Abstract

This report is an exploratory study of livelihood implications from open cast coal mining aroundManuguru town in the Telengana area of northern Andhra Pradesh. It is a case study in a substantialcoal-producing region along the Godavari River valley in four districts, Khammam, Warangal,Karimnagar and Adilabad, where the public sector Singareni Colleries is the sole mining company.Many of the coal mines, including those in Manuguru studied in this report, are additionally in theScheduled Areas supposedly constitutionally reserved for the benefit of the Scheduled Tribes, someof the poorest peoples in India. The increased mining in Manuguru is part of a large-scale expansion of open cast coal mining by Singareni Colleries which only for the years 2007-10 has resulted in 16 new mines being administratively cleared with more than 16,000 hectares of agricultural land and forest being used inthe process. Open cast coal mining will by its nature use up more of precious land resourcescompared to underground mining. Not only does it deny the possibility for other activities to carry on at surface level while mining takes place underground, it also requires significantly more land, upto half of the total area used, to store the overburden waste. Apart from displacement commoncomplaints involve loss of groundwater, dust from the mines as from transport, and frequent blasts which destroy houses up to several kilometres from the actual mine site. This report specifically studies two expanding mines in Manuguru; The so called Manuguru OpenCast II Expansion, an already existing major open cast mine now scheduled to become even largerusing up 3,200 hectare of land and; The Manuguru Open Cast, a new mine planned on top of anold, exhausted underground mine on 486 hectare of largely fertile double crop land. The first mine will displace three villages with 330 households, while the latter will displace four villages with 1,248households. The two mines have received all administrative clearances, including those by MoEFbut land acquisition issues have stalled implementation of the Manuguru Open Cast mine. They are within a few kilometres from one another indicating a need to investigate the overall impact of several mines in the local area. The livelihood implications of open cast coal mining at Manuguru studied in this report weregrouped into a) the establishment of mines which displaces farmers, herders and many others inexchange for mainly cash compensation, b) the operating mine which creates a number of environmental costs but also offers the main potential benefits in terms of jobs, and c) mine closurein which the land potentially could be returned to the original landlosers but in reality appears to behanded over to the forest department with uncertain local livelihood outcomes.During mine establishment Singareni works directly with the local administration to plan landacquisition. The affected people are however kept largely unaware of the plans and will have to hopefor a beneficial reading of the AP R&R policy which decides who is compensated. It was found thatthe resulting compensation mainly consisted of cash for those who had land titles, and in the case of the tribes, 2 acres of new land. Those without officially recognised land titles, in many villages amajority of the inhabitants, receive no compensation for the land despite losing their mostimportant source of livelihood. In no case did the compensation received represent a bettercondition than what was the case before displacement. The operating mines offer the largest potential job opportunities in Manuguru. But open cast mining requires no new workers due to the high degree of mechanisation leaving a few fortunate villagers who were able to secure private jobs in for example transport or security, while most have to makedo with an uncertain future in poverty as soon as the compensation money, which is too little to buy new land, runs out. Water problems and mine blasts created a difficult situation for farmers andresidents close to, but not displaced by, the mines. These implications are not compensated for atpresent despite being well known. When a mine is closed, an open crater and overburden hills are left as permanent scars in thelandscape. This land is handed over to the forest department for compensatory afforestationactivities with little information about the actual planned uses. At no point in available planning documents, or in interviews with respondents, have local livelihood implications been mentionedleaving vital questions for the long-term future of the area unanswered. At the moment there are noclear answers to questions like: What forest will be grown and for whose benefit? Who will benefitfrom the water which will collect in the mined out pits? And what will happen to agriculture nearby and the Godavari River when water collects in the pits rather than follow earlier existing drainagepatterns? The almost complete lack of concern for local livelihoods exhibited in the planning, operations andclosure of open cast coal mining in Manuguru makes it appear as if these mines are indeed joblessopenings which only further impoverish an already marginalised and vulnerable local population.Given the strength of local tribal rights movements working on land, minerals and forests, as well asthe on-going Telengana agitation which is demanding a separate state, open cast coal mining mighttherefore become the next major struggle in the area unless social concerns are better taken intoaccount. This region has seen its resources being extracted by outsiders for generations but is notlikely to remain silent in the future.

Published in

Publisher: ActionAid India

UKÄ Subject classification

Social Sciences Interdisciplinary


Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/85216