In the context of mineral resource distribution in southern India, heavy mineral placer deposits containing strategic elements such as ilmenite, rutile, zircon, and monazite are extracted primarily from which coastal tract in Kerala?

💡 Solution & Explanation

The coastal beach sands of Chavara in Kollam district contain rich concentrations of heavy minerals like ilmenite, rutile, zircon, sillimanite, and monazite, which are of immense strategic importance to India's atomic energy and manufacturing sectors. Kozhikode and Kannur lack equivalent high-grade monazite-bearing placer deposits along their shores. Kochi estuarine mudflats are known for mud banks rather than heavy mineral placers. These placers originated from the weathering of Precambrian crystalline rocks of the interior highlands and subsequent wave sorting along the coast.