A string of high-precision militant attacks over the past three months in the Jammu division of Indian-administered Kashmir has once again disrupted the ‘calm’ across the Himalayan region. The Indian government deployed hundreds of additional army troops including a section of its elite forces in the restive territory to counter the security challenge. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, other senior ministers, and top officials also held several meetings to review the security and prepare a roadmap to counter the emerging militant threat in the Jammu division.
This region of Indian-administered Kashmir had remained relatively calm for over two decades, however, this year the Indian army and state police officials claim that around 70 militants are active in the Jammu division.
In one of the attacks on 9 June 2024, a bus carrying pilgrims from different states of North India was targeted in the Reasi district of Jammu that was on its way to a temple. Nine people were killed and 33 others injured in the attack. This seems to be one of the string of attacks executed by the militants in several areas of the Jammu division over the past two months and could have far-reaching consequences for the region.
A few weeks after this attack, during the budget session of India’s federal parliament in July, the Government of India informed that the auction of 5.9 million tons of inferred Lithium discovered by the Geological Survey of India in the Salal area of Reasi has not been successful despite putting it for the auction thrice since November 2023.
The two incidents may be unrelated but the increasing violence in Jammu has darkened the shadow around the possibility of mining lithium. The security challenges have exacerbated the concerns of the potential bidders in the private sector, who have already raised the issues of “difficulty in extracting and processing lithium from hard rock pegmatite deposits and under-developed mineral reporting standard.”
“A threat was issued on social media in February 2023 by an offshoot of Jaish-e-Muhammad to not allow Indian companies to mine lithium in the area and now these attacks. The companies will definitely have all this in mind. Prerequisite for any major economic activity is peace and security on the ground,” said a Jammu-based analyst.
Lithium Deposits
In February 2023, when the Geological Survey of India (GSI) announced that 5.9 million tons of “inferred Lithium” were discovered in Salal village, politicians and policymakers in India celebrated this game-changing discovery. Locals in Salal village also felt elated and were ready to cooperate with the government in whatever way for the larger national interest. However, after more than 18 months of the discovery, the challenges seem to only mount both for the government and for the people in Salal, which is around 90 km from Jammu city – formerly the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir.
Locals in Salal are silent about the security situation but they are still living a life of uncertainty and fear. The threat of dislocation and migration looms large as and when the rare mineral is mined. They may not want the mining project killed but they expect the government to come clear and clean on their plans of relocation and rehabilitation. They want to make an informed decision about their future and don’t want to end up in less hospitable conditions, struggling even for basic survival.
“We are for the development of the nation but we also want to live happily in that developed nation where we will have better infrastructure, health and education facilities,” says Rajender Sharma, who owns a stationery shop in Salal village. Sharma was discussing recent parliamentary election results, 2024 in India, in which Modi came to power for a third time albeit with a smaller number of seats for his party the BJP, making him dependent on the partners in his National Democratic Alliance.
Sharma says that delegations from Salal have visited the office of the District Magistrate several times and enquired about the relocation and rehabilitation plan. “The officers there had no idea about it. They just keep calming us down saying the government will never want to hurt us,” he adds. However, on the ground, the government is doing its work. They have already demarcated the houses, trees and cattle in the area.
According to a revenue department official in Salal, Krishan Singh, around 350 houses have been demarcated along with trees and cattle. “As of now among a total of 1,000 households we have demarcated 350 houses under which Lithium reserves have been found,” Singh informed. According to the data from the Ministry of Mines the area under Lithium is around 317.638 hectares. “When will we be informed about our lives and future?” Sharma asks.
Second Migration
Fears of this village are not unfounded. History is repeating itself for the residents of Salal, as this village until the 1970s was located on their ancestral land, down the gravel road, on the banks of the Chenab River. They were relocated to an uphill area, as their lands were acquired for the construction of Salal Hydropower project.
