COAL DRIVEN - Geography and You

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COAL DRIVEN - Geography and You
`120                                                            A De v e l op m e n t a n d E n v i ron m e n t Mag a z i n e
                                          Geography and You.com
G’nY SINCE 2001 Vol. 15, Issue 89, 2015

Coal dependency
   Allowing private
   merchant miners could
   strengthen the sector

Coal seam fires
 A seam on fire may
 continue to burn for
 thousands of years

                                                     COAL DRIVEN           An understanding of where, how and why coal
                                                                           is so important for India
COAL DRIVEN - Geography and You
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COAL DRIVEN - Geography and You
GeoGraphy and you
                                        Vol. 15  Issue 89  March - aprIl 2015

c oa l dr i v e n
6 Discovering Coal
     Sulagna Chattopadhyay

16   The Coalgate Concern
     Staff RepoRteR

20   Coal Dependency in India’s Energy Needs
     abhijit SaRkaR

28   Coal Auction in India
     Rittwik ChatteRjee and SRobonti Chattopadhyay

32   Coal-based Economy in India: Post 2030
     nitya nanda, and SaSwata ChaudhuRy

36   Can Coal Ever be Eco-friendly?
     Staff RepoRteR

42   Coal Seam Fires
     Rina MukheRji

S a n i tat ion p e r Sp e c t i v e S
48 Decentralised Sanitation
     Rina MukheRji

52   Subsidies can Improve Sanitation, Shows Study
     Staff RepoRteR

di S aSt e r M a naG e M e n t
56 Urban Flooding in India
     C RaMaChandRaiah

i n dia ou t d o or S
60 Singalila
     ShReya SikdeR and SuMit ChakRaboRty

r e p ort Watc h
47 Stranded Assets and Subcritical Coal:
   The Risk to Companies and Investors,
   March 2015.
50 South Asia Report: Drinking water and
   sanitation, 2014.
                                                        Coal powered
in Brief                                                brick kilns dot
2 Editor’s note 4 Letters 13 The great Indian          Bagaha, Bihar
coal 14 News update 19 Term power                        in multitudes
27 Coal production target 41 Snippets on coal       resulting in heavy
46 Term power rating                                      air pollution.

Expert Panel
             Prithvish Nag                          Saraswati Raju                          B Meenakumari
             Vice Chancellor,                       Professor, CSRD,                        Deputy Director General,
             MG Kashi Vidyapeeth,                   Jawaharlal Nehru                        Fisheries, Indian Council of
             Varanasi.                              University, New Delhi.                  Agricultural Research, New Delhi.
             Ajit Tyagi                             Sachidanand Sinha                       Rasik Ravindra
             Air Vice Marshal (Retd)                Professor, CSRD,                        Panikkar Professor at ESSO,
             Former DG,                             Jawaharlal Nehru                        Ministry of Earth Sciences,
             IMD, New Delhi.                        University, New Delhi.                  Former Director, NCAOR.

                                                                             GeoGraphy and you  March - april 2015        1
COAL DRIVEN - Geography and You
2
March - april 2015  GeoGraphy and you
                                         PhOTO: Raniganj, WesT Bengal; aMaR KuMaR nayaK
COAL DRIVEN - Geography and You
[Editor’s note]

Dear Readers,

I
    ndia’s economy is driven by coal. Mining,    tread the developmental path abandoned
    especially the opencast type practiced in    by many, and are destined to depend on
    India, requires large tracts of land to be   coal for our energy needs. Although India
stripped apart. Apart from this the number       has an ambitious renewable agenda,
of environmental challenges associated           the sector is poorly organised. The
with coal power is huge—soil erosion, dust,      capacity addition notwithstanding, actual
noise and water pollution, and impacts on        augmentation of energy needs in terms
public health and local biodiversity. However,   of electricity produced, is still nominal.
we are nowhere near giving up coal in the        Coal powered development, much in the
future. In order to sleep with the enemy,        same way as petroleum is a multi-crore
we need to take urgent steps to modernise        business. Stakeholders are likely to lobby
mining and power operations. Going by            for continued access to polluting power. It
several news and not-for-profit organisations’   is only unfettered political and civil society’s
reports, life around mining areas or thermal     will that can turn this around and usher in an
power plants is bleak. The water and air         emission-free future.
quality in these regions are deteriorating          This issue has dedicatedly covered every
abysmally. Moreover, technologies to clean       aspect of coal. A sub-section deals with
up the act is expensive. Thus modernising        sanitation, global reports and urban flooding,
operations or installing new ‘clean’ measures    a challenging new phenomenon that calls for
is a tall order.                                 better planning.
   Countries all over the world are moving          Happy Reading.
away from coal to either petroleum or
renewables. We, however, continue to

