Illegal Coal Mining : A Ticking Time Bomb
BY
R.K.MISRA
History
repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as farce, so goes a famous quote.
Tragedy
is the coal mine accident in Assam on January 6 where four people are confirmed
dead and a national effort is underway to save the missing. The farce is that
not one of the 26,000 abandoned rat-hole mines- in just one district of
Meghalaya alone- has so far been closed despite an order, a decade ago. There
are much more in many other.
The
nation-wide proliferation of illegal coal mining is a ticking time bomb that
erupts like a boil on the body fabric of the country every time accidents take
place. For the remainder, it keeps patiently nibbling away at the national
economy creating black money barons while the establishment of the day is busy cherry
picking piddly political opponents.
Some
North-eastern states of the country may be pock-marked with ‘abandoned’ yet
activated illegal mines but the activity is rampant in other states like West
Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka even
Gujarat-only the product that is mined varies. In Gujarat, three labourers were asphyxiated
inside an illegal coalmine in Surendranagar district in July last year.
It was the fourth incident reported in the
district in which about a dozen people have lost their lives in illegal coal
mining. Opposition leaders put the figure at over 20. The district
administration forced closure of over 2000 such sites but no sooner that their
back turned, many of them were opened up. Gujarat Congress spokesperson Dr
Manish Doshi alleges involvement of local politicians of the ruling party in
the illegal mining. A taluka and district panchayat husband-wife team of BJP
office-bearers figure as accused in this particular case. The National Green
Tribunal, Pune had suo moto taken up the issue.
Illegal
coal mining in this district has been a persistent problem. The issue was
raised by Kuvarji Bavalia, Congress MP (he subsequently switched sides and is
now a BJP cabinet minister in Gujarat) in Parliament in December 2010, wherein
the union government admitted that illegal mining was taking place clandestinely
in abandoned mines, small and isolated patches and outcrop areas. However the
coal deposits are of very poor quality and therefore not given to scientific or
economic mining.
As
in this case and most others pertaining to illegal mining, the Centre terms it
a law and order problem and therefore a responsibility of the state government
to curb it.
While
the local and regional industry remains the main beneficiary of the illegally
mined coal which has the tacit connivance of local ruling party politicians,
the onus shifts to the government every time there is an accident. Even in the
present Assam rat-hole coal mine accident, a national effort is underway to
save poverty stricken labour employed in a wholly clandestine activity. The
Army, Navy, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) besides elements of the
state uniformed forces have been at work round the clock .
Coal is the primary source
accounting for 70 per cent of the country’s power supply through thermal power
plants. When demand outstrips supply the coal ’mafia’ steps-in. And the rest is
a rusted gramophone pin playing poetry.
For the record, India is
one of the world’s top coal importing countries along with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan
and China. In the financial year 2024, India imported nearly 264 million metric
tons of coal worth 3,179 billion rupees. The country’s coal production value in
this period was over 1,553 billion rupees. Coal imports mainly consist of high
grade coal and coking coal which are more expensive than thermal coal. The
nationalisation of coal took place in two phases, the first with the coking
coal mines in 1971-72 and then with the non-coking coal mines in 1973.
The economics of illegal
mining is that minimum operational costs turn it into a lucrative business. So
surface mining and rat-hole mining. The former is mining when the coal beds are
nearer the surface while in the latter the extraction is through a narrow
tunnel which is dug merely 3 to 4 feet to enable a single person to crawl in
and out.
Unlike in Chhattisgarh and
Jharkhand, coal seams in Meghalaya are thin, making rat-hole mining
economically viable. The state has an estimated reserve of 576.48 million
tonnes of low-ash, high- sulphur coal belonging to the Eocene age (33-56
million years ago).
According to the 22nd
interim report of the retired judge B.K.Katakey committee submitted to the
Meghalaya High Court there are 26,000 rat-hole mine openings in just East Jaintia Hills district alone which
need to be closed down. The panel has not dwelt on the status of the abandoned
rat-hole mines in West Khasi Hills, South-West Khasi Hills and Garo Hills
districts of Meghalaya.
The National Green Tribunal
(NGT) had banned rat- hole mining in Meghalaya over a decade ago but illegal
mining remains rampant, leading to death and environmental destruction. In
April 2014, the tribunal also banned transportation of coal in the state. “Not
a single abandoned mine has been closed so far as the preparation of DPR (detailed
project report) by the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited is in
progress”, the report noted. In January 2019 i.e. six years ago, the then Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court, A. K. Sikri (since retired) had asked of the
government as to how closed rat- hole mines could operate without the connivance
of officialdom. The question remains unanswered to this day. Even earlier, in
2010-11, NGO’s active in the field had estimated that about 70,000 children,
largely from Nepal and Bangladesh, were employed in these mines due to their
lean-mean build. The claim was refuted though the state admitted before the
NHRC two years later that over 200 children were employed in the mines of East
Jaintia Hills district.
No wonder, bad is called
good when worse happens !
https://odishapostepaper.com/edition/5187/orissapost/page/9
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