this is a Geological Survey of Jammu and

Kashmir published in 1997. it shows

lithium reserves and proximity however
the pricing wasn't good at the time so
no follow-up investigation was conducted
Now 26 years later India has made a
game-changing discovery 5.9 million tons
of lithium deposits in Kashmir the sum
is so vast that it instantly jumps India
as one of the world's wealthiest in
lithium reserves officials are spinning
the story as a big payday they're not
wrong lithium is a soft silver white
metal within the Alkali group of the
periodic table it is a crucial component
of electric batteries used widely from
smartphones to electric vehicles if
recoverable the Kashmir deposits could
remake India into a green energy
Powerhouse yet Kashmir is a place of
many names mural Emperor jahangir called
did Paradise on Earth Bill Clinton
called it the most dangerous place on
Earth according to Narendra Modi it is
both but most of all Kashmir is a
geopolitical Flashpoint wedged between
three nuclear-armed states even a small
change can trigger an avalanche of
conflict and India's lithium Discovery
could consume rival Powers With Envy as
surely as rust will eat away at Steel
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geography is Destiny but political
geography owes as much to pencils and
papers as it does to rivers and
mountains nowhere is the contradiction
between territorial claims physical
geography and actual control more
pronounced than in Kashmir sitting at
the crossroads of South and Central Asia
in medieval times Sufi Islamic
influences mingled with sanskritic
elements to forge an inclusive moderate
culture today not so much upon Britain's
1947 withdrawal from Colonial India jamu
and Kashmir was India's only princely
state out of 565 with a Muslim majority
ruled by a Hindu Maharaja after
initially contemplating Independence a
pakistan-backed pashtune Invasion
prompted Maharaja to sign an instrument
of accession with New Delhi thereafter
India airlifted troops in but when
Pakistan responded with its own Advance
India sought a U.N brokered ceasefire in
January 1949 the line of control was set
as the de facto border though each side
retained their claims to all of Kashmir
New Delhi endured another setback in
1962 when China invaded the oxide chin
Pakistan then handed Beijing the
trans-karakorum tract the following year
the Indian controlled portion meanwhile
was administered under special
constitutional Provisions articles 370
and 35a granting Jammu and Kashmir its
own Constitution flag and legislature
and since then the region has been
plagued by periods of conflict jihadism
and state repression in other words
Kashmir is hardly the ideal place to
make a major mineral Discovery yet in
February 2023 that is precisely what
happened New Delhi announced it had
located nearly 6 million tons of
inferred lithium reserves near riyasi a
some worth roughly 410 billion dollars
if recoverable it would theoretically
make India the country with the world's
seventh largest deposits wasting no time
the Modi government trumpeted the
discovery as a boon for its
decarbonization plan centered around the
concept of artman and Burr or
self-reliance
the plan is intended to wean India off
its dependence on Beijing which
currently supplies three quarters of the
world's Lithium-ion batteries lacking
lithium resources India has had
difficulty in manufacturing Industries
for goods like phones and solar panels
the ryasi discovery therefore grants
India a chance to develop value-added
Industries in emerging Technologies to
this end New Delhi has offered a 2.2
billion dollar incentive scheme to
enhance battery cell manufacturing and
attract Mining and processing
infrastructure investment demand for
lithium has skyrocketed 30-fold since
2010 and is projected to grow again six
times over the next two decades with
electric vehicle demand to increase
five-fold by 2050. in doing so India
hopes to Source half its energy from
Renewables by 2030 thereby reducing its
emissions intensity of GDP by 45
New Delhi is also calling for climate
Finance from the global North and the
implications for global climate change
mitigation are far-reaching since India
is home to one-fifth of the world's
population
yet the deposits actual potential may
not be all that electrifying
critics have raised questions concerning
the possible ecological geological and
financial costs of extraction notably
the new found lithium reserves fall
under the category inferred which means
more testing is required to determine
its quality kashmir's lithium deposits
took 26 years to go from reconnaissance
to preliminary exploration status the
two remaining faces General exploration
and detailed exploration will likely
take at least a decade so while the
rayasi deposits may help India's
decarbonization efforts they will not
help Modi reach his 2030 targets
lithium ore extraction is also
inherently contentious Hard Rock mining
centers around traditional Drilling and
Blasting techniques the rock is then
