Kudremukh – The murder of a whole community.

By Prof. Srinivas R., Dt. 23.10.2015.

Back in 1913, a young geologist of the Mysore Geological Department, rode a mountain pony over some high mountains and ridges of the Western Ghats. It was unexplored forest teeming with wild life. There were only horse tracts which needed the hardiest ponies to negotiate. The young geologist, Sampath Iyengar was working on preparing a Geological Map of the erstwhile Mysore Kingdom. He was my great-grandfather.

As he crossed one of the ridges surrounded by high peaks, he found that his horse’s legs were appearing to stick to the ground and he could feel the horse making an extra effort in lifting its legs up. The ground was not wet or sticky. The geologist realized he was on top of a large deposit of Iron which had magnetic properties. The iron Horse Shoes on the hoofs was being attracted by the rock of the mountain. This was Magnetite Quartzite with a formulae of Fe3O4– yielding the highest amount of the metal when the ore was reduced. Sampath Iyengar was credited with the discovery of Kudremukh. He completed the geological map of Mysore – identifying the various schist belts which had extensive mineralization of several important minerals. He eventually rose to become the first Indian Director of the Department and also Head of the Geology Department of Mysore University. His successors – B. Rama Rao, BP Radhakrishna and Pichamuthu confirmed the extant of these deposits and kept recommending that they be mined.

But it was finally only in 1969, that the Kudremukh Iron Ore Corporation Limited(KIOCL), in a joint venture with Canada Met-Chem started operations. At the outset a plan was conceived which have minimal effect on the environment around. The main ore body was on the eastern side of a ridge just two miles long, and extended to a depth of only a 100 meters along the mountain slopes. It was in the form of Banded Magnetite Quartzite, with alternating bands of Magnetite, Silica and Clay. It was soft enough to be crushed in a mill and the Magnetite separated using a Magnetic separator. The mine was located in mountainous region and to build a road to ply heavy ore laden trucks on would be an ecological disaster. Besides Mangalore Port, the end point for the ore to reach was within 100 kms away and also over a 1000 meters below. So, it was decided to flush the ore and other materials down a pipeline as a slurry where it would flow by the force of gravity. To prepare the slurry, a steady supply of water was needed and for this a dam was built to collect, store and supply water. This, being one of the wettest places on earth, there was no dearth of.  The dam itself – the Lakya Dam, was constructed entirely of the “tailings” – the non-ferrous silica and clay left behind after separating the ore. The dam’s height was allowed to grow as the “tailings” were generated. This is why, at Kudremukh, there are no unsightly mounds of tailings and overburden as in other mines. Much of the overburden rocks were utilized to build up the township which grew around the mines.

The mines continued to work till 2005, when the KIOCL Company finally lost out to those determined to kill the industry. This was a period when various NGOs held several projects to ransom. Many of these NGOs had hidden agendas and were being funded by foreign agencies which were interested in holding up India’s development and progress. Recently such activities by Greenpeace, Ford Foundation, etc have been exposed.Besides, the Forest and Wildlife Conservation Departments too wanted to increase control of their respective turfs. While the ruling Political Party at any time would like to keep the mines going, the opposition would gang up with these NGOs to close it down. The irony would be that when the opposition party came to power in the next election, there would be a volte-face in their ideology and they would prefer the mines to keep going – mainly due to the lucrative incomes they provided – both “above and below the table”. The demand worldwide for steel kept fluctuating and so did the interest in running the mines. Iran, which was to be the primary importer of the ore in slurry or pellet form, had its own internal problems which led to cancellation of their orders. The Canadian Met-Chem partners pulled out due to sheer frustration. The Supreme Court ordered the mines to close down.

Now, all mining towns eventually become “Ghost Towns”. Most mineral deposits are isolated and limited. Eventually, the lode runs out or becomes too thin to be exploited profitably anymore. This has happened at Oorigam, in the Kolar Gold Fields ever since the mines were closed down after the yield and economics proved unviable. The western US states of Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and California have several such mining Ghost Towns. Several of these have been maintained as tourist attractions and many have been used as settings in Hollywood movies. A few of these towns like Phoenix and Denver grew into large cities – not centered on mining, but manufacturing activity.The mining business created Las Vegas too – that capitol of night life, entertainment and gambling casinos.

The tragedy at Kudremukh is not the cessation of mining, but the cold blooded murder of a thriving community. In the 30 odd years that the ridge was mined, about 50 % of the ore had been extracted – indicating the mining could have gone on for 30 more. The mining colony was at its peak, residence for over 5,000 families, including several foreign engineers from Canada, Germany and Australia.  The KIOCL had built over 2,500 dwellings – all with at least two bedrooms and all modern amenities for a full family. A supporting colony of non-KIOCL community of shop keepers, barbers, laundrymen, auto mechanics, domestic helps,etc. came up and thrived. A fifty bed hospital with all medical equipment, two dozen doctors including specialists and gynecological facility was built – several hundred babies were born here over the years. A large Kendriya Vidyalaya (Central School) with nicely built classrooms, halls, library and sports ground provided good education to every child in the community up to High School. A separate recreation center with a very large auditorium was built in the late 1980s and named “Sampath Bhavan” after my great-grandfather.

It was to this “Sampath Bhavan” where I had headed to last week to pay homage to my ancestor. Sampath Iyengar’s large portrait was displayed prominently. I was surprised to know that almost everyone had heard of him. I got the “horse shoe sticking to the mountain” story from the local barber.

But what I saw of the project depressed me greatly. The School had closed down and now weeds had started growing over it. Over 90 % of the very well built houses were unoccupied. The well landscaped gardens had given way to weeds and the forest was moving in rapidly. The roads, without maintenance were potholed. Being a very wet place, with heavy rainfall, grass had grown and deteriorated the concrete roofs of the structures. In fact, most of the 80 odd families that still live there occupy ground floor flats. The Hospital has just one doctor and one nurse. The Sampath Bhavan is mostly locked. From 2005, the whole place has been closing down, the existing KIOCL personnel’s task is to wind down the whole show. At the mining head, all the structures are being demolished – the crushing plants, the magnetic separator and any heavy engineering materials are being disposed to scrap.

There are in fact, two tragedies at Kudremukh. One is the human one of such a significant community being displaced and the other is the wanton waste of infrastructure which cost crores to build. There is an urgent need to revive the township and find a use and a resident population for it. The healthy mountain air provides an ideal rest-cure location for senior citizens and convalescents. At present, Lakya Dam is serving a useful purpose – providing drinking water to Mangalore. It is indeed a pity that when housing is in a shortage, so many houses are being allowed to be unoccupied and deteriorate. The entire township could be used as a training school for Police, Paramilitary or Army troops. A Resident Educational Center – even a University can be set up – especially for courses in Environment, Forestry and Wildlife Conservation. The whole KIOCL area can be converted into orchards for exotic high altitude flora and fruit. The alpine meadows which cover the peaks provide the best grazing grass to produce organic rich milk, while the dense sholas in between provide medicinal plants and herbs. The mining could even be restarted and while it reached its own end, alternatives could be phased in and the mined areas re-greened systematically. One of the important by-products is silica – as “manufactured sand”. Supply of this – which can also be flushed down the slurry pipe, and will eliminate the rampant illegal sand mining on the rivers of the region.