                                                          GeoGraphy and you  March - april 2015    3
COAL DRIVEN - Geography and You
G’nY ran a debate about India’s education scenario between April 12 and 13, 2015 on ‘Geography
                                 and You-Facebook’. Readers were asked to respond to the need and quality of education in India
                                 in the backdrop of a parallel education system, especially coaching that operates bereft of a
GeoGraphy and you
                                 degree. Despite the fact that coaching institutes may have a good method of teaching and often
        editOr                   can impart more education in a short span of time than many other ‘reputed’ institutes, yet the
Sulagna Chattopadhyay            fact that these places do not have any authenticity and at the same time charge heavily, is what
      leGal advisOr              the debate is about. The respondents were asked whether this parallel system should continue, or
    KriShnendu datta
                                 whether governmental aided educational institutes should work harder to fill the gap.
    cOver phOtOGraph
    raniganJ Coal Field            For more details log on to our website www.geographyandyou.com
     WorKer By praSad
    research credit
   lightS (learning in           Year after Year, the Indian education                              and ideals to every individual.
 geography, humanitieS,
teChnology and SCienCe)          system tries to aim at quantity instead                            —aShfaq ahmad mir
    a not-For-proFit             of quality; perhaps because quality
  reSearCh Foundation
                                 of education is difficult to measure as                            the GOvernment needs to put vocational
       phOtO team
     praSad, Vinod m.            compared to quantity. This results in the                          courses in place. It should remain facilitating
                                 mass production of graduates armed                                 such education with proper funding,
     iris publicatiOn
         pvt. ltd.               with degrees, yet lacking basic skills for                         infrastructure and policy making. All
   reGistered Office             the job market. This is where the parallel                         vocational and specialised higher education
111/9 K g, aruna aSaF ali        education system steps in. They try to                             and research should be handed over to
marg, neW delhi -110070
                                 bridge the knowledge gaps of a student by                          industry, so that students are imparted the
 business develOpment
          Office                 charging obnoxiously high fees and offering                        right skills needed for jobs in the commercial
       a 216-217,                quick fix solutions. This parallel education                       sector. It can confine itself with general
 Somdatt ChamBerS-1,
   BiKaJi Cama plaCe,            system is not a disease but the symptom                            education in science, commerce, arts,
   neW delhi -110066             of a disease. The main problem is our sick                         culture, and mass schooling.
  phone: 011-41551436
                                 education system. Students enter schools                           —n C meena
    cOrrespOndence/              and colleges not to learn but to get degrees.
     editOrial Office
         1584, B-1,              This needs to be reformed by allocating                            there is a pOlicY paralYsis in implementing and
       VaSant KunJ,              more funds for the education sector and                            imparting education. Significant amounts
    neW delhi-110070
          phone:                 improving it in terms of quality with better                       are spent on fetching good grades and not
       011-26122789              teacher- student ratios, infrastructure, skill                     on quality education. Morals and ethics
 For neW SuBSCriptionS,          training, and the like. We need to act fast                        are compromised and never paid heed to,
   reneWalS, enquirieS
     pleaSe ContaCt              as we are on the cusp of demographic                               without realising their significance for a
  CirCulation manager            dividend. The youth of this great nation is                        civilized nation. At the primary and secondary
      e-mail: editor@
    geographyandyou.com          waiting for an education revolution.                               level, education is merely a lucrative
 pleaSe ViSit our Site at        —Sam Joe                                                           profit-making business. Students need to
 www.geographyandyou.com                                                                            be trained in conceptual understanding
For Further inFormation.
                                 Our educatiOnal sYstem needs to be geared                          to gain command over their subjects. For
©iris publicatiOn pvt. ltd.      toward skills. There is no match between                           employment, job-oriented training institutes
   all rightS reSerVed
 throughout the World.           skills and jobs offered. Graduates in                              or industry–oriented institutes for skill
   reproduCtion in any
                                 geography, such as me, are unfortunately,                          development at the college level run by the
 manner, part or Whole,
  iS prohiBited. printed,        offered only teachers’ posts by the Kerala                         state are the need of the hour.
puBliShed and oWned By
Sulagna Chattopadhyay.
                                 Public Service commission in our State. Is                         —Prabhakar PraSad
                                 there no other opening?
        printed at
 india graphiC SyStemS           —aSwin UnnikriShnan                                                the indian educatiOn sYstem is no system at all,
   pVt. ltd. F-23, oKhla                                                                            if we look at the present scenario. Passing
induStrial area, phaSe-i,
    neW delhi - 110020.          indOctrinatiOn is what goes by the name of                         has become far easier and the quality
      published at               education today. A student is stuffed with                         has enormously declined. Maharashtra
  iriS puBliCation pVt.          facts and expected to be ready for a job.                          government, for instance, started the policy
  ltd. geography and
 you doeS not taKe any           There is no development of personality or                          of encouraging non-grant private colleges.
   reSponSiBility For            modification of behaviour for the better,                          There were many more colleges to get
 returning unSoliCited
 puBliCation material.           with values that can nourish an individual.                        admitted to, and admission became easier.
all diSputeS are SuBJeCted to
                                 Producing good quality economists can                              The student who earlier needed at least 60
 the exCluSiVe JuriSdiCtion oF   certainly lift our declining economy,                              per cent in the science aggregate for getting
Competent CourtS and ForumS
   in delhi/neW delhi only.
                                 but only if it is propped up on quality                            admitted to an engineering or medical could
                                 education that provides the right values                           now make do with just 35-45 per cent. The