ground down roasted and put through acid
leaching sodium carbonate is then added
and the resulting mixture is slurried
with calcium hydroxide to produce
lithium hydroxide the material used in
battery cells this processes arrived
with ecological hazards it produces high
levels of carbon in the short run and
generates large amounts of waste rock
tailings and chemical runoffs
worryingly kashmir's ecosystem is
already struggling with anthropogenic
climate change and military activity
shelling and The Dumping of
non-biodegradable waste on the ciachin
glacier has accelerated shrinkage
meanwhile the use of Dos Medan Valley as
an artillery firing range has brought
havoc on its Meadows and logging in the
Kashmir Valley has resulted in
widespread deforestation now given the
damage elithium extraction causes to Air
and soil this could further threaten the
surrounding forests and their Wildlife
so any decarbonization benefit gained by
extraction would have to outweigh the
ecological costs and the economic
benefits would have to outweigh the
potential costs to kashmir's wildlife
and nature dependent tourism industry
beyond that lithium mining can cause
subduction and since reyasi is prone to
earthquakes of magnitude of eight or
more if this combines with geological
processes nearby mining could render the
town unlivable as it already has
elsewhere in the Himalayas from there
the damage could spread through nearby
vital infrastructures and Water Systems
like the cell hydroelectric power
project or the under construction
Channel Railway Bridge nor is there any
guarantee that an uptake in economic
activity will benefit locals lithium
extraction imposes High startup costs
and requires specialist expertise and
since New Delhi has announced it will
auction off the lithium blocks to
private firms they will likely be sold
to foreign companies employing the
expertise of foreign Nationals so all up
new delhi's lithium announcement may
have been made more in the hope that it
could rescue India's lagging
decarbonization strategy than in the
expectation that it will but even if
these barriers are surmounted kashmir's
instability will continue to deter
investment
separatism has been endemic since 1947
and following new delhi's lithium
Discovery separatist groups warned that
any attempt to appropriate kashmiri
lithium for Indian benefit would be met
with violent resistance India's policy
making thus faces contradictory
challenges on the one hand it seeks to
tighten its grip on Kashmir on the other
heavy-handedness emboldened separatism
which can unsettle the Region's economic
life in 2019 New Delhi overturned the
status quo and abrogated article 370
unilaterally ending Jammu and kashmir's
special status thereafter the majority
Buddhist sub-region of ladakh was
detached from jamway and Kashmir and
both are now administered as Federal
territories along with electoral changes
suppression of protests media censorship
and internet blackouts
most importantly though the abrogation
of article 370 took away Jammu and
kashmir's ability to make laws
concerning land and settlement New Delhi
has since earned marked large swathes of
land for purchase and development
leading to accusations of Hindu
colonialism in recent years local
kashmiris have seen their land rights
taken away forced demolitions often
without notice have now become
commonplace making way for
non-indigenous settlements on long-term
leases including Indian industrialists
developers and military personnel who
already made up one-tenth of kashmir's
population prior to 2019. demographics
is a particularly thorny issue due to a
potential U.N sponsored referendum on
Kashmir status in the future
implementing settlers will distort the
results of such a vote since Hindus tend
to favor Indian integration meanwhile
the Muslim majority is split between
Independence integration with India and
integration with Pakistan all these
developments cast doubt on modi's claim
that the Crackdown has improved
kashmir's investment climate though
manufacturing investment and the
creation of special economic zones have
attempted to unlock kashmir's potential
the security situation has dampened
these Ambitions private investment in
2022 was at half its 2018 level with the
steepest decline occurring even before
the covid-19 pandemic
perhaps the only robust statistic is the
number of insurgent attacks which have
remained largely constant since 2014.
all up though India's lithium Discovery
is welcome news any attempt to realize
the country's renewable Ambitions will
need to navigate ecological Financial
geological and geopolitical obstacles
and even if successful the payoff will
not be immediate whatever happens the
Project's long-term viability will
remain subject to ongoing geopolitical
issues in Kashmir and while New Delhi
May believe that excessive force is the
way to go sometimes it is precisely when
a state tightens its grip that its
Borderlands will slip through its
fingers
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