![]() ![]() Land acquisition contracts do not always proceed as planned, triggering loss of livelihood, worse employment conditions and reduced incomes.ĭevelopment projects such as the construction of dams, industrial townships, expansion of coal mines and growth of infrastructure and transport projects have displaced more than 100,000 people since the 1950s. Other areas near mines become unproductive. Despite the risks, displaced people still encroach into the peripheral areas of mines to scavenge coal.Īs mining companies buy up more land, there is less for farming. Open-cast mines operate near residential areas on the city boundary. The hunger for coal means once-productive farmland is swallowed up by mines. Though the government, mining company and development authority sometimes address the issues of subsidence and mine fires, it is difficult to implement checks and controls at every mine site. Land use development now falls under the remit of the Asansol Durgapur Development Authority which works closely with Eastern Coalfields Limited and the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited Regional Institute in Asansol. The hunger for coal means once-productive farmland is swallowed up by mines… Despite the risks, displaced people still encroach into the peripheral areas of mines to scavenge coal.Įnvironmental measures and subsidence control schemes were outlined in a 2009 Master Plan. Safety concerns for collieries, towns and surrounding areas only surfaced since the nationalisation of coal mines in India in the 1970s. Mining practices have been haphazard, unplanned and unscientific.Īs a result, the urban centres in the coal region are threatened by unstable ground and land subsidence. The region, in the Raniganj Coalfield of West Bengal, at the fringe of the Chota Nagpur Plateau in Eastern India, has been a hub of commercial coal production since 1840.Īsansol, then a railway hub, became the focus for the growth in the coal producing region and supported Kolkata as a secondary enclave and home to migrant workers. Image: Nit1994, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsĪsansol owes its development to the growth of coal mines, but its sustainability as an extractive town now faces ecological limits while other mining towns in the area face a long battle ahead to become environmentally liveable and sustainable.Ĭoal mining represented the new modern economy of Bengal under which the region flourished during colonial times. Picking at the seams of mines becomes the only way to eke out a living for many people in the coal mining towns of West Bengal.
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