Heart Broken:

“There is coal underneath the land all around this area. Overnight people are becoming crorepati.”

I turned around to see a podgy man, a local, talking with a flourish to one of his co-passengers. I stared at him long and hard trying to fathom what exactly he understood of this coal business. I was traveling in a rickety ‘delux’ bus from Ambikapur to Bilaspur. The bus was crossing the thick Sal forests of the beautiful Hasdeo-Arand in north Chhattisgarh. I heard the mention of coal from another group of men sitting in front of me. Our bus was now crossing a bridge over one of the most beautiful, transparent and sparklingly clean river I have seen in a long time, the Hasdeo river. Now-a-days most rivers in the plains are either littered or are dry due to damming. Staring out the window at the rain-soaked dark green world outside, my heart grew heavier by the minute.

Parts of Hasdeo-Arand Forests

Coal is the new diamond across Central India and everybody is waiting for a turn to grab this treasure. In the fairly small town of Ambikapur, one cannot find a room in a hotel if you do not book in advance. The unfortunate part is that coal in this region is found just underneath dense virgin forests where elephants and bears live. To maximize profit, 90% of coal mining in India is done through open-pit mining since it’s easier and cheaper to remove layers from the top. Underground mining requires heavy investment in really good technology to maximize extraction. And we all are aware that Indians will do anything to cut corners. The thing with coal and why it is called ‘dirty’ is that it doesn’t stop with coal mining. Along with it comes ancillary industries like coal washing, power plants because transporting coal to larger distance is expensive, dams across rivers because coal based power plants are water guzzlers, rail lines to ferry coal (sometimes), dumping of fly ash, cement plants which uses fly ash etc. The devastation wrecked hence by coal mining in a forested area is now for you to imagine.  

     

Coal burning and releasing toxic smoke in Korba

A women walks in a coal mining affected region in Jharkhand

We have always known that when it comes to such industries, the government and the companies alike have scant regard for forests and wildlife. But this deep apathy also extends to the indigenous communities who have been living in these forests for generations. Despite laws which allow them legal rights over land and transparency and fairness during compensation, the companies have used loopholes, taken advantage of these communities and their inability to understand the business or laws, and numerous crooked means to get what they want. In Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, land is being acquired without notification and fudging signatures of Gram Sabhas. Compensation in Chhattisgarh is as low as Rs. 10lakhs per acre of fertile land and since average land-holding of families is 2-4 acres, nobody so far has become ‘crorepati’ as that man in the bus wanted others to believe.

In Jharkhand where political instability is the norm rather than exception, it has been a free-for-all so far. Three blocks in Hazaribag district with roughly between 200-300 villages are under ‘land grab’. It is being said that no village will be spared. Land is being acquired for coal mining, power plants, displacement due to dams, resettlement of displaced villages etc. Prime agricultural land with multi-cropping is earmarked for industries. Compensation varies on the basis of whims and fancies of companies and is known to differ from Rs. 21,000 per acre to Rs.71,000 per acre of fertile land. There are cases where two brothers from the same village have got different compensation on the basis of who has paid what amount to the village agents.

Greenpeace India has taken up the cause of Mahan (in MP), Jharkhand media is frail in portraying the actual picture, Chhattigarh media is controlled by the state government, hence nobody tells the actual tales happening there. But if anybody has the ability to take a bird’s eye view of the situation and understand the cumulative impact, the apathy, the utter disregard for wildlife and destruction of natural resources, and the injustice perpetrated by all involved towards the communities is so humongous that it can blow the mind. At least it blew my mind.

A forest village earmarked for full displacement due to mining in Chhattisgarh

While I listened to the conversations on coal around me in that rickety bus, kilometers and kilometers of the forest, all earmarked for land diversion, flew past my eyes. I love these forests of Chhattisgarh, second only to my love of the Himalayas. They are ancient, dark and deep. They have a living breathing soul. And in a few years time, they will cease to exist along with all the beings inside them.

At one point in time during my visits to the villages inside these forests, I got down the car, walked inside the forest and said sorry to the trees there for humanity’s misdeeds. I said sorry about the fact that I, despite loving them so much, cannot do anything to save them. Not a leaf stirred when I turned my back. Something told me they already knew their future.    

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Save the forests of Mahan by signing the Greenpeace campaign: http://www.junglistan.org/?utm_source=side_bar&utm_medium=image&utm_term=020514_0302&utm_campaign=Forests&txtArea=side_bar