Cement, Energy and Environment

made the coal lobby extremely powerful in India and any change that challenges this power scheme is met with severe opposition. This has, in turn, made it difficult to curb a flourishing coal mafia and corrupt system. Thus, all these factors have made us dependent on coal– based development. The condition is such that gas and oil imports are neither stable nor assured; anti-dam movements hinder the development of hydro power projects; nuclear energy is still very expensive; and alternative or renewable energy projects are still at a very nascent stage. Under such circumstances, with India's coal demand expected to reach 2.5 billion tones by 2031, 200 coal power plants have been planned over the next one decade! Dependency implication While economic development, technological enhancement, and energy security from one set of concerns for the Indian coal mining sector, environmental and social implications form another set and a more serious one. Given the high rate of domestic production and its large share in the fuel mix for power generation, coal contributes more to environmental pollution than any other fuel. Coal affects the environment at two levels - during the mining stage and at the time of use. The main problems at the mining stage are particulate and dust emissions; release of methane; change in land-use pattern; degradation of land; destruction of forests and biodiversity; and disturbances in the hydrological regime. And these have direct, indirect, short– term, as well as long-term implications on the ecosystem. Underground mining causes changes in groundwater hydrology, threatens water sources such as springs, wells, and reservoirs, and leads to subsidence of surface. Activities related to opencast mining, including excavation, stacking of waste dumps, and the construction of haul roads, tailing ponds, and so on, damage the ecological balance of the region. Coal mining produces methane a potent greenhouse gas, which according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has a global warming potential 21 times greater than that of C02 (carbon dioxide) on a 100 year timeline. Methane is the naturally occurring product of the decay of organic matter as coal deposits, form with increasing depths of burial, rising temperatures, and rising pressure over geological time. A portion of the produced methane is adsorbed by the coal and later, released from the coal seam and surrounding disturbed strata during the mining process. While the burning of coal in power plants harms the air quality due to the emission of dangerous gases, the process of mining can release pockets of hazardous gases. These gases may pose a threat to coal miners and contribute to air pollution. For example, 70 mine fires are reported on an average from the Jharia coalfield. The people not only live in the danger of land subsidence due to the fires, but also suffer from severe health problems such as breathing disorders and skin diseases due to the heavy fumes emitted by the fires. According to a study by the Geological Society of America, more than 1 08 kg of gases (including C02, carbon monoxide, and methane) are emitted every year from the area. 'Jharia township is on the brink of an ecological and human disaster', says Brinda Karat, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. According to a report titled A Resource and Technology Assessment of Coal Utilization in India by Ananth P Chikkatur, John F Kennedy School Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 2008, 'the key environmental concerns in the coal power sector in India include air pollution (primarily from flue gas emissions of particulates, sulphur oxides, nitrous oxides, and other hazardous chemicals); water pollution; and degradation of land used for fly ash storage. Regulations that limit pollution from power plants are focussed mainly on particulate matter emrssrons and ambient air quality standards for sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides, although the enforcement of these regulations has been weak. The demand for electricity is so great that plants that violate the norms are not shut down, despite legal obligations to do so. With the projected increase in installed capacity, a key challenge for the government is to effectively enforce and tighten its existing regulations. India's C02 emissions have been increasing at an average annual rate of 5.5 per cent from 1990 to 2000, with coal accounting for about 70 per cent of the total fossil fuel emissions'. The pollution levels in the Korba and Singrauli coalfields in Madhya Pradesh are already reported to be past the bearing capacity, owing to the large– cagets overpacity opencast mines and many thermal power stations. Also, the coalfields in Talcher in Orissa and North Karnapura in Jharkhand will soon reach similar levels of pollution. Concerns have been raised by Pakistan about the crossing of smog and carbon originating in India from 25