The new AIADMK government of Edapadi Palaniswami is facing its first confrontation with the BJP-led Union government of Narendra Modi at Neduvasal, a fertile village on the Cauvery delta in Pudukottai district of Tamil Nadu.

ONGC technicians who visited the village to inspect a rig drilled in the area in 2009 to explore hydrocarbons were chased away by local people because the previous government of J Jayalalitha had banned extraction of methane gas through an order dated 8 October 2011. No power on earth can ignore what Jayalalitha had ordained, maintain the people.

Natural gas exploitation has become a controversial issue in Tamil Nadu because the previous Congress-led government of Manmohan Singh on 29 July 2010 granted permission to the private sector Great Eastern Energy Corporation Limited to explore and exploit gas from the Mannargudi coal bed methane block spanning 691 sq km in the Cauvery delta on a profit-sharing basis when the DMK was in power in the state.

According to an ONGC official, the Neduvasal villagers did not even give an opportunity to its technicians to properly plug and cap the well to prevent oozing of gas. The Palanasami government said that no clearance will be given to any coal bed methane exploitation project in the Cauvery delta. Farmers view the project as a threat to their livelihood and food security.

Neduvasal has a population of about 500,000. Health Minister Vijaya Baskar, after a visit to the project site, confirmed that electricity has been cut off to the project. The Centre is spending about Rs 6,000 crore on constructing an LNG terminal with a capacity of five million tonnes at Ennore port near Chennai. It is expected to be commissioned in 2018. The imported gas will be transported by pipelines across the state for its economic development.

Strategies for laying pipelines are yet to be completed; these involve acquisition of land, including paddy fields, which could lead to even more acrimonious protests than the Neduvasal one. It may be recalled the Kochi LNG terminal, built at a cost of Rs 4,500 crore, has been able to achieve just five per cent capacity utilisation so far because the pipeline project extending to 310 km had to be stopped due to protest against land acquisition.

The Ennore LNG project laying a 1,170 km gas pipeline to reach Tuticorin could remain a pipedream. Natural gas is a most eco-friendly fuel compared to coal and crude oil. Yet in India, only six per cent of energy is generated by natural gas against the world average of 26 per cent. Drilling for natural gas does involve use of water.

Because of the acute drought in Karnataka and rapidly depleting water in the Cauvery river system, there is fear among farmers that exploiting gas in the Cauvery delta region would add to their woes.

It is the responsibility of both the Union and state governments to educate farmers of the importance of tapping natural gas for the overall development and growth of the nation.