Summary
Thousands of inhabitants in the rural areas near the Jharia coalfields continue to lead a perilous life atop a tinderbox with the 2009 master plan of Jharia Rehabilitation and Development Authority (JRDA) to relocate them to a township in Belgharia moving at snail’s pace.
Staying on land prone to subsidence with a century-old inferno beneath, the living conditions have further deteriorated due to largescale environmental pollution, caused by opencast mining projects and ancillary industrial activities.
Underground mining before the coal sector was nationalised in 1971 and subterranean fires in the unfilled pits have made several area......