Top 10 Most Important Tamil Nadu Events of 2018
This list shows some of the Important Incidents happened in the year 2018 in Tamilnadu State of India.
Sterlite Copper, a copper-producing company of Vedanta Groups in Tuticorin, received a huge amount of negative response from the people. People of Tuticorin protested for 100 days to close the company due to toxic effluents released from the industry into the air and water, making it difficult to breathe.
On the 100th day, people who marched towards the collector's office were shot by the government. Thirteen protesters were killed. The Indian government killed its own people.
On November 11, a cyclone hit Tamil Nadu (places: Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Pudhukottai, Tiruchirapalli, Ramanathapuram, Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Karaikkal) at a speed of 140-160 km/h.
Due to this cyclone, thousands of cattle and birds died, 18,000 hectares of coconut trees, 56,000 hectares of crops and trees, 1,000 transformers, 100,000 electric poles, 201 electricity substations, and 5,000 boats were destroyed. Most of the coconut trees were uprooted. Sixty-three people died.
Bharatmala, a branch scheme of Sagarmala, is a plan to construct an 8-way lane road for routes including Salem-Chennai, Salem-Coimbatore, Coimbatore-Hosur, Hosur-Salem, Hosur-Chennai, Tiruchirapalli-Coimbatore, Tiruchirapalli-Salem, and Tiruchirapalli-Chennai.
The first stage of the Salem-Chennai 8-way lane began with the government marking stones on the respective lands. Many farmers opposed this project as it would seize their farming land. It was mainly opposed because it planned to destroy mountains and nature in Salem.
Nel Jeyaraman, an agriculturist who revived more than 160 traditional paddy seeds, died on December 6, 2018. He was a student of agriculturist Nammalwar.
Kalaignar Karunanidhi, former Chief Minister from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), died on August 7, 2018. Karunanidhi served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for two decades.
A.G. Pon Manickavel, an IPS officer serving as Inspector General for the Idol Wing, has reported numerous irregularities within the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department. He has also played a key role in retrieving hundreds of valuable smuggled idols and bringing them back to India.
He helped recover the bronze statues of King Rajaraja Cholan and his queen Lokamadevi from a Gujarat museum. He also exposed misappropriation in the making of a Panchaloha idol for the Palani Dhandayuthapani Temple and investigated idol burglaries at the Suthamalli Varadaraja Perumal Temple. His efforts uncovered a global idol-smuggling network.
On March 11, 2018, a group of trekkers on their way from Kolukkumalai, trekking downhill towards Kurangani, got trapped by a wildfire. This group included 27 members of a 2-day trek organized by CTC to celebrate Women's Day and another 12-member group on a trek organized by a private tour company.
Three of the trekkers reportedly turned back before the rest faced the wildfire. Unfortunately, 16 trekkers lost their lives in the disaster.
Tamil writer S. Ramakrishnan has been honored with the Sahitya Academy Award for his novel Sancharam, which deals with the lives of nadhaswaram artistes.
In a function, poet Vairamuthu cited the research of an American scholar who said that Andal belonged to the Devadasi community and had lived and died at the Srirangam temple in Tiruchirapalli.
This led to a controversy and received a huge amount of opposition from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and many Hindus.
A protest started, asking the central government to set up the Cauvery Management Board. To gain attention, some people and political parties called for stopping the IPL match between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
As per their request, all the matches were moved from Chennai to Pune.
The Newcomers
Krishna Prasad, a 24-year-old medical student studying for his MD at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), committed suicide. He was tortured for not knowing Hindi and was depressed, leading him to hang himself.
Koothupatarai Na. Muthusamy, art director of the Tamil folk theatre group Koothuppattarai, died at the age of 82 on October 24, 2018.
He won the Sangeet Natak Academy Award in 1999 and the Padma Shri Award in 2012, conferred by the Government of India.
On November 17, 2017, 2,190 kg of dog meat was seized at Chennai Egmore Railway Station. Twenty parcel boxes were unloaded from Mannargudi-Bhagat Ki Kothi Weekly Express to the Egmore station. The police officials detected a bad smell from those thermocol boxes.
The Railway Police (RPF) opened the boxes and found frozen meat of slaughtered dogs. It was reported that this meat was about to be sent to hotels in Chennai.
The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is located in Theni District, Tamil Nadu. People claim that this project affects nature and should be removed. Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) organized a protest against this project.
