The Dark Earth: Coal Mining and Tribal Lives of Jharkhand
Mining in Jharkhand has not just uprooted villages, it has uprooted forests on an even larger magnitude. Its impact can be easily understood by the imbalance caused in the seasons. State capital Ranchi and the plateaus of Latehar and Gumla were among the cities that were known as hill stations, but now even these pockets are experiencing intense heat waves. In Ramgarh and Hazaribagh districts, there are many such coal mines that have uprooted hundreds of Dalit and Adivasi villages. It is difficult to make a count of the total number of villages across Jharkhand that have been destroyed by the mines. According to a report by the Indian Council of Social Science Research, 1.5 million people have been displaced in the country between 1951 and 1995 due to mining and other development projects. There is no precise data available after this.
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