Need for Clean Coal Mining in India

Mining activity also create tremendous pressure on local flora and fauna particularly where diversion of forest land takes place for mining purposes. The effect of mining on ground water level, silting of surrounding water bodies and land are also great concern. Coal mining contributes largely towards economic development of the nation although it has a great impact upon the human health. It also has its impact on socio-cultural aspect of the workers and people residing in and around coal mining areas. Thus a holistic approach for taking up to mining activities, keeping in mind concerns for adjoining habitats and ecosystem, is the need of the hour. This requires identification of various sites where minerals exist and various factors ranging from appropriate angle of slope of overburden dumps, safe disposal drains, and safe techniques to various silt control structures etc. In India Coal companies are now working towards “clean coal�? strategies, which aim to reduce environmental impacts. The reduced ash contents of the washed coal increase the thermal efficiency of combustion. Which in turn make a direct impact on reducing emission of pollutants. However the coal washing requires extra water and it can turn towards a pollution free society.

minimum generation of waste matters and greenhouse gases. The inefficiency of mining and coal preparation are manifested during combustion not only in form of inefficient power plants but also heavy emission of pollutants damaging even the ozone layers. Various technologies are undergoing development in order to improve the quality of coal during and after mining and provide an environmentally satisfactory method of using coal as a basic fuel for power production. There is also a need for improving the technology for transport and beneficiation so that the pollution level in the end user may be controlled to make the earth worth living.

SOURCES OF DATA & METHODOLOGY:
The methodology of the study includes collection of research materials by field study and observation methods. The present study is based on both Primary and Secondary data.

STUDY AREA:
One of the important coalfield in India as well as of West Bengal, namely Raniganj coalfield has been selected for research purpose. The Raniganj coal field is bounded by latitudes 23° 35° N to 23° 55° N and longitudes 86° 45° E to 87° 20° E is the most important coalfield of West Bengal (Burdwan District) lies in the Damodar valley region is surrounded by Durgapur -Asansol Industrial belt. For empirical study, another study area of Jharkhand namely, Jharia coalfield has been selected for research purpose. The Jharia coalfield is located in the Dhanbad district of Jharkhand state at a distance of 260 km from Kolkata towards Delhi. It is bounded by latitudes 23° 38° N to 23° 52° N and longitudes 86° 08° E to 86° 29° E.

COAL MINING TECHNOLOGY:
India has emerged as the third largest coal producer of the world having nearly 6.4% share in total world coal production though its reserve is limited to only 1% of the world's reserve estimated as 205.9 billion tons. The energy consumption rate of India has been nearly 7% during this decade and coal alone has accounted for nearly 70% of the total commercial energy.
The present energy production of India is only 2.3% of world in comparison to 10% for China and 21% for the USA. The demand for electrical energy in India is growing at a rate of 9% per year which can be met by additional power generation by coal fired generators. The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has been playing a pivotal role in this direction with nearly 15245 MW installed power generation capacity. To meet the rising demand, country has opened up its boundary to global community including import of coal and development of captive mines.
The coal quality affects every aspect of power plants including maintenance, performance and efficiency. Every step of mining, transportation and beneficiation of coal has serious impact over the environment, climatic change and ecology. The mining sequence, method of mining, ground control, and control of dilution and mixing of waste rock affect the quality of coal.
Clean coal mining initiative has become essential in view of extensive damage to the environment and ecology with the surface mining and even with underground mining. The ash content of the inferior coal with the surface mining is increasing with the size of earth moving machinery when the bands are worked along with the coal. Mining of gassy coal seams and its combustion for power generation are the major sources of methane and carbon dioxide.  Hence, it is clear from the above discussion that clean coal mining concept reduce the harmful effects of coal mining and improve the environmental status in coal mining region.

