REIGN OF FIRE

Jharia coalfield continues to burn, with no sign of respite and only sluggish progress in rehabilitation for its people

- VIVEK MISHRA DHANBAD, JHARKHAND

JHARIA HAS been burning for over a century. Plumes of smoke billow from heaps of coal scattered across this coal belt in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district, giving the eerie impression of mass funeral pyres smoldering on a lifeless land. But Sarju Bhuiyan, born into this inferno 50 years ago, knows how to dig coal from the scorched earth. In fact, it is the only skill he has mastered and is now passing on to his two children.

In the sweltering heat of June, when Down To Earth (DTE) visited the coal belt, Bhuiyan was preparing to enter the opencast mine that adjoins his house, carrying nothing but a pickaxe and a handwoven basket. Suddenly, an ambulance with its siren blaring, sped through the haze towards a group of soot-covered men scurrying across the mine. “There must have been an accident in the mine. It’s a routine affair,” Bhuiyan says. Then, almost in a disturbingly calm voice, he adds: “Even this ground we are standing on could cave in, or a boulder might hit us from nowhere. It is also hard to judge the flames inside these ever-burning mines during daytime. Every day, we go to work with death hanging over us.”

Bhuiyan's one-room house offers little shelter either. Spirals of smoke and gas seep through cracks in the floor from time to time. It feels as if the house rests atop a smoldering furnace.

Since 2009, the authorities have declared the neighbourhood, where Bhuiyan lives, unsafe for habitation and have repeatedly urged families to relocate. In 2024, an adjacent settlement, Lalten Ganj, was devoured by surface fires and land subsidence. Yet, Bhuiyan and his neighbours remain unwilling. “I will not leave these coal mines. Let me die here if I must,” Bhuiyan declares. They fear that those who left the mines with the hope of a better future are now left without homes or jobs.