You must have seen many statues of great men who contributed significantly to some cause in their lifetime being put on crossroads and public squares. Have you ever heard of the statue of a poor, humble labourer being put on the central square of a town? Welcome to Dhanbad. The coal capital of our country. As soon as you come out of the railway station you get to see this statue of a miner with his instruments right in the middle of the crossroad. This is probably the most popular icon of the town of Dhanbad.
Coal is the foundation of the energy and the metallurgical industry of the country. The fast paced infrastructure development demands iron and steel. Fortunately we have huge reserves of iron ore. Entire Jharkhand is dotted with iron-ore processing units which produce the finest steel for our country. The blast furnaces of these industries require very high grade coking coal. Though we have several coal deposity in our country but the carbon content is too low in most places for the coal to be used in iron and steel industry. The exception are the sprawling coal fields of Dhanbad.
Chota Nagpur platuae is probably the richest mineral belt in the country. The same area is known for it's dense forests. Millions of years back the forests must have covered the landscape. Gradually layer after layer the hydrocarbois capturing the energy from the sun got burried. With the mounting pressure of the layers above, gradually the fossil fuel was formed. Coal in found in layers 2-4m in height. Each layer is called a sim. Dhanbad is so rich in coal that you can find upto 20 sim of coal in some places.
Visit Dhanbad and you will know that it would have taken no great scientist to discover the presence of coal here. Barely a few meters below the surface the coal layers start appearing. But prior to the 1900s owing the poorer transportation and industrialisation there was no significant exploitation of the black diamond. In the early nineties as systematic mining of coal started to emerge as an option people migrated into the town and the trend still continues. The neighbouring states of West Bengal and Bihar have had their share of problems in the past few centuries ensuring poverty. Thus labour for the coal mines poured in cheep and in huge volumes.
Coal fields of dhanbad are under the adminsitration of Bharat Coking Coal Limited. The company is in-charge of the coal fields from the public sector and also it leases out areas to private companies. There are vast reserves of coal that are still lying unmined in Dhanbad. This gives an option of two types of coal mining. Starting with the intutively more familar type - the underground mining is a dangerous and costly option. Though there are several coal wells in Dhanbad, these wells which can go upto 500m below the surface have had a history of major disasters. The coal mining techniques used are not modern. A simple trolley lowers the miners into the bottom of the mines. Here the miners carve out a mesh of mines sending the coal back to the surface. In a single shift the miner spends upto 8 hours in the heart of the earth. The mines are poorly lit and medical/safety facilities leave a lot to be desired. Huge fans constantly pump fresh air into the mines. A surprising feature though is that it is 5-8 degrees cooler inside the mines making the environment more comfortable to work than the scortching surface of Dhanbad.
Though careful calculations are done but still the minors spend each day of their life face to face with death that awaits them in various forms. There have been cases when the underground water (Damodar river flows close to Dhanbad keeping the water table high) bursts open into the mines. Chasnal incident of December 27, 1975 ended up taking away 372 lives. Sometimes there are explosions in the mines due to the accumulation of methane and due to coal dust. Sometimes the oxygen content falls below normal levels and miners die. In the past two decades as many as 800 miners have lost their lives in Dhanbad alone. All this said, Indian mines are known to be safer than many other parts of the world.
A more cost effective technique of coal mining is the open cast mining. Here there are no wells. Huge saucer shaped opening is dig on earth and coal is taken out directly. Heavy machine tools are employed. The overburden - or the earth above the coal deposits is systematically moved to a nearby location and dynamite is used to break the rock. This method is relatively safer and is being used extensively. It is also known to give greater mining efficiency both in terms of speed and money. The only problem with open cast mines is that they can be used only for the top sims.
Inspite of the hard labour and the risks involved the Dhanbad mines, much like many other major industries in the country, offer very poor living conditions to the workers. Salaries are very low, medical ficilities absent and the pressure from the contrators immense. With very few alternatives for earning livelyhood the miners are forced into risking their lives and working in inhumane conditions.
Another major problem that has arisen from unplanned and un-scientific mining is that many areas where people are still living today stand a danger of sinking into the earth. The famous Jharia Coal fields are an example. Though the government recognises the threat, the people who have been living there since ages are reluctant to migrate. A major disaster is on the verge of happening if immediate steps are not taken to safeguard the people.
Vast coal reserves in Dhanbad are also burning under the earth. The fire in the underlying layers poses a major hazard to the surface apart from the wastage of the precious resource. One - because of teh magnitude of teh fire and two- because of the corruption the fires have been raging since years. If you travel to the surrouding towns of Dhanbad in the morning, you can see smoke emerging from the earth.
Dhanbad's main industry are the coal mines and related industrial establishments; it has 112 coal mines with a total produce of 27.5 million tonnes and an annual income of 7000 Million Rupees. The livelyhood of most people in Dhanbad is linked to coal in one or the other way. It is not surprising to see areas of town being named "Koyla Nagar" and the region being called "Koylanchal". It is highly unfortunate though that most of the money from the coal business, ends up in the bank accounts of ruthless landlords and corrupt politicians. The entire industry is controlled by mafia who controls everything from award of Government contracts to loading of coal.
Inspite of the huge reserves, the coking coal from Dhanbad is insufficient to meet the demands of the Indian Iron and Steel Industry. Corruption and un-scientific mining has been posing a major threat to the industry. The cheep high grade coal that is being imported from China and Australia is posing a danger to the coal industry fo Dhanbad.
Indian School of Mines is a premier institute in the country which is involved in making mining engineers and undertaking scientific research. Jharia, Karkein, Katras and Loyabad are the major coalfields.