Odisha and coal

Introduction
Located on the northeast coast of India, the state of Odisha (formerly Orissa until 2011) is India's 11th most populous, with 41,947,358 people. If it were an independent country, it would rank 32nd, behind Tanzania and Kenya and ahead of Argentina and Poland.

Mining
Opencast and underground coal mining take place in Angul District and in Jharsuguda District, both located in the western part of the state. These mines produced 47.8 million tonnes of coal during 2001-2002. The largest mining company in Orissa was Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd, a subsidiary of Coal India.

Proposed coal plants
As shown in the map at the bottom of the page, proposed coal plants in Odisha are concentrated in three areas: (1) the Jharsuguda District, a mining area in northwest Odisha, (2) the Angul District, a mining area in central Odisha, and (3) the Cuttack/Bhubaneshwar area in eastern Odisha. Several other proposed projects are distributed across the state; three are located on or close to the coast, in Ganjam, Paradip, and Sakhigopal.

Table 2: Proposed coal plants in Odisha
Columns may be sorted by clicking on the headers.''

September 2011: Greenpeace calls for moratorium on new coal projects in Singrauli (Madhya Pradesh)
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.

Proposed coal-to-liquids projects
In March 2009 the Indian government announced that it had awarded two coal blocks for the development of two different coal-to-liquids projects in the state of Orissa. These are:


 * the north Arkhapal coal block to Strategic Energy Technology Systems Ltd, a 50:50 joint venture between Tata Power and Sasol Synfuels International, the international synfuels subsidiary of Sasol. It is projected that the $10 billion. plant would produce 80,000 barrels of crude oil a day. In early 2010 Orissa's Chief minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters that "though we have not identified the location, the proposed plant will be somewhere in the state." It was also reported that the coal would come from the Srirampur area in Talcher. The Business Standard also stated that the project "requires 3,000 acre of land for its main plant, additional land would be required for setting up coal mines, benefication plants, coal handling plants, water reservoirs, power plants and a township" and would involved the establishment of a 1600 megawatt power station. The newspaper also reported that the joint venture was "yet to make a formal application" for the plant the company was pressing the state government "to provide adequate facilities for early commissioning of the project." (See Srirampur Coal-to-Liquids Project for more details).


 * the Ramchandi block to Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) is projected to produce 80,000 barrels per day will use the German Lurgi technology. The plant is proposed to be established at Kishore Nagar in Angul district of Orissa. Waste coal from the washery is proposed to be used as fuel for a 1,350MW power station. (See Kishore Nagar Coal-to-Liquids Project for more details).

Citizen Groups

 * Environmental Protection Group, Orissa

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
 * Madhya Pradesh and coal
 * Maharashtra 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.