Coal Mining Crises Hit India
OpenLife Nigeria has reliably gathered that coal mining and climate change vagaries have hit India.
Below is the report as captured by Asia Nikkei.
Sipping on a cooling rice beer more than 1,000 kilometers from New Delhi, Mangal Murumu never imagined he would find himself at the molten center of the great Indian climate crisis.
Murumu, a farmer from Hirapur in the far eastern state of Jharkhand, is a member of India’s Adivasi community — a group of indigenous peoples whose beliefs include animism and a sustainable lifestyle in nature’s midst.
But in recent years Murumu and his community have been fighting to preserve their land and forests, at odds with Indian government officials and private coal companies looking for opencast mining projects whose output might make up for hydroelectric resources that are evaporating as the climate warms.
According to data from federal grid regulator Grid-India, analyzed by Reuters, hydro’s share of India’s total power output fell to a record low of 8.3% during the fiscal year ended March 31 — a drop of a third compared with an average of 12.3% in the 10 years through 2020.
While much of the world has embraced moves to turn away from fossil fuel, India has long argued that it needs coal, which accounts for about three-quarters of its electricity production, to support economic development for its 1.4 billion people.
“The government wants to expand coal projects and has begun encroaching on our lands to implement these massive projects,” Murumu, 55, told Nikkei Asia during a recent visit. “If coal mines appear on our land, we will all get displaced, trees will be cut and the negative impacts of coal mining and (opencast) blasting will damage the land and environment.”
Climate change has driven the annual monsoon in much of Asia, including India and China, to become more erratic. In turn, the generation of hydroelectricity — India’s biggest source of non-fossil fuel-based power — has started plunging.
While the capital New Delhi suffers brutal heat waves as the climate crisis intensifies, Murumu has seen first-hand its impact on his village, surrounded by water-hungry rice fields.
“It has been sweltering hot this year and without enough rain, we won’t be able to cultivate our rice fields like we always have,” Murumu said, speaking inside his home. “Even the stream beside our hut is below its usual level.”
In mid-June, parts of Jharkhand state saw temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius or more, up to five degrees above long-term average levels for the season.
With the climate crisis worsening, the government has begun scouring remote rural dust bowls in search of coal resources suitable for opencast mining. Among such projects is the Deocha-Pachami development: If fully implemented, it could become the world’s second-largest coal mine and Asia’s largest, according to local officials and think tanks.
Pulling a bow and arrow out from a nearby wardrobe, Murumu showed off weapons his community has brandished to ward off what they see as dangers to their land and environment.
“Since the late 1990s, coal mining companies have approached our land, seeking to build opencast mines. The latest is West Bengal’s Deocha-Pachami coal mine project in Birbhum, which will also extend into our land,” Murumu said.
“Since we heard about its possible implementation, we have been protesting against it, and even used our bows and arrows!” In recent standoffs, Murumu said villagers drew bows and pointed arrows at mining company officials as a warning — but stopped short of firing them.
Maku Hazda, 32, who lives in the village of Sagar Bandi, not too far from Murumu’s Hirapur, has helped Adivasi women fight the Deocha-Pachami project.
“We waved sticks, bows and arrows and stood in a line on our land and drove the coal mining officials away,” she said, referring to frequent attempts by mining companies to survey land near the village.
“Even my young children understand how dangerous coal mines are to the environment. This is also the land of our ancestors and as Adivasis, we will continue fighting for our land and protect our trees and nature around us till we die.”
The West Bengal Power Development Corp. Ltd. (WBPDCL) is in charge of implementing the Deocha-Pachami project, which would come to within 2 km of Murumu’s village. According to the company, the estimated coal reserve is around 2.1 billion tonnes — a small portion of India’s vast reserves but close to 100% of those of smaller producers like Mongolia.
WBPDCL did not respond to Nikkei Asia’s request for comment on the situation.
Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal who won another term in India’s nationwide elections earlier this year, has been trying to get the project under way since 2020.
But indigenous people and climate activists have vigorously protested, stalling the project’s initiation.
“After elections, there has been pin-drop silence with respect to the Deocha-Pachami project,” said Swaraj Das, an activist from the Project Affected People’s Association, an organization developed by those who have been displaced and impacted by the spread of coal mines in India.
Local press reports this month have reported the managing director of the WBPDCL saying the Deocha-Pachami project’s groundbreaking was imminent.
Since the May-June election results, however, the coal ministry, led by G Kishan Reddy, has introduced a draft of regulations that backers say can ensure mines in the country are restored and regenerated in a sustainable and ethical manner.
But 53-year-old Sagar Bandi villager Kkokan Mardi, also a member of the Adivasi community, says politicians have never paid much heed to the needs of people living near coal mines nor to efficiently tackling climate change.
“The government does not listen to our voices. We don’t want any coal projects, or even hydroelectric projects which could harm our land and displace us,” Mardi said, calling on the government to give the Adivasis more power in deciding how India manages its long-term transition to sustainable energy projects.
Coal output outpaces hydroelectricity output
In 2015, at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris, newly re-elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi made lofty promises, triggering hope among environmentalists and activists that most of India’s abundant reserves of low-quality coal — the fifth-largest in the world, according to the latest available data from BP — would never make their way to the surface.
In 2021, at COP26, he further pledged that India would focus on expanding renewable energy projects and achieve carbon neutrality by 2070, a more distant goal than most major economies have set.
Since then and through May 2023, India has generated 179 gigawatts of energy from renewable resources, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, which said the country has fostered a booming solar and wind energy sector. The subcontinent’s power ministry is also keen to boost hydro capacity by over 50% by 2031-2032.
But climate change is making hydro projects more unpredictable, with sudden heat waves leaving dams parched.
