Nandini Kumari, 18, attends her favorite arts program several afternoons a week. Accompanying her parents to the open-cast coal mines surrounding the small town of Jharia in eastern India is a welcome break from the rest of her days.
There she hacks coal blocks with a pickaxe and collects chunks to sell. This work has supported her family and countless others in this town for generations.
Open-pit coal mines are spread throughout Jharia, where machines dig through soil and rock to access coal seams near the surface. Fires have been occurring in these coalfields for more than a century, some ignited when coal or embedded minerals interacted with oxygen in the air.
Sometimes the burning ground caves in and swallows people. Always blowing smoke to the entire community. Today, this smog-filled town has the largest coal reserves in India, the world’s second-largest coal producer and consumer.
Despite many countries pledging to phase out coal, Global demand will remain at record high in 2025 In India and other demand-driving regions, communities such as Jharia are contributing to the revitalization of industry, while at the same time suffering from its pollution.
In Jharia, workers collect coal as the mountain burns. A survey of local residents near the coalfields found a number of medical problems, including tuberculosis, asthma and miscarriages.Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri, Getty Images
India committed To achieve net zero emissions Reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 2070. But India too Plan to increase coal-fired power generation capacity by 46% by 2035 According to an analysis by consulting firm Wood Mackenzie, this is to meet growing demand for electricity. Around the world, coal mining and combustion is one of the main sources of carbon dioxide emissions.
Experts fear that this rapid increase will keep India dependent on coal, making life even more detrimental to Jharia and other coal-mining communities. Already, Jharia is considered one of the most polluted areas in India due to heavy dust from open-cast mines and coal trucks. At the highest concentration in Japan Coarse particulate matter is a major cause of respiratory diseases.
Most of India’s coal is mined by state-owned companies and sold to power companies and steel manufacturers. However, there is also a substantial gray market for coal. People like Kumari collect small amounts from coal piles and mines and sell them to intermediaries, who in turn sell to smaller steel manufacturers.
46%
India’s coal-fired power generation expected to grow by 2035
Expanding mining operations have led to more trucks transporting coal and spewing toxic dust, and more families scavenging for coal debris to sell.
These families not only suffer from pollution but also increase it. Professor Kuntala Lahiri Dutt, who runs the Resources, Environment and Development Program at the Australian National University, said: “Earlier there were coal cyclewales, or vendors on bicycles, but now they are on motorbikes.”
Research conducted in In 2024, Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribagh discovered: 19 people from 60 households surveyed in communities near the Jharia coalfields were found to have tuberculosis.compared to two people in households far from the mine. Tuberculosis, a bacterial lung infection, is common in areas with poor air quality because pollution weakens the immune system.
Most days, 18-year-old Nandini Kumari goes to an open-cast coal mine with her parents. She crushes the coal with a pickaxe, collects the lumps and sells them on the gray market to resellers.Photo courtesy of Pinaki Roy.
People living near coalfields also had other medical problems. 15 had asthma, 35 had eye problems, 38 had respiratory allergies, and 16 had experienced miscarriage or premature birth, far more than those living further away.
Two years ago, Kumari’s mother and grandmother turned to Pinaki Roy, who runs the arts program at Caulfield Children’s Class, for help. The frail teenager had been coughing all night and the women were worried. Roy consulted a doctor he knew, and Kumari was soon diagnosed with tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis is usually cured within a year, but four types of antibiotics are used to treat it, which can have side effects such as vomiting, joint pain, and skin rashes. Treatment may also cause liver damage, hearing loss, and vision problems.
Kumari is still undergoing treatment, losing weight and dealing with nausea and fatigue. “You have to be patient,” she said.
Dr. Sanjoy Mukherjee, who diagnosed Kumari, said he regularly sees patients with conditions such as collapsed lungs, lung scarring known as “miner’s lung” (also known as black lung), asthma and tuberculosis.
“They live in dusty areas with no sanitation, water or sunlight,” said Mukherjee, who works near Dhanbad. “They are living on their deathbeds. They should not be allowed to live here.”
Bharat Coking Coal Ltd., which owns most of the area’s mines, did not respond to The Examination’s email seeking comment. The company is A subsidiary of Coal India Ltd. operated by the Ministry of Coal and Mines. The ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
To meet demand, power companies rely on proven coal
The recently announced expansion of coal-fired power plants in neighboring Bihar, including a 2,400-megawatt power plant, is entrenching mining in towns like Jharia.
Behind this expansion are some of the country’s most powerful companies, including Adani Group, Tata Power and Torrent Group.