4      March - april 2015  GeoGraphy and you
COAL DRIVEN - Geography and You
education system was eased to make it                                                                                                                              the parallel sYstem is worsening Indian
universal, but we have ended up dropping                                                                                                                           education and affecting its net output. It
the quality. Right now, we need responsible                                                                                                                        is only adding to the woes of parents and
institutes and a responsible government.                                                                                                                           their wards. It is high time we did away
—SwaPnil wankawar                                                                                                                                                  with the parallel system, and put in efforts            diGital editiOns

                                                                                                                                                                   to strengthen the existing government-run
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           g’ny iS aVailaBle
Yes, there shOuld be a change in the education                                                                                                                     educational system with better finances                    on digital
system. Education should breed confidence,                                                                                                                         and planning.                                            platFormS too
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            From January
virtue and values. Education should never                                                                                                                          —ShaileSh kUmar                                          2015 onWardS.
mean rote learning of facts.                                                                                                                                                                                               SpeCial liFetime
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              diSCountS.
—raJeSwari rao                                                                                                                                                     vOcatiOnal cOurses are what we need to make
                                                                                                                                                                   our students self-reliant and job-worthy, if
hOlistic educatiOn is the need of the hour.                                                                                                                        the country is to grow and develop.
Concepts should be strengthened to build                                                                                                                           —ogUndiPe olaolUwa adebayo
the right foundation on which knowledge is
acquired. Students need to be guided with                                                                                                                          educatiOn sYstem shOuld change according to         public Service advert ‘O Bhai
the right amount of love and empathy by                                                                                                                            today’s requirements, if the nation                  Sahab’. Watch film on g’ny
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          website and youtube.
teachers to get ahead in life.                                                                                                                                     must grow.                                                  Share freely.
—divya raJU                                                                                                                                                        —rina Shah

                                                                  A De v e l op m e n t A n D e n v i ron m e n t m Ag A z i n e
                                                                                                                                                  January-         canals for irrigation etc. — you do not require
  `75

                                          GEoGraphY and You.com

                                                                                                                                                  February 2015,   a new law for acquiring such land. As far as
G’nY SINCE 2001 Vol. 15, ISSuE 88, 2015

                              Let me first                                                                                                                         the construction of hostel for tribal students
                              congratulate the                                                                                                                     is concerned, it can’t be constructed in fields.
                              entire team of G’nY                                                                                                                  State governments allot hundreds of acres
                              for bringing out                                                                                                                     of land to universities, most part of which
                              such an important                                                                                                                    remain unutilised. The state governments

