Commonly presented as arising from poor policing and corruption, and as destroying the environmental commons," illegal" production and marketing of coal is a significant aspect of everyday life in eastern India. Representations of illegality hide unpleasant social realities of the coal mining tracts: poor environmental performance of the state-owned mining sector, social disruption and displacement of communities, and a general decay in the traditional subsistence base. This paper works through the complex layers of mining laws and .
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Bans on coal mining have been implemented in two tribal majority states in India's north-east frontier; Nagaland and Meghalaya. In Nagaland the state government imposed the ban in an attempt to capture control of coal extraction and trade, while in Meghalaya India's National Green Commission imposed the ban over concern for the environment and labour conditions. In both cases local communities have opposed the bans, and in some areas resumed mining under the authority of tribal councils and powerful civil society actors. In this paper we explore the politics of coal extraction that resulted in these bans and the response of communities and authorities. In doing so we made three main arguments that contribute to understanding of coal and communities in frontier regions where state control is partial and the legacy of armed conflict is powerful. First, in both locations the majority of the coal mining activity has been initiated and managed by members of tribal communities rather than profit-driven outsiders. Second, in contrast to other contexts in India (notably Orissa and Jharkhand) where large state or private enterprises seek to modify the law to enable coal extraction, in Nagaland and Meghalaya it has been communities that resent and challenge state and national laws being applied to their lands. Third, the right to extract coal is connected to the right of tribal communities to determine what happens on their lands.
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Argues that there are four or even five, overlapping, coal economies in India. These economies arise from regulatory framework that neglects livelihoods of the poor. Uses the diverse economy framework to explain how these different worlds function. Estimates formal, informal non-legal and informal illegal coal production and numbers. Numbers dependent on these worlds encourage rethinking of coal governance. a b s t r a c t Coal dominates energy production of modern India, shaping the economic and political milieu of the country and dictating its energy future. But invisible to the state's view of coal running the nation, are roles played by this commodity in the livelihoods of millions of poor who live on the coal tracts of the country. In this paper, I argue that there are four coal economies — with yet another one lurking within or following behind as a shadow — in India. Each of these economies has different meanings of coal to those who are involved in the economy, producing the'diverse worlds' of coal. To substantiate my argument , I critically analyse official and field-based primary data within a'diverse economies framework' to present the intricate interlinkages among these worlds. I show that the multiple coal worlds are neither tiered in a hierarchical manner, nor'parallel' in the sense of dualism implied in a simplified formal-informal dichotomy. Rather, these worlds of coal have different actors, and their domains are ruled by different norms and values about the qualities of coal as a material commodity; yet they overlap and intersect with each other through their complex labour regimes. Crown
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A characteristic of the Jharia-Raniganj coalfields area is the sight of bicycles carrying sacks of coal, the bike being used as an inanimate packhorse with men pushing them along the roads connecting the mines with the neighbouring towns instead of pedalling. This is one tiny part of an extensive illegal coal supply network involving millions of tonnes annually. Who are these coal cycle wallahs, how much coal do they carry, where does the coal come from, and where does it go?
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Over 40 Years of Coal Mining in Meghalaya: What does it mean for the region’s Workers?
The Jaintia Hills region of the State of Meghalaya had come under the spotlight a month ago when 15 miners were trapped in one of its notorious ‘rat-hole’ mines at Ksan, never to be recovered. There are two significant question that have been raised here- Why is coal mining still going on in the state even when the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had all such operations banned 5 years ago? Why has the state been in complete denial of the risks to human lives and done nothing for the social security of the workers, the trafficking issue being a completely different area of administrative negligence? The paper will aim to explore these two fundamental questions and attempt to understand why the legislations around the coal mining industry are so archaic (recently it was suggested that the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulations Act of 1957, be invoked) and the only major change brought in the situation is a 2012 ruling from the NGT, a body that is mandated to have a pro-environment bias. Socio-economic problems arising from local ownership of natural resources owing to Meghalaya coming under the 6 th Schedule of the Indian Constitution. There have been no developments on the policy front either prior to or post the ban to understand what it means for the tens of thousands of People who has lost employment. This has left them to look for illegal mining options that are at an even greater danger of violating human rights because they are not supposed to happen in the first place, hence regulations and safety guidelines are not even imagined. The coal story in Meghalaya is a horrifying blend of bad governance, poorly crafted laws and a desperately surplus labour Market. The paper will finally explore how mainstream politics, aided by the media has failed to do justice to these desperate miners in the North-eastern Hill state of Meghalaya.
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