COAL MINING AND GLOBAL WARMING:
Mining is an ancient and one of most useful industrial for the economical development of any nation. About 75% of the Worlds mineral output comes from opencast mines. Opencast mines need land for pit and dumping ground. Thus, the ecosystem degradation is more from opencast than by underground mines.
Coal mining has a special significance, due to its highly pollution nature. Coal has been one of the most economical minerals as it is a fossil fuel. The coal reserves in India are indicated at 200 billion tones and almost 73% of reserves are inferior grade non -coking coals. As such, dependence on the poor quality coal (35 to 48 % ash), even with comparatively low sulphur content less than 0.6 % poses significant environmental problems which need to be addressed through appropriate management and technological interventions, throughout the coal-cycle.
The relative share of coal as a fuel in electricity generation as well as industrials and domestic sectors has been on the increase over the last two decades. Sector wise coal demand projections are given in the following table.

EFFECT OF COAL POLLUTANTS ON GREENHOUSE:
Greenhouse effect may be broadly defined as increase in earth temperature due to heat trapping. Gases such as CO 2 , CH 4 , NO X , SO 2 water vapors, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), etc are the major "greenhouse" gases. Presence of these gases in small quantities helps to maintain the present mean temperature of + 15 0 C. The earth mean temperature would be -18 0 C, if the "greenhouse effect" does not exist.
The pollutants from coal combustion are mainly CO 2 and NO 2 become increasingly oxidized in the atmosphere. This causes increase in the acidity of rain water. Dry deposition of SPM collected over trees in the night due to cooling of the atmosphere. In the day time these particles increases the temperature of trees leaf. The soft part of the leaf cannot sustain the increased temperature and ultimately, it loses the fertility and growth. This phenomenon is very common near the opencast mines and the power generation plants.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are major concern because of their double effect, by being a radioactive gas and because of their influence on the stratospheric ozone layer. The combustion of fossil fuels and other human activates produce CFCs. The following table given the annual increase rate of radioactive gases.

GLOBAL WARMINIG:
Changes in climate likely to be brought about by global greenhouse effect are threat to the future welfare of humanity. Widespread fear of these effects and depletion of atmospheric ozone has created a new wave in international scientific, technological and geopolitical discussions. At present, the contribution of carbon dioxide to global warming is roughly 50%. The other 50% is due to the other gases, such as methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons.
These later gases are 1,000 to 10,000 times more effective than carbon dioxide more effective than carbon dioxide. At current rates of emission, committed global warming will increase by 0.2 0 C to 0.5 0 C every 10 years. This temperature rise would cause the water in the oceans to expand and the massive polar glaciers to melt. It was predicted in 1989 that this would cause the sea level to rise up to 0.3m by 21 st century.
Greenhouse effect is caused by excess CO 2 in the atmosphere which is the result of extensive burning of fossil fuels, and deforestation which has accelerated during the past decade.

ROLE OF COAL MINING FOR DEGRADING ENVIRONMENT:
Mining is the basic industry for development of any nation worldwide, opencast mining

MEASURES TO PROTECT GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT:
Protection and preservation of our global environment has been a growing concern al over the world. There is a need to initiate immediate action in the following areas, so that

CONCLUSIONS:
Climate change is now given the highest priority in the list of global environmental problems. The gases and pollutants emitted by coal extraction and combustion are factors that interconnect energy security, air pollution and greenhouse effect. In order to understand the implications of the global greenhouse effect we need reliable information on the rate of emission of carbon dioxide and certain other trace gases as a result of coal extraction and burning. Energy security will figure as the main global issued if there is to be concentrated effort to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions. Solar-power satellites are a serious option for the future. Heat mining, wind energy and biogas can also become alternative sources of energy instead of coal. Initiative should be taken by all people to protect our global environment from pollution. There is no specific legislation in India concerning subsidence, but as per common law, the coal company is to acquire the surface right of the property in which subsidence may occur due to underground mining. In some countries, there are specific legislation guiding the coal industry in matters of subsidence and perhaps such enactment may be the necessity of the day in our country also. In the foregoing discussions an attempt has been made to clarify the coal mining activities and its residual impact on environment and human health. It is also clear that mining is a site specific activity and is done at the sites where mineral exist. Also, mining is considered as an environmentally unfriendly activity.