In Nalgonda District, the Rajiv Gandhi Tiger Reserve (the only tiger project in Andhra Pradesh) has been forced to surrender over 3,000 sq. kilometres to uranium mining, following a directive from the Central Ministry of Environment and Forests.[9]
In 2007, India was able to extract 229 tonnes of U3O8 from its soil. On July 19, 2011, Indian officials announced that the Tumalapalli mine in Andhra Pradesh state of India could provide more than 170,000 tonnes of uranium, making it as the world's largest uranium mine. Production of the ore is slated to begin in 2012.
As India vies for enriched uranium from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) members to get the raw material for its nuclear power plants, the scientists here have found massive uranium deposits in the mines of Tumalapalli in Andhra Pradesh. The site has the potential to emerge as the largest reserve of the key nuclear fuel in the world.
The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) recently discovered that the upcoming mine in Tumalapalli has close to 49,000 tonne of uranium reserves. This could just be a shot in the arm for India's nuclear power aspirations as it is three times the original estimate of the area's deposits.[11]
In fact, there were indications that the total quantity of uranium could go up to 150,000 tonnes, which would make it among the largest uranium mines in the world.
The fact that Tumalapalli might have uranium reserves has been known for a while, but it took four years for the estimate to come to the present level.