It is found that in Odisha, hundreds of acres of land in abandoned mines has been laying waste. After extraction of minerals, mines become abandoned. Mining does not mean unending loss of land. The existing abandoned mines should be refilled and developed for its productive use. The regained land created out of refiling must be allocated on lease to prospective farmers inclusive of small and marginal farmers of different social groups for agriculture and other ancillary activities which will boost production and self-employment in mining affected areas.
Though there is provision under Minerals Conservation and Development Rules, 1988, to fill-up the mined out areas and to further make it productive but in reality there has been no monitoring of the provision. The rules say about the removal and utilisation of the top soil and reclamation and restoration of land before conclusion of operation. But as observed the rules are being violated. As a consequence of this there has been an increase in waste land.
Privately it is estimated that the mining waste land reclamation would have made available thousands acres of land in mining areas of the State especially in the coal mining areas of Angul and Jharasuguda districts. The Mahanadi CoalFields Limited has started a land reclamation programme but it has not created the desired impact. The Ministry Coal and Mines has disclosed that as of 2021 there are about 270 discontinued /closed /abandoned coal mines in the country and the MCL has two such mines. Odisha has 25 per cent of the coal reserve of the country as estimated by the Geological Survey of India. Currently, mining operation is taking place in areas of Talcher, Chhendipada and Kaniha blocks in Angul, Lakhanpur and Brajarajnagar in Jharasuguda, Hemagiri block in Sundargarh and Talalabira of Sambalpur owned by Hindalco, Birla. MCL, a subsidiary company of Coal India Limited under the Union Ministry of Coal, is the major lease holder of seven underground and 16 open cast mines in an area of about 20, 000 hectares. Besides, several mines undergo operation through a number of joint ventures. The growing demand for thermal power will have devastating consequences in the coal bearing areas of the State as open cast mining will have a huge demand of land for mining operation which includes not just mining but for other related purposes like dumping, infrastructure, office, residence and other commercial purposes.
The laws like Coal Bearing Areas (Acquisition and Development) Act 1957, SEZ Act 2005 and MMDR Act 1957 make the State almost powerless in dealing with land issues. Though the land situation in mining areas is getting serious, the State Government has not initiated any visible schemes for creation of new land for agriculture and forestry purposes by reclamation of wasteland, specially the mined-out land in the mining areas of the State.
Added to the coal area there are also thousands of acres of waste land available without treatment in other non-coal mining areas of the State such as districts of Koraput, Keonjhar ,Mayurbhanj and Sundargarh.
The last hundred years of mining has produced many small or big sizes of abandoned mines in Odisha. The coal mining areas are the oldest one which started in 1875 at Gopal Prasad of Talcher. By a conservative estimate, if the waste land in coal mining areas were developed then hundreds acres of land would be available for productive use by locals. Especially farmers could go for integrated farming, agriculture, animal husbandry, fish farming, herbal garden and agro forestry to generate employment and boost growth by using existing modern agricultural technologies.
The production of milk, meat, egg, fruits and vegetables and fish in the State can be improved to meet the growing demand of the domestic market and for export. This will bring food and nutritional security to the poor households in mining affected areas such as Nagada or Sukinda where mostly the poor people are being deprived of quality food and children and women have been suffering with malnutrition.
The refilling of unused mines will check water and soil pollution and regenerate new forest in the areas as well as restore the old eco-system which will be helpful for the local people affected by mining. The filled up mines can also be used as small lakes for tourism development, boating with fishery and duckery projects.
Already there are funds available with a host of schemes such as CAMPA, DMF and CSR which can be creatively used for land development. It is also suggested that the fly ash and red mud and other wastes generated from thermal power plants and other industries and mines can be used for refilling.
The current scenario in coal areas witnesses growing repeated displacement impacting livelihood of people in agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing and forest produce collection. It is a matter of grave concern for farmers, fisher folk, forest dwellers and rural artisans who constitute a majority of the displaced and affected population. The water of river Mahanadi, Brahmani, Ib and Basundhara is being used to supply water to the mines and many perennial water sources including rivers are also getting polluted with waters of abandoned mines in the periphery. Mineral rich liquid waste known as acid mine drainage contaminates water ways. The local farmer organisations in these areas have raised the issue a number of times. The environmental problem is an added burden to the people of the locality with huge coal dust, water and air pollution, water scarcity, deforestation, high temperature, increasing waste land coverage and danger of abandoned mines. Pollution has lots of long term ramifications over livelihood, health, social environment, flora and fauna of the locality which cannot be revived in a short span without reclamation of waste land. The recreation of land resources in mining areas in a way would compensate for the growing environmental and livelihood issues of the affected people.
