area. The geomorphic evolution of the area is mainly controlled by denudational, structural and fluvial processes. The evolution of various landforms has been governed mainly by the varying resistance of geological formations to these processes. Various landforms are occurring in the area, such as erosional plains, residual hills, pediments, buried pediments and deltaic plain. The shallow pediments possess poor to moderate yields with thin soil cover. The buried pediments and deltaic plain possess good ground water potential. The deposits of floodplain comprise admixtures of sand, silt and clay. Levee deposits, point bar deposits and channel bar deposits impart with varied proportion of silt, sand and clay admixtures. The coast is dominated by the fluvio marine and marine regime. The fluviomarine regime comprises palaeotidal flat deposits with black clay and sands. The beach deposits comprises of grey brown, medium sands. Dune deposits of grey brown medium sands are seen all along the coast. Fig: 2. Major River map of Pudukkottai district. VII. General profile of the District: Topography: Pudukkottai District is well endowed with natural resources of land and sea, bounded by the marine hedge of Bay of Bengal in the east conjoined by the southern districts viz, Trichy, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram and Thanjavur. It admeasures an area of 4663.29 sq.kms with a coastal length of 42 kms. The District is composed by 3 Revenue Divisions, 12 Taluks, 45 Firkas and 763 Revenue Villages. At the developmental front, it has 13 Blocks, 497 Village Panchayats, 2 Municipalities and 8 Town Panchayats (Table No-1). Soil type: Black soil, Red loamy, Sandy coastal Alluvium, Red sandy soil are found to be popular in this district (Table No-1). Temperature: The temperature ranges from a maximum of 41.2C to minimum of 23.1C. April to June is the hottest months and November to January is the coldest months (Table No-1). Rainfall: The actual annual rainfall was put at 978.8 mm during 2015-16 against the normal rainfall of 887.4 mm for the district. The annual precipitation is higher than normal rainfall by 91.4 mm. About 227.5 mm is received in South West Monsoon, 673.6 mm, is received in North East Monsoon, no rainfall is recorded for winter and 77.7 mm is received in Hot Weather Period (Table No-1). RAINFALL DATA OF PUDUKKOTTAI DISTRICT FOR THE PERIOD FROM 2004-2010 Year January February March April May June July August September October November December Annual Total 2004 0 0 7.7 0 283.2 55.9 75.9 23 256.2 235 189.4 18.2 1144.5 2005 0.4 39.7 5.4 60.6 46.6 19.9 70 64.2 193.3 177.9 474.7 156.7 1309.4 2006 4.2 0 45.3 42.5 37.4 63.8 10 94.1 57.4 203.9 211.1 26.1 795.8 2007 0.2 1.9 0 15.2 28.5 31.9 45 199.1 32.8 174.9 40.4 240.6 810.5 2008 7.7 55.2 161.6 12.2 6.1 44.5 64.4 146 37.3 165.9 329.8 59.9 1090.6