Coal mining in India – The tough fight of the indigenous people against India’s coal industry – News

Umeshwar Singh Armo is standing a few hundred meters above a huge coal mine when an explosion suddenly shatters the silence. “We hear these explosions almost every day,” says the tall, dark indigenous man from the Gond tribe. The 42-year-old looks thoughtfully at the cloud of dust that caused the explosion. The blasting separates the coal from the rock.

Legend:

Indigenous Umeshwar Sing Armo is leading the protests against the coal mine.

SRF / Maren Peters

“Our houses in the villages are cracked by the tremors. And our underground water supplies are being destroyed.” That’s very dangerous, says Armo. “There won’t be enough water in the well to irrigate our fields. And the drinking water is contaminated.”

Armo lets his gaze wander over the coal mine he is standing on the edge of: a huge, dark crater that stretches to the horizon.

«The forest gives us everything: fruit, wood, shelter and air to breathe»

The mine has been in operation since 2013. Thousands of trees had to be cleared for them – in an area almost the size of the city of Freiburg. The coal mine is located in the particularly dense and species-rich Hasdeo Forest, in the north of the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.

Since opencast coal mining began around a decade ago, the lives of thousands of people there have changed fundamentally. They are predominantly indigenous, i.e. the original inhabitants of India, who have lived in and from the forest for generations and who worship the trees like gods. “We are very sad,” says Umeshwar Singh Armo. «We live from this forest. He gives us everything: fruit, wood, shelter and air to breathe.”

As recently as 2009, a group of experts set up by the Ministry of the Environment in Delhi declared the entire Hasdeo Forest a “no-go area” – and thus a taboo for mining. But just two years later, the Minister for the Environment gave the go-ahead for coal mining. Gautam Adani also benefits from this.

The mine in Hasdeo Forest

Legend:

Coal has been mined in the Hasdeo Forest for almost ten years. What remains is a lunar landscape.

SRF / Maren Peters

The Indian is the largest private developer of coal-fired power plants and coal mines in the world and has also secured the right to exploit three coal mines in the Hasdeo forest – on behalf of the Rajasthan government. Also thanks to excellent contacts in politics, Adani has risen to become the richest man in India and one of the richest people in the world.

Coal mining initially seemed like a dream to many of the simply educated indigenous people in the Hasdeo forest – with the promise of new jobs, running water and roads. But for many it has become a nightmare.

“Actually, I didn’t want to sell my land”

Shiv Prasad Kusro, a man with black, shoulder-length hair and gold earrings, sits on a plastic chair in the courtyard of his mud house. Like generations before him, he was a rice farmer on his own field – until the coal mine came. His old village, situated in the middle of the forest, had to give way. Kusro says: “Actually, I didn’t want to sell my land.”

Shiv Prasad Kusro

Legend:

Shiv Prasad Kusro sold his land for the mine a good ten years ago. Today he regrets the step.

SRF / Maren Peters

But the land buyers promised a lot of money, the equivalent of CHF 37,000 – for him and his two brothers. Kusro had never seen so much money.

When he hesitated anyway, representatives of the administration and the Adani mining company put pressure on him: “If you don’t sell your land, you’ll get in trouble. We’ll come with the excavator and demolish your house. And then you have to run. And no one will come and save you.”

In the end, Kusro sold – like 200 other families from his old village. They have all been relocated. Today, Kusro deeply regrets the decision. He didn’t get a job in the coal mine and now makes a living as a day laborer doing field work for others. The compensation for his old land was just enough to build a new mud house. But his family and the village are scattered.

“We used to have a free life,” says Kusro. “The whole extended family lived together. Today my parents, my brother, my cousins ​​all live apart from each other. When I sit down to eat and think about it, tears come to my eyes.”

Kusro, Armo and many of their fellow tribesmen do not want any more mines to start operating after the first coal mine. They have been demonstrating against it every day for around ten years.

Long-dead people agreed to land sale

They are convinced that the sale of land for the mines was in many cases forced by tricks. “If our village assembly doesn’t agree to coal mining, then it can’t take place here,” says Kusro. In the case of the planned new mine, the village assembly did not agree.

Farmer Ram Singh Armo in front of a house

Legend:

Farmer Ram Singh Armo says: “It hurts our souls when trees are felled.”

SRF / Maren Peters

Ram Singh Armo criticizes that the consent of the forest dwellers was forged. He is the head of his village and leader of the demonstrators. Mukta Joshi, the chief lawyer at the independent think tank Land Conflict Watch in Delhi, also confirms that the approval for the land grab was tricked.

“There are reports confirming that the villagers’ consent was forged. Such a forgery would be a very serious violation of the laws and the right of self-determination of the indigenous people, which the Indian constitution also guarantees,” the lawyer told SRF. Joshi knows of cases from the Hasdeo Forest where the consent to the sale of land was allegedly given by people who had long since died.

Hundreds of indigenous people marched 300 kilometers on foot to the capital Raipur last autumn to protest against the scams. It was of no use: the local government continues to acquire land for new mines. And had even more trees felled in a cloak-and-dagger operation. A government spokesman from Raipur shied away from responsibility: The local government could not do anything because the central government in Delhi was responsible for most of the mines and for coal policy. The Adani group also refers to others.

“Where should we grow our rice?”

Farmer Sunita Porte, a mother of four, fears she will soon lose her house and farmland because of the new mine. Their village would disappear under the new mine. “If they take away the coal here, where are we going to grow our rice?” asks Porte.

She too is protesting against the new mine. That’s why the Adani people put pressure on their husband. “They asked him if he needed a car or money. He just has to get me to stop going to the protest fight.”

Sunita Porte in front of her traditional mud house

Legend:

Sunita Porte in front of her traditional adobe house: The family lives off what the garden and field provide. All of this is threatened by the new mine.

SRF / Maren Peters

Sunita Porte goes anyway. She knows too many stories of neighborhood villagers who sold their land for the mines and are unhappy now.

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