The Cremation Of A Live Town…!

Jharia (Jharkhand):-Population around 4 lakhs,Railways station closed, hospital laying defunct, the whole sale market wore a deserted and distracted look, people and families are fleeing or have fled out of fear, Not a single restaurant or hotel to stay on.! This is not a picture of any war- torned town of Jharkhand state but a highly profitable coal field which is doomed by under ground fire for several years!

There are around 60 such spots of fire and it’s fast catching up to more. These under ground fore was first acquainted in 1916 by One East India Company and got under control by regularly filling up sand at those firing spots. But after their departure the sand filling work got slacked and the fire spread to another 70 spots! Although until 1972 the concerned authority the,BCCL, was able to extinguished fire at 10 spots, but there after the sand filling work was stopped abruptly !

This is not that the fire can’t be extinguished and there’s no dearth of fund for it. The World Bank and Indian government had given millions of Rupees for that purpose but strangely it all shown on papers only! Actually some sections of people do not want to douse the fires as it could affect their flow of huge profits which comes illegally through these coal fields. For instance, about seven years ago when an American company was invited by the authority for solution, they really extinguished the fire within three minutes with help of a chemical. But later the company was forgotten and their service was not taken for some reason or other! Similarly when a India based consultancy firm claimed that they could extinguish these under ground fire, it was ignored again due to pressure of Mafia.

The BCCL official and mafia syndicate which is making millions of Rupees out of illegal coal trade and tenders of sand filling work is the main reason behind these under ground fires. And sadly the town is being cremated live!