For the last 50 years, Dravidian parties have ruled Tamil Nadu with their Dravidian ideology. A new ideology named Tamil Desiyam has arisen in Tamil Nadu. Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK), led by Seeman, follows this ideology.
Actors Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan are the topmost actors in the Tamil cinema industry. They made their political entry, but the public response to their political careers was underwhelming.
A WhatsApp conversation between Professor Nirmala Devi and her students was leaked. Shocking details emerged from Nirmala Devi's WhatsApp conversation with a student in the sex-for-cash scandal, which involved the TN Governor.
Later, she was arrested.
Rajalakshmi, a lower-caste (Dalit) girl studying in Class 8 in a government school, was the third child of the Chinnaponnu-Samivel couple. She was beheaded and killed with a sickle by her neighbor Dinesh Kumar from the intermediate Muthaliar community in Thalaivasal, Attur, Salem District.
Dinesh Kumar stormed into Rajalakshmi's house, pushed down Chinnaponnu, abused her caste, and killed Rajalakshmi. Previously, Rajalakshmi had rejected the sexual advances made by Dinesh Kumar, which was the backdrop of the murder.
Kerala, a neighboring state of Tamil Nadu, received unusually high rainfall during the monsoon season. The Indian government declared it as a Level 3 calamity, the worst flood in the century since the 1924 Kerala floods.
483 people died, 14 people were missing, and about a million were evacuated from 14 districts which were announced as red alert zones.
Sridevi, an Indian film actress who worked in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, and Malayalam films, was regarded as the first female superstar of Indian cinema. She died on February 24, 2018, in Dubai. It was reported by Dubai authorities that the cause of her death was accidental drowning.
However, a retired ACP of the Delhi Police claimed that Sridevi's death was a planned murder. There remains confusion about her death.
HIV-infected blood was given to a pregnant woman in a government hospital. A man who donated blood on November 30 had his blood given to a pregnant woman on December 3. The lab technicians at the government blood bank in Sivakasi found nothing wrong in the routine tests.
However, days later, the man underwent an HIV test as part of a routine requirement for a job abroad. On December 17, he tested positive for HIV. It was reported that two years ago, he had been HIV positive. He alerted the government hospital, but his blood had already been given to the woman.
Healer Baskar was arrested for making an advertisement regarding a training program for Maruti Baby Delivery. Previously, a pregnant woman in Tiruppur died when she attempted natural home delivery with the help of her husband's friend's mother.
The Supreme Court ruled that firecrackers could only be burst for two hours per day during the Diwali festival, claiming that bursting firecrackers pollutes the atmosphere. This judgment received a huge negative response from the people.
2,100 cases were filed, and 650 people were arrested for bursting crackers overtime, which included children.
The Statue of Unity is a statue of Sardar Vallabhai Patel, built in Kevadiya, Gujarat. The statue's name board has a Tamil translation error, written as "Statuke Oppeunity." This act was widely criticized by Tamil people.
A couple, Nandesh and Swati, who had an inter-caste marriage and fled from their hometown of Chudagowndanahalli in Krishnagiri District, was found dead with their bodies floating in the Cauvery River. Their hands were tied, and they were thrown into the river.
Swati's father killed the couple, claiming that it was a disgrace to his caste.
Anukreethy Vas, a 19-year-old student, won Femina Miss India 2018. She is currently pursuing a BA degree in French at Loyola College in Chennai.
In 2007, the Congress government planned to buy 126 multi-role combat aircraft for the Indian Air Force. In 2012, after the Indian MRCA competition, the deal was awarded to France's Dassault Aviation. The plan was to supply 18 aircraft fully built, with the remaining 108 to be manufactured under Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) with technology transfer from Dassault. The total cost was €7.75 billion, with a price of ₹526 crore per aircraft.
After the 2014 elections, Modi's BJP government renegotiated the deal in 2015 to purchase 36 multi-role fighter aircraft for €7.8 billion. Opposition parties alleged that the Rafale deal involved a scam. In 2012, the price per aircraft was ₹526 crore, but in 2015, it rose to ₹1,670 crore per aircraft, raising questions about the tripling of costs within three years.
Additionally, the deal with HAL was canceled and awarded to Anil Ambani's Reliance Defense Limited (RDL). It was revealed that RDL was registered just 14 days before Modi's visit to France. Reliance Communications also had unsettled loans, and IDBI Bank filed an insolvency case against Reliance Naval for a ₹1,250 crore loan. The French Prime Minister announced that Modi recommended Anil Ambani for Rafale manufacturing.