‘Nurturing nature’ may be its latest catchline, but Coal India is a long way from being an environment-friendly company
State-run Coal India Ltd (CIL), in the run-up to its record Rs 15,000-crore listing last month, put inordinate emphasis on its green credentials. Not only did the mining company — the largest coal producer in the world — rework its logo to highlight its “nurturing nature” intentions, the Rs 20-crore pre-listing advertisement campaign was centred around the intensive afforestation activities undertaken by the firm at mining projects.
CIL chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya, moreover, has repeatedly flagged sustainability issues as among the primary challenges before the company, which meets about 88 per cent of the country’s coal requirements.
However, as much as CIL has stressed its environment mitigation measures, doubts are being cast over what the company has actually achieved on the ground. It is more or less clear that CIL’s overall green credentials are debatable, especially since the firm operates through eight subsidiaries, each with its own administration.
| QUICK FACTS | |||
| Subsidiary | Degraded forest area (hectares) | Trees planted | Area afforested (hectares) |
| ECL | 217.93 | 6,574,800 | 2,623.89 |
| BCCL | 86.41 | 356,395 | 3,089.00 |
| CCL | 1,393.45 | 6,586,300 | 4,358.22 |
| NCL | 2,449.00 | 14,012,522 | 5,918.44 |
| WCL | 797.67 | 15,761,373 | 6,254.00 |
| SECL | 6,474.12 | 20,712,343 | 8,284.94 |
| MCL | 790.95 | 4,181,178 | 1,762.07 |
| NEC | 603.6 | 1,427,749 | 80.36 |
| Total | 12,813.13 | 72,821,660 | 32,370.92 |
While there are robust laws on environmental protection, the onus lies with the miner to adhere to them. And on other agencies, including state governments that actually own the resources, to enforce them. The distribution of both — implementation and enforcement — remains uneven, despite the clear ascent of environment-related issues in CIL’s scheme of things.
In recent months, CIL and its administrative coal ministry has been locked in a tussle with the ministry of environment & forests for mining clearances in forested areas. At one point, this threatened to isolate a substantial portion of CIL’s 18,862-9 million tonnes of reserves. Undeniably, then, if CIL wants to meet its 7 per cent plus growth requirement, it will have to ensure it isn’t mired in environment-related troubles.
But Bhattacharyya, despite the criticisms levelled against the miner, insists its intention to be environmentally friendly is evident. “Satellite surveillance being undertaken by us for our open-cast mines is a clear indication of our willingness to measure and inform the public about our environment mitigation measures,” the CIL chairman said, referring to his company’s effort to determine the impact of its afforestion programmes.
“Also, 53 (out of 163) of our open-cast mines have obtained ISO 4001 certification (representing positive environmental management standards),” Bhattacharyya added. Between Rs 3 and Rs 5 per tonne of coal produced by the state-owned firm is budgeted for environmental mitigation programmes, CIL officials said, as a result of which there is no paucity of funds. The company produces around 430 million tonnes of coal a year.
New ideas are also being thought of. CIL is currently working on creating an environmental audit system, centred on a database that will be updated in real time and is likely to provide instant comparisons across various parameters of all mining projects. “Some of this data will be made publicly available,” an official added.
Such a system, coupled with a separate environmental cadre that is under development, CIL officials hope, will give the world’s largest coal miner additional resources, as it attempts to meet the country’s energy demand without irreparably damaging fragile eco-systems.
Missing the wood for the trees
Impact on Forests
CIL, which operates 471 mines in 21 major coalfields, claims to have planted 73 million trees over 32,300 hectares, spending over Rs 165 crore since 1993-94. The total forested area degraded, according to CIL officials, is 12,800 hectares. Effectively, for every hectare degraded, CIL has afforested 2.52 hectares.
However, there is more to these numbers than meets the eye. According to a report by the Indian Institute of Forest Management earlier this year, an examination of 12 coal mining projects — including five open-cast and seven underground sites — in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, only two had undertaken compensatory afforestation.
This, the report stated, was partly due to funds not being released under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management & Planning Authority over the past seven years, although payment for compensatory afforestation had been made for all these projects.
More importantly, challenging the numbers furnished by CIL, the report also points out a systemic anomaly, where CIL subsidiaries are exempted from using land that was not originally forested for compensatory afforestation, which prevents the expansion of forest land.
Additionally, validating what detractors have claimed, the investigation found that mostly teak was planted in these afforestation sites, while “it is a known fact that teak is not an indigenous species and does not attract wildlife”. Critics, including activist and Mines, Minerals & People Chairperson Ravi Rebbapragada, have argued that planting species that are not indigenous do not help recreate the original eco-systems destroyed by mining.
When specifically asked about doubts raised by critics, an official from CIL’s environment division said: “We work in collaboration with National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Banaras Hindu University, Indian Institute of Science and state forest departments. Some of our subsidiaries have also developed their own nurseries, so that they provide a combination of plants required for afforestation.”
No guidelines for toxic discharge
Impact on Water
CIL’s mining activities have a direct impact on water, although company officials claim it is negligible. Reports indicate that a number of coalfields have acid mine drainage problems, along with high amounts of sulfate and heavy metals in mine water.
According to Nitish Priyadarshi, a geologist who has worked on the East Parej and North Karanpura coalfields in Jharkhand, there has been an impact on the Damodar River basin, which is the repository of 46 per cent of India’s coal reserves.
“Heavy metals like manganese, chromium, lead, arsenic, mercury, fluoride, cadmium, and copper are also found in the Damodar and its tributaries. Permian coal in this area contains all these toxic elements in considerable amounts. The presence of lead is high, above the alarming level of 300 parts per million in the coals of North Karanpura coalfield,” Priyadarshi said.
According to an Indian Institute of Forest Management report of 12 projects in central India, “There are no guidelines for the proper treatment of water discharged from the mined areas. This water is mainly used for dust suppression and also supplied to local villagers, who are unaware of the quality of the water.”
Doubts have also been arisen over the potential threat posed by CIL’s proposal to establish 20 coal washeries nationwide at an estimated cost of Rs 3,000 crore, which could put additional pressure on water resources.
CIL officials argue that the impact on water is negligible, adding instead that open-cast mines are an advantage. “We aren't polluting the groundwater, as the only thing we extract is coal. There may be some heavy metals and other substances that appear, but their presence is very insignificant. Rather, open-cast voids are good water reservoirs and, at some projects, we have seen them improving the water table,” says a CIL official.
