Illegal mining went on till 2016 in TN’s southern districts: Amicus Curiae

 Illegal mining of minerals, worth several thousand crores of Rupees, went on unnoticed till 2016 in three southern end coastal districts of Tamil Nadu, the Amicus-Curiae informed the Madras HC on Friday. When a batch of public interest writ petitions, revision petitions and writ appeals on the issue came up for further hearing before the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice PD Audikesavalu yesterday, advocate V Suresh, who was appointed as Amicus Curiae earlier by court, submitted his report. Tirunelveli, Tuticorin and Kanniyakumari are the three districts where the AC’s report alleged that illegal mining of valuable minerals were being quarried unabated. The report stated that raw sand, garnet, ilmenite, rutile, zircon, sillimanite and leucoxene had been extracted in large quantities by the mining operators.