JHARIA COALFIELD TODAY, TOMORROW AND THEREAFTER
The mining in the last 105 years or so has made major changes in the overall social and environmental scenario of the coalfield and today this is probably one of the most polluted coalfield in the country. Some important features of the coalfield are outlined below.
- The coalfield has more than 70 mine fires spread over an area of about 17 sq km. These fires are not only polluting the atmosphere but are also not permitting proper mining of coal seams underneath and in their vicinity. In the past few decades the coalfield has seen adequate mitigation of a few fires. Noteworthy is the management of Jogta fire. According to a BCCL estimate made in 1991 the mine fires have affected half of their 90 mines/collieries and had already consumed about 40 million tonne of coal. The fires had isolated about 1.8 billion tonne of coal from the possible recovery.
- A sizable area, about 35 sq km, has subsided in the coalfield. It is becoming difficult to find areas for caving in the underground mines and mining with hydraulic stowing is posing its well known problems of slow production, increased costs, and constraints of availability of sand and other suitable stowing solids. Some of the subsidences in the recent past have not only damaged the surface properties but also have caused social problems. Some portions of Jharia town have been said to be facing the threat form subsidence and backfilling has been done in the underground workings near Bata More for stabilizing underground openings. The road connecting Dhanbad town with Jharia town subsided in 2001 in a portion and in future many such collapses may take place causing problems to the traffic movement in the coalfield.
- There are more than 120 urban and rural settlements in the coalfield belonging to the coal mining companies and others. The total area occupied by these settlements in the coalfield in the year 1993 was over 30%. Although the provisions in the Coal Bearing Act and the rules of MADA are meant to regulate the construction work over the coal/mineral bearing areas many new constructions are coming up every year in the coalfield.
- The total population living over the coal bearing area in the different settlements is about 11 lakh and most of the settlements are unplanned. Some of the settlements are quite close to the fire areas and many houses/hutments have been built over subsided areas. The population density of the coalfield is rather very high, i.e., 2,400 persons/sq km.
- The coalfield has a vast network of railway lines for the transport of coal which connects Eastern Railway to South Eastern Railway. Some experiments have been successfully conducted for the extraction of the coal seams from underneath and in the vicinity of the railway lines and other surface properties.
- On a rough estimate about 7,000 million tonne of coal reserves are blocked under various surface properties, etc. and about 1,800 million tonne are blocked below fires.
- The coalfield also has a number of water bodies, i.e., rivers, jores, nallahs, etc.
- On the mining front the coalfield has both opencast as well as underground mines of various shapes and sizes.
- Due to multiplicity of coal seams in the coalfield and complex mining situations appropriate long term plans for exploitation of the coal reserves have not been developed.
- It has been reported in the EMP of the coalfield prepared by Norwest Mine Services Limited in 1997 that the entire coalfield has been disturbed by human activities for a long period of over 100 years. The core area has been severely disturbed during by the surface and underground mining activities and more recently by other industrial activities. The northern part of the coalfield has been more severely disturbed by mining, while the southern part has less disturbances.
- Most of the core and buffer zone of the coalfield has been denuded of the forest cover and suffers from excessive soil erosions.
- The largest land use in the coalfield has been dry-land agriculture and the integrated paddy agriculture was only in a small area.
- On the basis of the soil characteristics the approximately 47% of the core and buffer area can be designated as good cultivable land and 36% as moderately good cultivable land.
- Ground water in the coalfield has been disturbed by the mining activities. The ground water in the coalfield is supposed to occur in its multi-aquifer system, but due to mining the aquifers have been disturbed and their yield has been considerably decreased over the years over and adjacent to the mines.