  Livelihood
                         and
                              and topical issue
                              pertaining to the
                                                Land                                                                   Smart City
                                                                                                                       Experimenting on
                                                                                                                       cities in India to make
                                                                                                                       it efficient and service
                                                                                                                       oriented
                                                                                                                                                                   can easily earmark 10 per cent of this land
                                                                                                                                                                   for making hostels for tribal students. Further
  Perspectives on land
  acquisition and its impacts
                              livelihood of majority                                                                                                               statistics show that large tracts of land already
of India’s population. The Land Acquisition                                                                                                                        acquired and allotted are lying unutilised. The
Act 2013 passed during the UPA regime                                                                                                                              government should take all these facts in to
duly supported by the BJP was perfectly all                                                                                                                        account and not insist on changing the
right. The BJP leaders have not been able                                                                                                                          laws unnecessarily.
to defend their change of stand on the Bill so                                                                                                                     —raJendra PraSad, Patna
quickly. The promulgation of Ordinance twice
has placed the government on a slippery                                                                                                                            i am a reGular reader of G’nY and through your
wicket. The reaction of the government                                                                                                                             magazine I want to express my views on the
through its senior ministers does not hold                                                                                                                         Land Acquisition Bill and government’s stand
water. For example, Ravi Shanker Prasad                                                                                                                            on it. I can see an eerie similarity with the
questioning the lack of legal understanding                                                                                                                        Lokpal movement and the Opposition’s stand
of Rahul Gandhi, said on television that                                                                                                                           against the Land Acquisition Ordinance. The
government requires land for making canals                                                                                                                         movement against the Congress gave birth
for improving irrigation and land for making                                                                                                                       to the Aam Aadmi Party. The fall out of the
hostels for tribal students. It is ridiculous                                                                                                                      re-promulgation of the Ordinance has already
to hear that from a senior minister of the                                                                                                                         made many parties come together and this
government. First of all, there was never a                                                                                                                        will have a significant impact on the Bihar
bar on acquiring land for public purposes viz.                                                                                                                     elections, which is not far away.
laying railway lines, making roads, making                                                                                                                          —ShamS iqbal, Gwaliar

                                                      write editorial office: geography and you, 1584, B-1, Vasant Kunj, new delhi-110070. letters may be edited for clarity and length. include
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                                                                                                                                                                                              GeoGraphy and you  March - april 2015              5
COAL DRIVEN - Geography and You
[Coal Driven]

                                             By Sulagna Chattopadhyay

                             Discovering

Coal
6   March - april 2015  GeoGraphy and you
COAL DRIVEN - Geography and You
The Gondwana bituminous coal
                                                                           in India is primarily found in the
                                                                            river valleys of Damodar, Son,
                                                                                     Godavari and Wardha.
PHOTO COURTESY: JHaRia,JHaRkHand; SamRaT35

