The Dark Earth

Incessant mining in Jharkhand has led to large-scale deforestation, resulting in long and warm summers and shifting of the monsoon

- Md Asghar Khan

AS soon as we entered Tapin basti in Ramgarh district of Jharkhand, a siren went off. It seemed like a warning of sorts. After a few moments, there was a blast; so loud that our ears went numb, and it seemed that the ground shook for a moment. It felt like an earthquake. People living in this village experience such earthquakes, caused due to incessant mining in the nearby areas, many times a day—the only difference being these come with a warning; sirens are sounded ten minutes before and after the blast.

Tapin is one of the dozens of villages in the district where unrestricted coal mining has created deep pits; some are more than a thousand feet deep. Lobin Lugun, 60, lives close to one such pit. He has been living here since 1973. His ancestors were here even before that. They made the forest liveable. No one stopped them. For generations. Now, they are being told that they are illegal occupants. Despite living close to the toxic pits, this is their home. They have nowhere else to go to. “We do not own even an inch of land apart from this house. If we are not rehabilitated, where will we go? We earn our living in the nearby areas and feed ourselves. But how will we earn a living now, how will feed ourselves?” asks Lugun.

This worry consumes all the households in the basti, which number about 120. This is because of the notice they received on September 30, 2023, which termed their settlement illegal, asked them to vacate their homes within a week and threatened them with action if they failed to do so. It is now nine months since the notice, but the residents are not ready to vacate their homes. At the moment, they are fighting a battle for rehabilitation while putting their lives at risk.