Madhya Pradesh and coal

Introduction
With a population of over 75 million people, the interior state of Madhya Pradesh is India's second largest by area (roughly the size of Poland or Vietnam) and India's sixth most populous. If it were an independent country, its population would be among the world's top twenty, ranking just behind Germany and Iran and ahead of Turkey, Congo, Thailand, France, the UK, Italy, South Africa, and South Korea.

Proposed coal plants in Madhya Pradesh (map)
Proposed coal plants are especially concentrated in the Singrauli district in Madhya Pradesh (see map at the bottom of the page), where some of the most intensive coal development in India has produced devastating impacts. A 2011 report by the Bretton Woods Project, "No fairy tale: Singrauli, India, still suffering years after World Bank coal investments," describes the Singrauli district in Madhya Pradesh and Sonbhadra district in Uttar Pradesh as "Once a densely forested region, the area is now a conglomeration of 11 open coal mines, and seven coal-fired power plants, with proposals to expand this to 17 more, all in an area of 1,800 square kilometres. Furthermore, a jumble of pipes mar the land for miles transporting ash, known to have carcinogenic properties, from existing coal-fired thermal power plants to massive open ponds, where it pours out day and night." Another concentration is along Highway 78, farther to the west.

Proposed coal plants in Madhya Pradesh (table)
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Major Indian Coal Companies
The World Coal Institute states that "almost all of India's 565 [coal] mines are operated by Coal India and its subsidiaries, which account for about 86% of the country's coal production. Current policy allows private mines only if they are ‘captive' operations, i.e. they feed a power plant or factory. Most of the coal production in India comes from opencast mining, contributing over 83% of the total production. Coal India employs some 460,000 people and is one of the largest five companies in India."

The USGS estimates coal production from major wholly Coal India owned subsidiaries in Madhya Pradesh as being:
 * Northern Coalfields Ltd which operates in Indian Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and has an annual capacity of 24 million tonnes;
 * South Eastern Coalfields Ltd. which operates in Madhya Pradesh and has an annual capacity of 36 million tonnes;
 * Western Coalfields Ltd. which operates in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and has an annual capacity of 18 million tonnes;

Another major coal mining operation in Madhya Pradesh is Singareni Collieries Co. Ltd., India’s oldest coal miner, and the second largest Indian coal miner after Coal India. SCCL operates 13 opencast and 42 underground mines in the Godavari River Valley, in southern India (Andhra Pradesh), producing 52-million tons a year of coal, as of 2011. SCCL is 50% owned by the Andhra Pradesh State government and 50% by the Indian government. In 2006, it had an annual capacity of 18 million tonnes.

November 2012: Woman immolates herself in protest against land acquisition for Katni power station
A Katni district villager, Sunia Bai, died one day after set herself on fire on Diwali day in protest over land acquisition for Katni power station. Following the self-immolation, police responded to a protest by residents of Bujbuja and Dakaria villages with a lathicharge, seizing the body. According to villagers, the police had threatened to bulldoze the home of Sunia Bai and her husband Chhaka Gadari. In addition, police arrested 12 villagers as well as former Janata Dal (United) MLA Saroj Bachchan Nayak. Protesters demanded that land acquired for the project be returned to farmers. Farmers also built funeral pyres on their land and warmed that they would immolate themselves if forcibly evicted. A second villager threatened with eviction, Pyare Lai Choudhary, was admitted to the hospital after drinking poison in a suicide attempt.

September 2011: Greenpeace calls for moratorium on new coal projects in Singrauli
After releasing the 2011 report, "Singrauli: The Coal Curse," Greenpeace called for a moratorium on new coal mining activities in the Singrauli region, based on the findings of a Greenpeace team in the region that the projects "deprive the livelihood of displaced people and ruin their health." According to Priya Pillai, the communities are living in an atmosphere which is full of coal dust: "The people gave up their land for power that doesn't reach them."

In Singrauli, the Mahan, Chhatrasal, Amelia and Dongri Tal II forest blocks, which were earlier categorised as 'no go', are awaiting approval for coal mining from the government. Officially, 5,872.18 hectares of forest in the Singrauli region had been marked for non-forest use after the Forest Conservation Act came into force in 1980. According to the divisional forest officer of Singrauli, another 3,229 hectares have been proposed for such activities.

Singrauli is all set to become the country's "power capital" with a number of power plants coming up in Madhya Pradesh, apart from the nine open cast coal mines which are going to start production by 2014. The combined investment of all these projects is estimated to be over Rs 1 lakh crore. m/channels/cities/regions/visakhapatnam/protest-hinduja-power-plant-311 "Protest at Hinduja power plant,"] Deccan Chronicle, December 13, 2011

August 2007: 6,000 people face displacement in Madhya Pradesh
Five villages -- Sidhikhurg, Sidhikala, Tiyara, Jhanjhi, and Harrhawa -- covering approximately 3,000 acres and with a population of 10,000 people are slated for displacement by the Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project in the far western corner of Madhya Pradesh, a state located in central India. The project will use coal from mines located 20 to 25 kilometers away, in Mohar, Amlori, and Chatrasal. The project is sponsored by Reliance Power.

Major coal companies

 * Coal India - The World Coal Institute states that "almost all of India's 565 [coal] mines are operated by Coal India and its subsidiaries, which account for about 86% of the country's coal production." The USGS estimates coal production from major wholly Coal India owned subsidiaries as including Northern Coalfields Ltd, which operates in Indian Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and has an annual capacity of 24 million tonnes.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * India and coal
 * Andhra Pradesh and coal
 * Bihar and coal
 * Chhattisgarh and coal
 * Gujarat and coal
 * Haryana and coal
 * Jharkhand and coal
 * Karnataka and coal
 * Maharashtra and coal
 * Orissa and coal
 * Punjab and coal
 * Rajasthan and coal
 * Tamil Nadu and coal
 * Uttar Pradesh and coal
 * West Bengal and coal

External Articles

 * "Sierra Club India Trip" Sierra Club, April 12, 2011
 * Jeff Biggers, "India's Coal Rush: Interview With Jharkhand Leader Bulu Imam" League of India, March 6, 2011
 * "Jharkhand: A Disappearing World" Panos Pictures, accessed May 2011.
 * Srinivas Krishnaswamy, "SHIFTING OF GOAL POSTS: Rural Electrification in India: A Progress Report," Vasudha Foundation, March, 2010
 * Jason Miklian and Scott Carney, "Fire in the Hole: How India's economic rise turned an obscure communist revolt into a raging resource war," Foreign Policy, September / October 2010
 * Abhay Singh and Pratik Parija, "Coal India Seeks Faster Approvals, Imports, Overseas Miners", Bloomberg, July 1, 2009.
 * Ministry of Coal, "Coal Mining in India: The Past", Ministry of Coal website, accessed June 2008.
 * Ministry of Coal, 2007-2008 Annual Report", Government of India Ministry of Coal. (Large Pdf)
 * International Energy Agency, "Coal in India in 2005", International Energy Agency website, accessed June 2008.
 * U.S. Geological Survey, India 1994-2006
 * "India", World Coal Institute, undated, accessed June 2008.
 * Country Profile: Focus on India", Ecoal, World Coal Institute, July 2006.
 * Tony Herbert and Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, "Coal Sector Loans and Displacement of Indigenous Populations: Lessons from Jharkhand" Economic and Political Weekly, June 5, 2004

External References

 * "India: National Ambient Air Quality Standards," India Central Pollution Control Board, published 1984 and 1988.