Earth Bursting:- The sequence of incidents of earth bursting with loud noise is not stopping in Dhanbad Koylanchal. Lives are being buried in the walls. In the last one and a half to two decades, many houses, temples and mosques have been razed to the ground. From railway tracks to roads are sinking. In fact, the ill effects of indiscriminate coal mining have been coming to light for the last 150 years. On Sunday, three women were buried together in torn earth in Dhobi Kuli Basti of Kendua Gonudih OP area of Dhanbad. After a rescue operation of 17-18 hours, their dead bodies were recovered in such a mutilated condition that they could not even be identified. On August 14, three people of a family got buried under the ground due to a loud crack in the ground in Basti number 11 of Jogta police station area of Dhanbad.
The local people took out all three with great difficulty. After long treatment in the hospital, his life was saved, but there are still many injury marks on his body. On September 11, in a major landslide in Akash Kinari colony of Govindpur area, seven houses were razed to the ground, while more than a dozen houses developed cracks. The good thing is that there were no casualties in this accident. Last year, a major incident of landslide had occurred in the Mugma area of Eastern Coal Fields Limited (ECL) in Nirsa of Dhanbad district. Here the ground had sunk five feet within a radius of about 200 meters. In July 2021, a young man named Umesh Paswan was trapped inside due to a sudden landslide in Kenduadih. Later he could be taken out with great difficulty.
On February 18, 2021, a 10-year-old boy from Ghanudih Mohri Dam under BCCL Lodna area of Jharia was trapped in a pond while playing. Even his life could be saved with great difficulty. In the year 2017, a man named Bablu Khan and his eight-year-old son Rahim were trapped inside the ground due to earth burst in Phularibagh, Jharia. They could not be taken out. Underground fires have been raging in the coal mining areas of Dhanbad district for more than 100 years. Due to this, the earth keeps bursting suddenly in fire affected areas. This creates a goof or ditch. The coal mines are blazing with flames. On one side, the flames are desperate to touch the sky, while on the other side, the smoke of burning coal has engulfed a large area. Not only this, saving the burning 1864 million tonnes of coal is also a challenge. However, mining continues here amidst adverse circumstances. Old people here say that in the year 1916, a fire broke out due to wrong mining. Then mining was done by making tunnels. This process was unscientific.
Despite this, after independence the owners of private coal mines continued this process. Due to this the fire kept increasing. Due to the fire, 45 percent of the coal in Jharia and surrounding mines remained underground. At the same time, the temperature inside further fueled the coal fire. The first evidence of fire was found in Bhaura Colliery in the year 1916. After this, a fire survey was conducted for the first time in the year 1986. The survey found fire burning under the ground in an area of 17 km square. The fire of 45 percent coal remaining under the earth gradually started spreading further. This fire kept getting air through the mine tunnel and the fire kept burning. To prevent fire, the mine was filled with sand but it was not successful. After this, in 2006, NRSC conducted a survey on the fire situation in Dhanbad. This time fire was found in 3.01 kilometer square area.
BCCL was faced with the challenge of saving these burning coals. Then mining was planned in the fire project through open cast project. The plan worked. When the survey was conducted again in 2012, the fire was found less in the burning area of 0.83 square km. Since then, incidents of earth bursting have increased, because due to fire, the empty tunnels from underground mining have been filled with gas. This gas is also poisonous. When the pressure of gas increases, the earth bursts and there is loss of life and property. All this has happened due to corruption during coal mining in the past. After extraction of coal, the empty space is filled with sand, but a scam took place in the sand also. How many people have spent billions and trillions of rupees to extinguish the fire beneath the earth. Smoke is always coming out from the walls of houses in many areas of Dhanbad including Shankarpur, Lilori Pathra, Kajarpatti, Balu Gaddi. These walls can fall any time. There is always a possibility of ground subsidence or bursting here. People have now lost faith in the government and the system. (IANS)