Adani Power, which is building a power plant in Bihar and other areas, plans to double the amount of coal it burns to 155 million tonnes a year. According to the analysis The announcement was made by AdaniWatch, a nonprofit organization that monitors the company. Adani did not respond to The Exam’s request for comment.
Tata Power plans to increase its coal-fired power generation capacity. For the first time in 6 years, Last year, the company bid to expand its factory in northern India, Reuters reported. And in August, Torrent Group unveils 1.6 GW coal-fired power plant It is located in the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India.
Subscribe to newsletter
Get global health reports delivered straight to your inbox
Duttatreya Das, an energy analyst at energy policy think tank Ember, said the announcements were driven by India’s rapid economic growth. India’s gross domestic product, a measure of economic activity, has grown by more than 6.5% each year for the past four years. Expected to grow by more than 6.8% in 2027according to government estimates.
Renewable energy costs half as much as coal-fired power and is much cleaner. But India has not built enough storage capacity for renewable power, making it less attractive to state-run power companies.
Meanwhile, coal producers are offering state governments fixed-price, long-term contracts. Renewable energy may be cheaper, but its price can fluctuate.
As a result of such agreements, state governments rely on coal even though the coal industry provides workers with few safety measures, such as protective equipment, said Manoj Kumar N., an analyst in the air pollution and power division at the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research, a San Francisco-based research institute that focuses on the health effects of air pollution.
Bharat Coking Coal Ltd. was listed on the Indian Stock Exchange in January, but remains majority-owned by the government. In listing documents, the company said its work is “inherently dangerous” but that it has improved safety procedures and reduced accidents.
In July, the Indian central government reduced Coal-fired power plants have been required to install equipment to reduce emissions for the past 10 years. Manoj Kumar N. found that in New Delhi, one of the world’s most polluted cities, only 14 of 36 power plants need remediation installed.
They live on their deathbeds. They shouldn’t be allowed to live here.
Dr. Sanjoy Mukherjee regularly treats people with respiratory illnesses in Jharia.
Bableen Kandari, a New Delhi-based environmental activist, said the plant’s compliance with other environmental standards was inadequate. He said it’s nearly impossible to find out how much pollution each factory emits, even though factories are legally required to have access to such information.
“We’re running around trying to get information on emissions,” Kandari said. “This information needs to be in the public domain and we need an independent regulator.”
Swapnil Mishra, a professor at the government-run Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad, said the university is working to modernize the country’s mines. She called coal a “backup plan” to meet India’s energy needs.
Indian government and bharat coking coal She said planting trees in Dhanbad and Jharia will help reduce particulate matter and toxins in the air. The Ministry of Coal and Mines is closing down abandoned mines to avoid methane emissions and fires.
A woman and her son carry coal collected from an open-cast mine in Jharia.Photo by Vishal Kumar Singh (AFP/via Getty Images)
Government plans to relocate families
As coal-fired power expands, the Indian government is taking steps to provide alternative jobs and housing away from coal fires.
In June, the government approved nearly $700 million in funding. rehabilitation planThe aim is to better manage coal fires and relocate people. More than 18,000 homes are being built away from the mine site, with the promise of schools and subsidized grocery stores.
A few families are given e-rickshaws (battery-powered three-wheelers used to transport passengers and luggage) to earn a living in other ways. a Skill development centerUnder development, “” will provide vocational training.
However, it remains to be seen whether the government will be able to shift housing and livelihoods away from these open-pit mines.
almost finished 30 years It’s been 15 years since the government began addressing coal fires and the land subsidence they cause, and approved a master plan calling for relocation and land rehabilitation.
Since then, about two-thirds of the town’s fires have been extinguished.
However, efforts to relocate Jharia residents have had limited success. Plan approved in 2009 As a result, approximately 2,200 households out of approximately 80,000 were relocated. until 2021, according to researchers at Jawaharlal Nehru University. people who have been transferred had a hard time finding a jobreported Mongabay India.
Meanwhile, more people have settled in the Jharia coalfields, according to Mongabay India.
Residents and experts alike say economic necessity is what keeps them there. Children often drop out of school to help their families, making it difficult for them to pursue a more promising future.
“This is a museum of poverty,” says Roy, who runs a community arts program and helped search for the doctor who diagnosed Kumari.
Teenagers dream of becoming a doctor or a nurse. However, even as she continues to receive treatment for tuberculosis, she goes to the coalfields with her family.
“It has to be done,” she said. There is no other choice.