In a statement in April, India’s power ministry acknowledged that erratic weather patterns have slowed growth in the country’s hydro capacity. Still, it highlighted that the Indian meteorological department has predicted higher rainfall in the country during this year’s ongoing monsoon season, which could change the game, at least temporarily.
Anirudh Gupta, co-founder of Climes, a climate finance company that focuses on carbon mitigation projects, said hydroelectricity tends to be cheaper and can be counted on to be reliable 24 hours a day. But heat waves and climate change have made it difficult to predict whether hydro will remain a good energy source.
“So countries like India need to have as many renewable options in the energy mix, so that energy supply remains consistent,” he said.
Gupta said that while renewable energy projects are expanding in India, the energy generated does not yet match India’s demand. One drawback, he noted, is that solar cannot provide energy at night.
“The focus should be on building an energy provider where the source of energy comes from fossil fuels, hydroelectric, nuclear or solar together, and ensures constant energy supply in the face of challenges from climate change,” Gupta said.
Meanwhile, India’s dependence on coal has continued to grow. Power generated using coal and lignite rose by 13.9% in 2023/24 while the output from renewable sources increased by 9.7%, according to Grid India data.
Renewable sources contributed 71% of the 26 GW of generation capacity that India added in the fiscal year 2023/24, according to India-based think tank CEEW Centre for Energy Finance.
Climes co-founder Gupta said one of the reasons behind this coal power growth is that historically its baseline coal energy production capacity is massive, while the transmission costs of getting renewable energy to India’s growing population centers in cities are higher.
“Coal energy generation is closest to population centers compared to renewable energy, which is generated at utility-scale away from population centers,” he said. “So transmission costs and renewable energy storage costs are also high.”
Repercussions of coal developments
Sushil Barnwal — a 36-year-old schoolteacher who lives along West Bengal’s Barabani railway station, a massive coal siding rail track — told Nikkei he is not happy about the spread of coal projects in the country. Barnwal’s town lies in the Asansol-Raniganj coal belt in West Bengal’s Paschim Bardhaman district, where coal has been mined since the 17th century.
“People who live near coal mines and coal siding sites are already suffering a lot,” Barnwal said. “Where I live, every time coal is loaded or unloaded there is a lot of pollution. “Around 80% of the people who live along this railway track are suffering from heart diseases and tuberculosis.”
Coal dust drifted through the air near the track and was also visible on people’s attire during Nikkei’s visit. Pointing to the local school in the region, which sits close to the railway track, Barnwal said children’s lives are at risk because of coal dust.
“You can see specks of the coal dust on the midday lunch meal, which is cooked for the children in the school’s kitchen,” he said. “The window of the kitchen faces the railway track where coal is unloaded.
“Coal sidings should be banned in regions where people live. It is unhealthy and dangerous.”
Gareth Price, a senior research fellow at the Irish think tank The Azure Forum for Contemporary Security Strategy, said that the black sedimentary rock and its monetary value have been politically important to the subcontinent since the coal sector was nationalized in the 1970s.
“Politics in much of the world is about money,” Price said. “And in this case, India has found a way of making money through an industry which not only meets demand for power but is also important to livelihoods. The only downside is the climate change argument.
“We already know that renewable energy is cheaper than coal. So if India finds a way to make more money from renewables and also support livelihoods, then coal can be completely phased off.”
India’s coal ministry did not respond to Nikkei’s requests for comments.
For many people living along India’s coal belts, the fossil fuel has been an important source of revenue for generations.
“There are no other jobs available, so when you live near a coal mine, why should we be against coal when we live near it and get jobs working in the industry?” wondered Sowal Mukherjee, 44, who works on a contractual basis at a private mine in the Asansol-Raniganj coal belt in West Bengal. “I know working in mines is not good for health, and the construction of the mines also displaces people. But it is the only way for me to put food on my family’s plate.
Sowal Mukherjee, 44, works on a contractual basis at a private mine in the Asansol-Raniganj coal belt in West Bengal. (Photo by Valeria Mongelli)
“And regarding coal damaging the environment and increasing climate change, that’s not my problem. That is in God’s hands.”
At the Project Affected People’s Association, activist Swaraj Das isn’t willing to leave the issue to divine intervention — not least because of the spread of unauthorized, illegal mining.
“Opencast coal mines such as the Deocha-Pachami will degrade land and the environment further,” he said. “We are against coal mines, and saying ‘No to coal’ is the need of the hour as India meanders through a climate crisis.”
Das said the illegal coal industry has blossomed in recent years, spurred by a lack of other jobs in the region. According to a 2019 Press Trust of India report, throughout the Asansol-Raniganj belt, about 3,500 illegal coal mines were in operation, directly employing at least 35,000 people and another 40,000 indirectly.
“There needs to be more investment in other jobs in the region,” Das said, “and the government should ban opencast coal mines.”
While completely phasing out coal remains a challenge in India, with livelihoods at stake, climate finance entrepreneur Gupta said sustainability has to become a default choice in India.
“Solar energy is currently experiencing a boom in India’s renewable energy market since it is very cheap, doesn’t displace people from their land, is good for the environment and also ensures that power demands are met,” he said. “So when you’re unaffected and something is cheaper, people are happy to adopt it.”
For Murumu, the farmer from Hirapur sipping rice beer, the sustainable solution ahead is to plant more trees.
“Global warming has already affected the world,” he said. “We believe planting more trees and protecting the existing ones will tackle this issue. Green energy power plants also damage land. Leave the environment as it is.
“Our ancestors led a struggle for freedom to retain their land. This gives us hope, and we’ve taught younger generations to keep this spirit alive.
“So we will keep fighting until companies stop trying to destroy our beautiful and green land.”
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