OneWorld.net (U.S.)

At least 132 families in Darlipali village in the coal belt of Orissa don’t want to stay in their village any more — they want to be relocated and leave the lands they have tilled for generations. What’s driving them out is serious pollution — the village, in Jharsuguda district, is buried deep in coalmine territory. The problem is that pollution continues and the rehabilitation they want is not forthcoming.

Darlipali is mined: it is surrounded by Lakhanpur Open Cast Mine, Belpahar Open Cast Mine and Lilari Open Cast Mine — all owned by Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (mcl) — from three sides. The company says the mines produce 44,000 metric tonnes (mt) of coal every day, worth Rs 2 crore. Trade unions and villagers, however, estimate the extraction to be to the tune of 56,700 mt per day, worth Rs 3 crore.

Being deep in mine territory is not exactly the most pleasant of locations and a desire to leave not inexplicable. The area is littered with coal dumps and consequently enveloped in a thick layer of coal dust throughout the year. The waterbodies are contaminated by coal dust and oil, which creates a shortage of drinking water. “The mines have swallowed up the only source of drinking water in the village, a 3.24 hectare kata (a traditional water body),” says Bhukli Oram, a villager. Five tube wells have so far been installed in the village but only one is functional, just about. The villagers have to dig pits along the bank of the Lilari nullah for drinking water. A pond called tisco dhuda (named after the nearby abandoned tisco mines) — the only place to bathe other than Lilari nullah — is also polluted.

Out of options What this adds up to is that flora and fauna has been badly affected — meaning agriculture has become much more uncertain and less rewarding and other activities like rearing goats or cattle more precarious. “Earlier each family used to have at least two to three goats and hens, besides cows and bullocks. Now a rough count estimates around 20 goats, 50 hens and 10 cows in the whole village, that too in a miserable condition,” says Pradeep Karali, sarpanch of Sarandamal gram panchayat, under which Darlipali falls.

The Lilari nullah — a perennial stream that flows through Darlipali to join the Ib, a tributary of the Mahanadi — is also highly polluted. A study by the state pollution control board says: “The Mahanadi basin, particularly the Ib valley area, has a rich mining potential of coal. There are 10 coalmines which discharge around 33,065 kilolitres per day of wastewater (into) this river during the monsoon and pose a serious threat for the effluent contains heavy metals and sulphur compounds.” However, A K Murthy, area environment officer, mcl, refutes the report, arguing that coalmines do not pollute rivers. The water has turned black and greasy because thousands of trucks are washed in this nullah. “And we don’t have any control over these trucks,” he says.

The villagers don’t buy this. “Pollution has afflicted our lives so deeply that even the little compensation we get is hardly of any help to us,” says Prabhakara Pradhan, an unskilled labourer at mcl’s Budhijam mines. Pradhan got a job but was thrown out after he developed health problems. He is not the only one. “Cases of respiratory and skin diseases are rampant in this area,” says a doctor at the Orissa Power Generation Corporation hospital.

SOURCE: Centre for Science and Environment