By Sugyan Choudhury
[...] In an interview with The Pioneer, Dr Jena spoke to Sugyan Choudhury, who cautioned the government about the consequence of illegal mining.
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Why is the mining of minerals disastrous in nature?
The mining of minerals, either underground or on the surface, is very much hazardous. Mineral-rich countries, including India, are facing a lot of disaster risks during mining, mostly because of unscientific and careless practices. Hundreds of mineworkers die every year due to disastrous situations all over the world, particularly when conducting coal and hard rock mining. The disasters can happen through natural phenomena or by human beings. Natural disasters may be caused due to flood, earthquake, volcanic eruption, landslides, etc., whereas manmade ones are mainly due to fire, explosion, inundation, slope failure, subsidence and accidents.
How do manmade disasters occur?
Fire is caused particularly in underground coalmines due to the presence of methane and can also be due to the combustion of coal mines exposed to the atmosphere in opencast coalmines. Inundation takes place due to the flooding of mines by surface runoff into work areas, both above and below the ground, and also due to the improper design of mining activities. Subsidence occurs on the top surface of underground mines due to the extraction of minerals, which leaves voids. Slope failure takes place mostly in opencast mines, which is caused due to the presence of weak plains, along which a large chunk of the sides of an opencast mine slides down. Explosions in an underground mine are caused due to the presence of inflammable gases and also because of heavy blasting. Accidents take place due to a lack of facilities and proper training of the workers.
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What are the ways to prevent mine disasters?
It is highly essential to effectively manage disasters that occur due to both natural and manmade hazards. The disasters can be prevented or their effects can be greatly minimised by framing effective disaster management plans for prevention, mitigation and preparedness, and strictly implementing these. As the mining activities are quite vulnerable to disasters, each mine should have a good disaster management plan with mechanisms and experts to implement the plan properly. The programme of implementation should be supervised by experts in the District Disaster Management Cells, under the direct supervision of the Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS), the Union Ministry of Labour and also the relevant mining authorities in the respective states. In addition, mineworker should be trained properly and necessary facilities should be provided to them. All efforts should be made by the state governments to stop illegal mining. Adequate environment protection measures should be planned and implemented under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes to take care of the health and safety of workers and people living in the surrounding areas.
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