Gobar Times Magazine (Environment for Kids Monthly) - Centre for Science and Environment

Gobar times: Environment for Beginners

C O V E R S T O R Y

We wish it did’nt too. But the fact is, India's richest mineral-bearing regions are those which hold its lushest forests, along with its poorest people. Any efforts to extract minerals from these lands, therefore, results in a complete upheaval in the lives of millions of Arvind Tuppos…

But to understand their stories better, one must gauge the actual scale of mining activites that are currently on in full swing in India.

India mining

Today, India produces as many as 89 minerals: 4 fuel, 11 metallic, 52 non-metallic industrial and 22 minor minerals. The metallic production includes iron-ore, copper-ore, chromite and/or zinc concentrates, gold, manganese ore, bauxite, and lead concentrates. Amongst the non-metallic minerals, more than 90 per cent of the aggregate value is shared by limestone, magnesite, dolomite, barytes, kaolin, gypsum, apatite and phosphorite, steatite and fluorite. There are 2970 reporting mines (excluding atomic minerals, petroleum (crude), natural gas (utilised) and minor minerals) as of 2005-06.
India is the world’s largest producer of mica blocks and mica splitting. It ranks third in production of coal and lignite, barytes and chromite, fourth in iron ore, sixth in bauxite and manganese ore, tenth in aluminium and eleventh in crude steel in the world.

India is literally a mine of treasure!

Mining forms the bedrock of industrial development, and boosts the economy. The total value of mineral production, in 2000-2001, was Rs 5,68,070 million. But this development has come at a cost.

Losing ground

Currently, the total land (including forests) leased out for mining (for coal, metallic and non-metallic minerals) in the country stands at 7,54,861.23hectares. So, not only forest tracts, (like Arvind Tuppo’s homeground), but agricultural lands, too, are converted for mining. But what difference does an area of 0.75 million ha make for a country like India that spreads across 328.7 million ha? Well, in India with the second biggest population in the world, land is at a premium. Almost all land in India supports livelihoods. Even the ‘waste lands’ support local communities (mostly the poorest) in some way or the other. In this scenario, diverting even 0.2 per cent of the country’s land for mining, translates to displacing millions of people.

Left landless

I have already told you how the advent of mining affects the lives of tribal families like Arvind’s. Similarly, when agricultural land is converted for mining, it changes the lives of the farmers forever. This is how it happens…
The cement industry is developing at a rapid pace in states like Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. This has forced the agricultural communities to move away from their traditional lifestyles. Thousands of rice farmers have now become contract labourers in these cement plants. The rehabilitation packages offered to them can hardly make up for the trauma of a total disruption of livelihood.

Ecological catastrope

Ecologically, the shift has equally shattering repercussions. Land that could have sustained farming for many years gets converted into deep quarries.
Each stage of the mining cycle — from exploration to mine closure — has an impact on ecosystems.

DESTRUCTION LADDER!

1. Exploration

This does not only act as a gateway to the mineral rich land, but it also increases the access of future mining projects to ecologically sensitive areas.

2. Excavation

This step involves removal of earth, rocks and soil, and the standing vegetation along with the biomass and nutrients it contains. This disrupts the ecological balance of the area, and leaves the land vulnerable to the forces of nature to act upon it. Soil erosion caused by wind and water is just one face of it.

3. Extraction

There are two processes of mining — open cast and underground. Open cast mining is the removal of the topsoil, earth, rock, and other materials (called overburden)- -to gain access to the ore seam, which is drilled or blasted for mineral extraction. This destroys vegetation, soil and habitat completely. And in underground mining tunnels, are dug directly to reach the mineral ore. This makes the land void. And when the rock overburden can no longer be supported, deep cracks open up. Eventually the surface collapses, which causes extensive damage to agricultural land, buildings and transport networks.

4. Closure

This happens after all the digging has been done. Internationally, experience with mine closure has been poor and mining companies have left behind ‘ugly footprints’ — ghost towns, gigantic craters and waste-choked waterways — for governments and local communities to deal with. Mines that are to be closed should be filled with sand (sand flushing) and grouted with cement to stabilise the underground voids. But this does not happen. For instance, on paper, Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), in Jharkhand, has filled mines with some 50 million tonnes (MT) of sand. But insiders say that less than one-fourth of this amount may have actually reached the pits. The outcome is major accidents like the one that occurred on September 10, 1995, when the walls of a mine collapsed after being weakened by fires. More than 60 miners lost their lives in the mishap.
The result is obvious: environment degradation and waste generation.
Yes, apart from directly wrecking the environment, mining creates a mammoth problem — waste.

Next page

1 2 3