Burning Mines in India

Delhi, India – Rajghat coal fired power plant (Three plants including this plant were shut down since 2015 by Indian government to reduce pollution level.). Coal is still the one of the cheapest fuels available to industry but is the main source of the world’s CO2 emissions. As the world’s power needs have increased, so has the total global production of coal, nearly doubling over the last 20 years according to the World Coal Association.
**Photo Credit: Kibae Park – i tell a story.com**

India is the fourth biggest coal producer in the world. Located in Jharia, Jharkhand in the east of India, Jharia coalfield is the biggest coal district that takes up 32% of the total coal production in India. Many open cast mines (노천 탄광) are located here, which means that coal is located close to the earth’s surface. (譯註: 노천탄광 – 지표면 아래 얕은 곳에 석탄이 매장돼 있어 지하 갱도를 파 석탄을 채굴하지 않는 탄광)

(Photographs by Kibae Park – i tell a story.com)

**Jharia, India – A coal worker at the coal fields in Jharia**
**Photo Credit: Kibae Park – i tell a story.com**

**Jharia, India – View of coal mines**
**Photo Credit: Kibae Park – i tell a story.com**

**Jharia, India – View of coal mines in Jharia**
**Photo Credit: Kibae Park – i tell a story.com**

Fire in open cast mines can continue to burn for decades or even for centuries, resulting in a phenomenon called a coal bed fire (석탄불). This phenomenon was first discovered in Jharia in 1916. Since then, the fire has been burning for almost a century, consuming approximately 37 million tonnes of coal. This has led to land subsidence (지반 침식) and severe water and air pollution. The number of coal bed fires began to grow in the 1970s, which was caused by not spontaneous combustion (자연 발화) but excessive mining. This would naturally destroy the inhabitants’ habitats and basis of life. Many residents are worried that their homes might disappear in an instant. To make matters worse, most inhabitants are suffering from tuberculosis and respiratory diseases (폐/호흡기 질환).

**Jharia, India – Underground fires have been burning in the open cast mines of Jharia more than a hundred years now.**
**Photo Credit: Kibae Park – i tell a story.com**

According to a news report by freelance reporter Ayaskant Das in Jharia on January 13, 2022, the Indian government and Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) introduced a master plan in 2009 through the Jharia Rehabilitation and Development Authority (JRDA). The plan offered compensation to affected households and encouraged the residents to move to a safer region. As of 2021, however, the master plan has been concluded and not a lot of the residents have actually moved. This is because the amount of compensation is not enough for them to move and settle in another region.

**Jharia, India – The village of Dhanwudih in the centre of open cast mines near Jharia has been devastated by underground fires.**
**Photo Credit: Kibae Park – i tell a story.com**

**Jharia, India** – **A local villager of Dhanwudih in the centre of open cast mines near Jharia tells a story about their lives in the devastated village**.
**Photo Credit: Kibae Park – i tell a story.com**

**Jharia India – Coal workers in Jharia**. **Even urban townships like Dhanbad and Jharia report high cases of tuberculosis and respiratory diseases traced by health professionals to air pollution caused by mining and other industrial activities**.
**Photo Credit: Kibae Park – i tell a story.com**

The surface temperature of the mining town in Jharia can reach up to 70°C, making it hard for people to breathe and sweat excessively. The towns are covered with the smell of gas and smoke. Inside the burning mines, the residents mine coal with bare hands standing barefoot. This is how they make a living in the open cast mines. Regardless of gender and age, everyone works in the burning coal site starting in early morning. They mine coal with metal wires, pick up and put it in a basket with bare hands. They mine all day long and sell it in a nearby city to make only about $2 a day.