COLOMBO — “Cries in silence, her veins robbed by greedy hands, each grain of stolen sand buries a future beneath the lands” — these lines from the song Karunilam (‘black sand’ in Tamil), composed by the young artiste Eric Fernando, give voice to the land and people of Mannar Island, in northwestern Sri Lanka. The song blends melancholy and defiance, mourning the potential destruction posed by the proposed ilmenite mineral sand extraction from this ecologically significant island. Fernando describes Karunilam as a protest anthem, reflecting the sorrow and anger of the local community over the threat to Mannar’s fragile ecosystems, coastal beauty and traditional livelihoods by the proposed sand mining. The song also calls for unity among the islanders to safeguard land rights and cultural heritage against exploitation. Ilmenite, sometimes also called ‘black gold,’ deposited along the beaches of Mannar. Image by Nagamuthu Piratheeparajah. A fragile, globally important ecosystem Ilmenite, the mineral of contention in this instance, is used to produce titanium dioxide (TiO₂), used in paints, plastics and cosmetics, and titanium metal, used for aerospace material, medical implants and corrosion-resistant alloys. Pulmoddai region in northern Sri Lanka is historically one of the world’s largest ilmenite deposits. Mannar’s deposits were first noted in British colonial geological surveys in the early 20th century, but the Sri Lankan civil war (1983–2009) delayed exploration until the 2010s. Commercial interest grew in the mid-2010s when the Australia-based Titanium Sands Limited began extensive drilling in Mannar Island. Residents grew concerned as hundreds of exploratory holes…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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