The future of the coal sector after the Kyoto protocol has taken a new shape with many countries such as Germany, the UK agreeing to limit fossil fuel CO2 emissions and explore new opportunities for green energy sources and net zero-emission by 2050. The Japanese Bank announced plans to phase out funding for coal projects. India is a signatory to the treaty, but it has the 5th largest reserve of coal and is the second largest coal-producing country in the world after China, which has a share of more than 50 percent of global production.
The coal producing countries including US, Russia, Australia, China and India own 75 percent of the world's coal reserve out of the total reserve of 1.16 trillion tonnes. The global production of coal was 7,841 MT in the year 2023.
The coal production in India in 2023 was about 788 million tonnes, which came from States including Odisha ,Chhatisgarh, Jharakhand, MP, Telengana, Maharashtra and West Bengal. Odisha and Jharakhand. Together these States have more than 50 percent of the country's total reserve. Odisha contributed 219 million tonnes of production in the year 2023. The IB valley ,Talcher and Basundhara areas in the districts of Jharasuguda, Sambalpur ,Angul and Sundargarh have coal mines, mostly owned by MCL, a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd.
The NITI Aayog study report estimated coal demand in India for various sectors such as power generation, iron and steel ,cement ,aluminium ,and captive plants to be as high as 1,325 million tonnes in 2030, double that of the current year's production. Along with imports of coal to meet the growing demand, the Government has also planned to enhance domestic production and has liberalized policy. Amendments of the acts and rules such as MMDR and MCR have facilitated easy access to doing business by way of single window clearance, rolling auctions, sale of excess coal produced by captive mines , commercial auction of coal on revenue sharing mechanism and special dispensation in environmental clearnace under clause 7(ii), Environemntal Impact Assessment (EIA) of 2006. Both CIL and NTPC have made expansion plans to meet coal and thermal power needs of the country. NTPC has lunched a number of projects to reach 130GW companies by 2032. Recently, the Prime Minister of India laid the foundation of projects of NTPC at Darlipally super thermal pit head power stations ,Rourkela PP-II expansion project and NTPC Talcher thermal power project stage -III. The beneficiary States include Odisha ,WB, Jharakhand, Gujarat, Sikkim, Bihar, TN and Assam. With the increase in coal production, the impact has affected the lives of people in coal areas.
The history of coal mining in Odisha dates back to 1930 in the Talcher area and later a large operation started in 1973 with the nationalisation of coal. The areas of Talcher, Chendipada, Kaniha, Lakhanpur, Sambalpur-Talabira, Hemagiri- Sundragada have underground and open caste mines which are on the path of huge expansion. The last 50 years of mining has displaced more than 300 villages and largely impacted the argo-ecological system of livelihood of people traditionally engaged in forest and agriculture based economy. It also changed the local ecosystem and environment, human health and economic, social and political situations of the area and pushed the poor to the periphery. The coal mines owned by PSUs have provided employment for the locals. MCL alone employs 22,000 people directly. It follows the policy of reservation for SC (16%) ,ST (22%), OBCs (12%) and EWS (10%) as per State percentage in group C and D jobs. About 20 percent of the group D employees and 97 percent of the sweepers belong to the SC category with proportionately less presence of SC/ST/OBC in group-A,B and C jobs. The contractors, traders, stockists, transporters and upper grade A and B job holders, about 60 percent, belong to the upper class/caste as beneficiaries of the coal economy. Mechanisation and privatisation have further limited the scope of employment. It is noticed that the issues of employment of local people, ecology and the environment are mostly ignored as a non-priority agenda of the Government and companies. Companies follow a discriminatory policy towards locals while the company employees enjoy all the facilities including good salary, housing, health and education. Any one visiting the periphery villages of the coal mining area can easily encounter the problem of drinking water, health, education and housing, along with the problem of deforestation, pollution of water bodies, air and soil. The condition of rehabilitation colonies and the quality of living of the people are not being improved. The local forests, rivers, hills, soil and air quality all need to be conducive for human habitation. The funds available from a host of sources such as coal royalty, DMF, CSR ,CAMPA, OMBADC, corporate tax from mining companies, net profit of the PSU must be spent towards building a sustainable future.
There is huge corruption in developmental work and a well - built nexus of company top officials , district administration and local politicians. They don't proactively address the issues of local people , especially the affected poor, the landless, SCs and STs who are struggling to make a livelihood. The RPDAC headed by the RDC North, never holds regular meetings to solve the local issues.
