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Photos: The Resource Conflict in India's Coal-Mining State

February 13th, 2012
Miners, working for state owned companies, break coal and load it onto trucks. (Erik Messori)
A miner breaks up a large piece of coal. (Erik Messori)
An open-air mine near Dhanbad runs 24 hours a day extracting coal. (Erik Messori)
In Dhanbad, a doctor reads his diagnosis to a miner. (Erik Messori)
Miners prepare to load coal onto a truck. (Erik Messori)
Miners pose for a photo in a mine near Dhanbad. (Erik Messori)
A miner smokes a cigarette during a rare break. (Erik Messori)
Teenagers jump onto moving trucks, risking their lives to steal a few lumps of coal for the black market. (Erik Messori)
An illegal miner rests and breaths carbon monoxide coming from underground burning coal. (Erik Messori)
Women steal coal from the Dhanbad area. (Erik Messori)
A miner at the entry of a state-owned mine in Jharia. (Note the sign.) (Erik Messori)
Patients line up to see one of the few doctors who specializes in respiratory diseases  in the Dhanbad.
(Erik Messori)
A child collects small fragments of coal. (Erik Messori)
A miner transports coal. (Erik Messori)
A miner bathes in the river. (Erik Messori)
A miner with serious respiratory problems is treated with oxygen. (Erik Messori)
Miners sip on chai after work in the only public place in the village. (Erik Messori)
The Bokaro power plant burns coal extracted from Dhanbad and Jharia. (Erik Messori)
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Jharkhand, a state in Eastern India, is known for its vast mineral resources and for producing the world’s coal, second only to China. But it is also plagued by social inequalities, environmental degradation and a lack of good governance to address these problems.

In 2010, Italy-based freelance photojournalist Erik Messori documented the poor working conditions miners endure, the health consequences they face, and the degrading environment around them. He reported that the coal mining industry in Eastern India is “destroying entire forests and the life expectancy of its workers in order to satisfy the increasing demands of progress.”

The central state, which grants concessions to privately-owned companies, controls these once-agricultural lands and has converted them into open-air mines that continuously pollute the air.

As a result, entire forests have been cut down; groundwater aquifers are being contaminated; and populations that once depended on these lands are forced to look elsewhere for their livelihoods.

“These thousands of people, without economic opportunities, are forced to work illegally, in nonexistent safety conditions and with state police always on their backs,” said Messori.

Studies have shown that exposure to air and water pollution has caused the population to suffer from respiratory, blood, and water-borne diseases. Messori writes that while villages face no running water, sewage system, or breathable air, “local and state infrastructures, which should ensure even just minimum health care, are totally insufficient and inadequate.”

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Shreeya Sinha is an award-winning Journalist, Multimedia Producer and Social Media Editor for Asia Society. She was raised in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and India.
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