“We have already paid a heavy price for the development of the nation, which didn’t help us at all,” says Subash Chander, another resident of Salal. When Chander’s family was relocated from the hydropower project site, his father was given a compensation of Rs 200, which he spent on basic family expenses. His family lived in a mud house for the next 35 years on government land here. And within a few years of constructing concrete houses, the family members are now staring at another relocation. “Once again, we are being forced to sacrifice, in the absence of any concrete information about our future. We won’t take it lying down this time,” says Chander.
Chander’s family is among the 30 percent of the population of this village who are living on government land in Salal since they were removed from their ancestral lands at the site of the hydropower project. “These people were pushed into this by the then government. But now the administration will ask for official revenue documents from them. Where will they get these documents from? Who is responsible for their situation?” asks Pritam Singh, village head of Salal.
Youngsters of the village, who have been ushered into adulthood here, have formed WhatsApp groups to remain updated about the progress on this issue. They don’t want to end up complaining like their elders but are ready to go to “unusual lengths” to ensure that their rights are not trampled upon. “The government has to balance the needs and costs of clean energy. Development cannot happen at the cost of our lives, livelihood, and ecology. Denial of rights will draw new battle lines here now,” said a youngster.
Bearing Losses
The majority of the residents of Salal claim to have voted for PM Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recent elections for the third consecutive time, but they lament that they are yet to see the fruits of their commitment and consistency for the party. Bishan Singh, a businessman dealing with hardware is facing losses of around 70 percent since the discovery of lithium in the village and the demarcation process that followed. Locals have stopped to renovate their houses or even change bolts on their doors as they expect/fear that their houses may be demolished or lands acquired anytime.
“I am happy that Salal will once again be part of the shining India story and contribute to its energy sector, but it seems there is no value for our life, land, ecology, Indigenous culture and safety and security of our future,” said Bishen Singh.
He feels more insecure and prone to violation while reminiscing about the similar situation of Indigenous people and tribes in other states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Uttarakhand who he says were left on the mercy of God and development projects were prioritized over lives. “We are not living on some other planet. Our intuition is that we will also lose our sacred and social spaces,” he said.
A report by Oxfam, says that the demand for critical minerals like lithium used to achieve decarbonization is surging, but despite the economic benefits, it displaces indigenous populations of the regions and leads to human rights abuses, political corruption, environmental hazards, and gender-based violence.
“For Indigenous peoples, free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) is a human right guaranteed under international law. It safeguards their collective autonomies, resilience, and right to self-determination. FPIC is a collective decision-making process that ensures Indigenous peoples have a say in whether and how mining moves forward,” says Environment Activist, Anmol Ohrio.
Another study by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IREA) states that over 80 percent of lithium projects are located in the territories of indigenous localities.
E-Auction
For two years after 2020, the GSI was working on the G3 exploration stage of Lithium in Salal, and in February 2023 they handed over the report to the Government of India as well as to the administration in J&K announcing the presence of Lithium in the area. A few months after the discovery was made public, the Ministry of Mines announced an e-auction for lithium extraction in J&K.
“On two occasions only two bidders had applied but as per the minimum requirement guidelines at least three bidders should file the tenders, so the government had to call for e-auction a third time,” says H.S. Laungay, Director of Mining and Geology, Government of J&K.
The third tranche of E-auction tenders for Lithium extraction here was announced on 20 March 2024 and the last date for submission of bid was May 14, 2024. The Ministry was contacted for naming the companies who have filed tenders for bidding, but they refused to reveal the details claiming to maintain the sanctity of the ongoing E-auction process.
In a reply through email, India’s Ministry of Mines, however, informed that the e-auction process is for the grant of a ‘Composite Licence’, a two-stage mineral concession envisaging prospecting operations followed by mining operations. “Prospecting is required to be completed within a period of three years from the grant of the prospecting license by the State Government, with allowance for extension up to two years. Thereafter, mining is required to commence within two years of the grant of the mining lease by the State Government,” the Ministry replied.
