Fresh photographs of Jharia mine fire in Jharkhand State of India.
by
Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi
Fig. Jharia resembles a cremation ground at night. 
Fig: smoke coming out in main town
Fig. Cavities being formed on the surface of the Jharia townThe haunting inscription that marks the gates of hell in Dante’s Inferno could well be true for Jharia, located in Jharkhand in India. For, the underground fires that have been raging in the coalfields of this town over several decades are now beginning to engulf its thickly inhabited areas as well.
Such is the intensity of the fires that even a mid-summer sun pales in the smoky haze that they generate. After dusk, the flames take on morbid hues. “Jharia resembles a cremation ground at night”.
The fires have consumed about 42 million tones of India’s best coking coal.
There appears to be no permanent solution in sight. The only opinion seems to be cut out trenches to disconnect fire seams which have been identified. But this would require a huge investment. But the extent to which has flared up in Jharia makes dousing it an uphill task-particularly when all the prevailing conditions further fan the fire.
The only solution which is now seen is the “shifting of town”. This means that the relocation would affect the nearly 0.3 million population of Jharia, approximately 0.1 million houses and other buildings and prospering economy.
A coal seam fire or mine fire is the underground smouldering of a coal deposit, often in a coal mine. Such fires have economic, social and ecological impacts. They are often started by lightning, grass, or forest fires, and are particularly insidious because they continue to smoulder underground after surface fires have been extinguished, sometimes for many years, before flaring up and restarting forest and brush fires nearby. They propagate in a creeping fashion along mine shafts and cracks in geologic structures.
Coal fires are a serious problem because hazards to health and safety and the environment include toxic fumes, reigniting grass, brush, or forest fires, and subsidence of surface infrastructure such as roads, pipelines, electric lines, bridge supports, buildings and homes. Whether started by humans or by natural causes, coal seam fires continue to burn for decades or even centuries until either the fuel source is exhausted; a permanent groundwater table is encountered; the depth of the burn becomes greater than the ground’s capacity to subside and vent; or humans intervene. Because they burn underground, coal seam fires are extremely difficult and costly to extinguish, and are unlikely to be suppressed by rainfall.
as been observed i think to restrict the fire seams to follow to spread can also be an option to save further destruction
ReplyDeletethe fire seams which are in knowledge can be cutted by some physical methods. This lowers the extension of fire over area and also saturate fire to slow down
If the prevailing conditions only fan the flames, the huge coal fires have burned unchecked for decades, and the fires are spreading, growing larger, then the answer should be obvious. Let the coal fires grow naturally, as they are uncontrollable. With virtually inexhaustible supplies of coal, an atmosphere with unlimited oxygen, and widespread fire, the Jharia inferno is unstoppable, so not much use to fight those forces of nature we can't hope to control. Mine coal elsewhere where safe enough to do so, and do like the animals would. Move villages a little distance away, if the people want to. I think the "illegal" coal mining operations should also be more tolerated, because people have a right to seek gainful employment and work against being in poverty. How can poor people be stopped from carrying away hunks of coal, that aren't even being used or mined anyway?
ReplyDeleteWhile high population density there means up to a half million people may have to move?, still encourage large families worldwide so that far more people may experience life. People often have to move for other reasons, such as to put in a freeway, land flooded by a necessary dam. Allow people to have land elsewhere if they want to move. But they shouldn't have to. Let them stay if they want.
We humans can't really "control" everything of nature, but we should alter nature, where beneficial enough to us to do so. In the real scheme of things, how is the Jharia inferno any different than a mild predictable volcano, that similarly can't be stopped? Let nature or God deal with it.
Another reason to let the coal fires grow naturally, not trying to cut off the coal seams from more coal burning as the fires naturally spread, is firefighting efforts, bulldozing, that would require everybody to move out. But the people refuse to leave. For good reason I suspect. Efforts to fight the fires will fail, fires restart again, and the people's promise to get their land back, afterwards, would be broken. By not fighting the fires, the fires will move on eventually, subsiding and calming in the village area on their own, and people aren't forced to move, if they don't want to. It's a political mess, and often, it costs less to "do nothing," than to do something, in a poorly conceived plan, that doesn't work anyhow.
ReplyDeletewho wants to stay on the fire bed,my question is that,why and for what reasons the government is delaying the whole process of, when The Centre has already sanctioned Rs 14 crore for the first phase of shifting.my opinion is that if u r providing suffecient land/money to the people residing in jharia, they would be happy to relocate,but the bitter truth is that it is just not happening,because some money minting people dont want that to happen.my suggestion to the central govt, is that please take action, before its too late and u all prepare your script to console about the disaster.please come forward and save the lives of 4 lacs people, they are all INDIAN,and they possess all right to stay and live.
ReplyDeleterelating to the valuation, which is done by central govt.
According to the Rana panel, the cost of shifting people will be at Rs 20,000 crore. The Rana panel had also said, "It is profitable to shift people from Jharia, since coal worth Rs 60,000 crore is lying unutilised beneath the Jharia township."
if the govt., knows that its a profitable venture for them than for whom they are waiting.
If Mr.Sibu soren words are to be recalled which he said in august 2006,
ReplyDelete"About four lakh people of Jharia will be shifted to a new township near Dhanbad," Soren said.
"The Centre has already sanctioned Rs 14 crore for the first phase of shifting."
Claiming it to be one of the world's major evacuation drives, Soren said the shifting would be done in three phases in five years and he also assured people of adequate arrangements to be made in the new township.
Its March 2010,but still no progress at all,can the central government answer this question.
Dr Nitish,
ReplyDeleteThis is a really informative blog post on an issue few people in India know about, but should. I am an analyst in the financial services industry tracking coal and other minerals. Was wondering if I could talk to you sometime over the phone as I want to understand this issue better.
Regards
Ankur Kulshrestha
Mumbai