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Coal India un-Limited

20 images Created 31 Mar 2011

My first close encounter with coal came in 1999. That August, on one of my trips across India, I spent some time in Uttar Pradesh. I decided to take the short bus ride from Varanasi to Chandasi, a small town that hosts what is considered the biggest coal depot in Asia. I was dropped off at Mughal Sarai train station, about two kilometers from the depot. Many of the trains that passed through the place transported coal, which is brought in from Jharkhand and West Bengal and is then distributed to other parts of the country. Everywhere, hundreds of men and women shoveled and carried coal onto and off of trucks. The air was thick with dust; like a layer of delicate black velvet, fine particles of coal settled over everything—roads, shops, homes and people. Nothing and no one was spared.
I spent a few days in Chandasi, meeting people and taking photographs, but I knew there was much more to see of India’s coal saga, and that the impact of the industry was most stark nearer to the mines themselves.
The labourers I met, both men and women, were mostly from migrant families that had migrated here over half a century ago. They worked almost constantly through the day, but during lulls they would sleep out on jute cots beneath a livid sun. The men, especially, drank heavily every night. On slow days, I often sat with resting workers, sharing cups of tea while they told me about their lives. Sometimes the conversation went nowhere, and we would just sit quietly. I’m sure that they wondered why I spent so much time there.
On that trip, and on a few brief trips back over the next two years, the conditions I saw at East Bussuria and elsewhere were desperate. Jharkhand boasts of over 72,000 million tons of coal—29 percent of India’s reserves—and approximately 32 million tonnes of this are extracted each year. In Jharia, a major mining town about eight kilometers from Dhanbad, they were first started by private mining companies who came to the area about a hundred years ago, and are now a constant of life.
Seven years later, in September 2010, I returned to Dhanbad, wondering if anything had changed. Little had. Living conditions in the villages had not improved. More land stood denuded, and underground fires had spread farther still, causing severe damage to more homes.
I returned to Dhanbad again in January of 2018 to further document changes here as extraction of coal has shifted from underground mining to open-cast. A sense of urgency prevails among communities around these coal mines.
On all my visits, a sense of menace attended me through much of my work. One day on my trip in 2010, as I walked by a mine taking pictures, a motorcyclist, dressed in a nondescript shirt and trousers, stopped me to ask what I was doing there. I gave him some vague response. When I asked him who he was, he replied “Vigilance,” and rode away.

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  • Debris and rock from open pit mining forms the new landscape..India is the third largest producer of coal in the world and accounts for over 60% of India's energy requirements. It is estimated that the coal reserves are likely to last over a 100 years..03/2003
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK001.jpg
  • Communities living along the mining belt rely on coal for fuel and heat. Many sift through dumpsites to retrieve coal. They climb down the dangerous steep slopes in the hope of gathering a few baskets of coal for their daily consumption...09/2010
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK002.jpg
  • Coal mines litter the town of Dhanbad. Coal is now extracted using the surface mining method thereby destroying the landscape. 09/2010
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK003.jpg
  • Police patrol the coal mining belt looking for illegal mines..3/2003
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK004.jpg
  • Contract worker are paid by the day and many are employed to load coal into trucks for private companies..India is the third largest producer of coal in the world and accounts for over 60% of India's energy requirements. It is estimated that the coal reserves are likely to last over a 100 years..03/2003
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK005.jpg
  • Coal processing plant..03/2003
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK006.jpg
  • A young boy in a coal mining community. Pollution from mining has led to an increase in respiratory diseases among the  communities..03/2003.
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK007.jpg
  • Coal is smoked to release  ash so that it can then burn at higher temperatures. Burning coal releases heavy metals..03/2003
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK008.jpg
  • Contract worker are paid by the day and many are employed to load coal into trucks for private companies..India is the third largest producer of coal in the world and accounts for over 60% of India's energy requirements. It is estimated that the coal reserves are likely to last over a 100 years..03/2003
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK009.jpg
  • Naturally occuring coal has the tendency to burn spontaneously and can continue burning for years. And in other areas, underground fires started more than 90 years ago when private companies began mining there. Many communities have abandoned their homes and relocated to less polluted areas..03/2003
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK010.jpg
  • Daily wage labourers returning home from work. Contract worker are paid by the day and many are employed to load coal into trucks for private companies..India is the third largest producer of coal in the world and accounts for over 60% of India's energy requirements. It is estimated that the coal reserves are likely to last over a 100 years..03/2003
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK011.jpg
  • Coal mining community..India is the third largest producer of coal in the world and accounts for over 60% of India's energy requirements. It is estimated that the coal reserves are likely to last over a 100 years..03/2003
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK012.jpg
  • Women and men from Bussiria village are employed as daily wage labourers. Their days are spent loading  trucks and train wagons with coal..03/2003
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK013.jpg
  • Debris and rock from open pit mining forms the new landscape..India is the third largest producer of coal in the world and accounts for over 60% of India's energy requirements. It is estimated that the coal reserves are likely to last over a 100 years..03/2003
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK014.jpg
  • Underground miners. The state of Jharkhand in northeast India has been the epicenter of India's coal industry for the past 100 years. The state accounts for 29 percent of India's coal reserves. In Jharkhand state, there is a reserve of over 72,000 million tonnes of coal and approximately 80 million tonnes is extracted each year..03/2003
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK015.jpg
  • Naturally occuring coal has the tendency to burn spontaneously and can continue burning for years. And in other areas, underground fires started more than 90 years ago when private companies began mining there. Many communities have abandoned their homes and relocated to less polluted areas..03/2003
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK016.jpg
  • Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK017.jpg
  • Communities living along the mining belt rely on coal for fuel and heat. Many sift through dumpsites to retrieve coal. They climb down the dangerous steep slopes in the hope of gathering a few baskets of coal for their daily consumption..09/2010
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK018.jpg
  • Bussuria village.  .India is the third largest producer of coal in the world and accounts for over 60% of India's energy requirements. It is estimated that the coal reserves are likely to last over a 100 years..03/2003
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK019.jpg
  • Open pit mining or surface mining has become more common way to extract coal. Most are not filled back in rendering the land useless and moving farming comunities further away..India is the third largest producer of coal in the world and accounts for over 60% of India's energy requirements. It is estimated that the coal reserves are likely to last over a 100 years..03/2003
    Srinivas Kuruganti_Coal India SK020.jpg
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