Revealed: How Coal India flouted Environment Ministry guidelines

While land acquisition has become a political hot potato around the country, a government-owned company is merrily laying waste to large tracts running into thousands of hectares, flouting environment ministry guidelines. Some estimate the land rendered unusable over the past three decades to be as large as Greater Mumbai.

Concerned over growing countrywide agitations against industrial and infrastructure projects, the Centre has drafted a land acquisition bill, expected to be debated during the budget session of Parliament. A number of steel, power, chemical and automobile projects have been stalled in West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh by anti-land-acquisition agitations. Some of these projects cumulatively need about 8,000 hectares of land. 

Yet, Coal India Limited (CIL) and its subsidiaries have destroyed at least 60,000 hectares of land across these states. Properly reclaimed, this land could have been used to set up these projects.

According to documents in DNA’s possession, the total area covered by open-cast mines as of March 2011 was 35,570.21 hectares, but the area reclaimed was just 14,949.91 hectares. Replies to queries under the Right to Information (RTI) Act revealed that a majority of these mines were closed between 1980 and 2000.

In the case of underground mines, a high-level task force constituted by CIL identified 121 abandoned mines. Of these, Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), a CIL subsidiary, alone had 48 in West Bengal and Jharkhand, according to an RTI reply. The reply also revealed that almost 40 of these 48 mines were closed between 1976 and 2000. Yet, CIL had failed to stow sand in them, causing land to subside.

Another RTI reply revealed that in Pench area of Chhindwara district in Madhya Pradesh, Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) owns seven abandoned underground mines with a total area of 6,574 ha, of which six were closed before 2001. Other CIL subsidiaries like Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) have another 20 abandoned underground mines with a total area of 5,487 ha in Jharkhand and Bengal.

A visit to some of ECL’s abandoned underground mines revealed that the company’s failure to properly fill the mines had resulted in the land sinking at several places. In some cases, officials were found to have sold the sand meant for refilling the mines.

According to the guidelines of the director general of mine safety (DGMS), land excavated for open-cast mines is to be filled with incombustible material after completion of mining operations and restored to the original level within three months. Voids created by excavation in the quarry are to be simultaneously filled with coal extraction.

If for some reason the land cannot be restored to its original shape, the voids are to be filled partially . The area could then be converted into a water body to collect rainwater and facilitate groundwater recharging or provide a source of water supply/irrigation/pisciculture to facilitate local habitation, the environment ministry guidelines says.

But even the restoration of open-cast mines is only on paper. “Only 3,000 hectares at the most have been properly reclaimed, out of the 14,949 ha claimed by CIL,” said a senior mining engineer of the Coal Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDI), which makes plans for open-cast mining for CIL subsidiaries.

In the name of reclamation, CIL is simply planting trees in the ‘overburden’, which consists of the top soil, sand and stones removed during excavation and dumped near the mine, to be used during ‘backfilling’. Once these trees are planted, getting the overburden back for refilling the voids becomes impossible as it now comes under the Forests Act, he said. A visit to abandoned CIL mines in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Maharashtra showed that such plantation had been carried out in the overburden, leaving the voids empty.

Even where these plantations are done, trees such as gulmohar and eucalyptus are planted. “These are of no use to the local populace,” said the CMPDI engineer. “Instead, if they plant vegetables and fruits, the area could prosper.”
Coal mining in India is carried out in two ways: open cast and underground. Most of the lands used for mining were acquired by CIL for a pittance. The main reasons for closure of mines relate to safety, insufficient reserves and complex geo-mining conditions.

Environmentalist Vandana Shiva said several mines have been abandoned and left unusable because there is no regulation by the central government. “The focus is on just meeting coal production targets,” she said. “Environmental and other issues take a backseat.”

While NC Jha, chairman, and Gautam Dhar, chief general manager, mining, of Coal India were not available for comment despite repeated calls and e-mails, R Mohan Das, director for personnel and IR, said he was not the right person to comment on the issue. Union coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal did not respond to repeated calls.

A copy of the minutes of the meeting of the coal secretary and five coal federations held on August 5, 2011, is with this newspaper. At the meeting, the trade unions raised the issue of reclamation/filling of exhausted mines. They also suggested that the land should be reclaimed and returned to the original owners.

To this, the secretary explained that reclamation of an exhausted mine is mandatory and financial provision has been made for the purpose through mine closure plans. He admitted that there could be some deficiency in implementation in some places.

Though CIL has proposed to develop certain abandoned coal mines, the process is yet to take off. As re-working these mines would entail fresh investment and call for specialised technological support, CIL is trying to promote joint venture firms to get the job done.