“The company which will get the contract will calculate the exact quantity and quality of minerals. It will also give an idea about which technology is suitable for extraction of this critical mineral,” says Prof. Pankaj, Geology Department, Jammu University. “We have foreign technology available here for extraction, but to be self-sufficient we need to develop our own domestic customized technology because we have deposits of Lithium with other minerals like bauxite and titanium and it will be economical,” he added.
India’s Net Zero Mission
In an effort to achieve Net Zero emissions by 2070, the Prime Minister of India in COP26, Glasgow announced that by 2030 India will raise its non-fossil fuel energy to 500 GW. In this context, the discovery of Lithium assumes significance for India as it is the main component in the Lithium-ion batteries used in Electric Vehicles.
“The focus is on main sectors to achieve net zero mission, and they are simultaneously the big sectors for economic development of the country starting from generating electricity from burning coal, industries and transportation,” says Somya Dutta, an energy transition expert.
Among these sectors in order to decarbonize the transport sector, India started a push for EVs through various schemes. In the direction of increasing the sale of electric and hybrid cars, the Ministry of Heavy Industries started FAME-I for 2015-19. Later, GOI introduced FAME-II for 2019-24 with a budget of Rs 10,000 crore.
“Various schemes are being launched to attract investment in the EV market like Product Linked Incentive (PLI). Some of the manufacturers in India are in the pipeline to manufacture Lithium-ion batteries next year,” says Sharif Qamar, Associate Director, Transport and Urban Governance at The Energy and Resource Institute. “This move will not keep the supply chain of batteries in place and also the price of batteries won’t go high if the demand in the international market rises,” he added.
Experts say that if “inferred Lithium reserve” is extracted in good quality and quantity, India still relies on the import of Lithium-ion batteries to achieve the mission of green energy. According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India’s import of lithium-ion batteries increased from $384.6 million in 2018-19 to $2800 million dollars in 2022-23 from China and South Korea.
E-Waste Challenge
Rohan Singh, Director of Ziptrax based in Delhi, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh started recycling of mobile and laptop ion batteries in 2016. By the year 2019, the company started working with EV and Energy storage batteries. “Currently we tackle all battery waste with a capacity of 350 tons annually,” says Rohan.
The growth in the market of recycling of ion batteries depends on the sale of Electric Vehicles. As per BIS Research, the Li-ion battery recycling market was valued at US$3.54 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow up to $23.96 billion by 2033.
The challenge for recycling of batteries is that they are capital-intensive. As per CSE review, a recycling plant with a capacity of 18,000 metric tons requires an investment of 220-370 crores. “Setting up of recycling units is capital and labor intensive, however, it provides an option for re-usage of the battery or its cells and minimizes environmental hazards,” says Rohan.
Keeping in view the important role of recycling of batteries, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, GOI introduced Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022 to address the issue of volumes of wasted batteries for reuse and recycling.
Back in Salal
For 65-year-old Indu Devi in Salal, the worry is that her house has not been demarcated yet by the revenue officials. “Either they should relocate us all or nobody,” she demands, fearing the loss of her neighborhood, relations and the culture Salal took decades to reknit after the first relocation.
Indu’s family has been into farming for the past several decades and she herself works in wheat and maize fields and grows vegetables in her kitchen garden for personal use.
“How can we continue farming when mining will start here? It will take away our water and pollute the whole ecosystem.”
Salal’s lithium extraction will be based on hard-rock mining. According to the paper published in MIT, for every ton of mined-Lithium around 15-tonnes of CO2 are emitted into the air. The paper also mentions that Lithium mining requires chemicals and enormous amounts of water and intensive labor leaves toxins and contaminates the resources.
As darkness engulfed the mountains of the Pir Panjal range, Indu slung her shawl on her shoulders with pride and satisfaction. She argues that when the rest of the country is witnessing the heat wave, fresh columns of air are reviving our souls here. “I want that the new home we might be relocated to should also be named as Salal,” she says.