                                             The plant inhabitants of prehistoric swamps serve
                                              as a source of coal. Peat, lignite, bituminous and
                                               anthracite are the major varieties of coal found.
                                                             GeoGraphy and you  March - april 2015        7
COAL DRIVEN - Geography and You
U
                nassuming it may be, the black           transformation of coal from plant remains, tem-
                lumps of coal at your barbecue           perate to tropical climate and moderate to heavy
                party, but its strength is legendary.    rainfall was required. Transformation of coal
                Coal has been one of the most            began with biochemical erosion and ended with
                widely used sources of energy            chemical conversion in presence of high tem-
either for domestic use, or a fuel for power gen-        perature and pressure exerted by the overlying
erating plants or for that matter in railways and        sediments. In fact almost all the delicate parts of
steamships. Before the humans knew that use of           a plant are preserved and ultimately transformed
coal, wood and charcoal were used as fuels. The          into coal. Over time, layer upon layer was laid
Graeco-Romans were the first people in history to        down, giving rise to the sedimentary process.
use coal as a domestic fuel.                             Followed by intense heat, and compression, earth
  Gradually, its use spread to other countries in        movements and contortions, the vegetation was
Europe where coal was used to keep homes warm            compacted and the carbon in it turned to coal.
in the cold weather. However, it was from the late
18th century onwards that coal began to be used          Coal Forming Forest Plants
in the steam engines and became the cornerstone          Leaves, stems, spores, tree trunks, branches, plant
of the industrial revolution in Britain. Thus            roots, resins, charred wood from swamp fires,
began the commercial mining of coal in different         other organic and mineral (inorganic) matter
countries. Today, apart from being an important          were deposited within the ancient swamp basin.
source of energy, coal is used in the production         Accumulation of mud, silt and other sedimentary
of materials like tar, pitch (this is a solid volatile   rock forming substances with these materials,
substance obtained from the distillation of coal in      constitute a coal bed. Coal, therefore occurs in a
the total absence of air, not to be confused with        series of layers called ‘seam’ which are separated by
coking coal), ammonia, fertiliser, drugs and also        layers of other rocks. A stratified scale can establish
in the production of dyes.                               the age of coal deposits and their position in allied
                                                         beds. Such specific information can establish the
Forests of Carbon                                        suitability of coal for energy production, chemical
Large, heavy creatures roamed the earth mil-             separation and manufacture of steel.
lions of years ago. Dinosaurs were a reality in the         The plant inhabitants of Palaeozoic-Mesozoic
carboniferous age. Move your mental eye away             (and to some extent Cenozoic) swamps serve as
from the dinosaurs in the movie Jurassic Park,           a source of coal. An enormous number of fossil
and focus on the lush trees and thick vegetation         evidences recovered so far prove the presence of
that provided the backdrop of heightened action.         world’s first great forests in the permo-carbonif-
That lush vegetation is coal today. In the geologi-      erous period. This forest association, comprising
cal time scale Jurassic and Triassic are part of the     a variety of plant groups such as lycopsids, horse-
carboniferous age.                                       tails, ferns, pteridosperms, coniferophytes, etc.,
   Although scientists have unanimously admit-           had faced mass extinction at the end of Permian
ted that coal is a product of plant origin, its region   (about 250 million years ago). The complete burial
of production is open to debate. Some argue that         and transformation of these plants resulted in the
coal originated in a sea full of algae or in lakes.      Carboniferous coal (estimated age 280-360 mil-
Others argue that the vast quantities of wood fell       lion years), which today constitutes the majority
into water bodies and produced coal in situ. A few       of the world’s coal deposits.
think that great forests or woods were caught in a          Besides coal of Permo-Carboniferous origin,
huge drift, pushed by a great flow of water, eventu-     formation also took place in three other geologic
ally producing coal.                                     periods. Thus we have Triassic coal (estimated
   It has been estimated that a 30 cm thick layer        age 205-245 million years), Cretaceous coal (esti-
of bituminous coal required the deposition of            mated age 70-140 million years) and Tertiary coal
plant remains for 125-150 million years while an         (estimated age 2-70 million years). Plant groups
anthracite layer of the same thickness required          like ferns, cycadophytes, ginkgos, coniferophytes
nearly 175-200 million years of deposition. For          and few primitive angiospermous members

8    March - April 2015  Geography and You
Carbon gives coal its Colour anD
                                 also Determines its heating
                                 CapaCity. But, hydrogen, nitrogen,
                                 and substances like sand, mud and
                                 gravel dilute coal’s darkness.
                                 Fig. 1: Different Stages of Coal Formation

                                                                Peat
                                                            The first stage in the
                                                            formation of coal, it
                                                            contains a high amount
                                                            of moisture but very
                                                            low carbon content.
                                                            Peat is a fibrous, pale
                                                            to dark brown coloured,
                                                            somewhat porous
                                                            and a light-weight
                                            Stage 1         intermediate. it looks
                                                            like charcoal and is also
                                                            known as bog coal.

                                                                                                                                             Bituminous

                                                                                        Lignite                                    Stage 3

                                                                           also called brown                             This is the most widely used
                                                                           coal, it is usually soft                      coal type in the world. By
                                                                           and crumbly. lignite                          the increasing pressure
                                                                           is formed from peat                           and temperature of the
                                                      Stage 2              after the evaporation                         overlying sediment, lignite
                                                                           of aqueous parts and                          transforms into bituminous.
                                                                           other gases.                                  Hard bituminous coal is dark,
                                                                                                                         powdery in texture and with
                                                                                                                         characteristic stratification.

                                 shared the status of Mesozoic (both for Triassic                 not only gives it its colour but also determines its
                                 and Cretaceous) coal formers. Tertiary coal, the                 heating capacity, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sub-
illUSTRaTiOn: PREROna maJUmdER

                                 youngest among the world’s coal deposits, evolved                stances like sand, mud, gravel dilute and deplete
                                 from perfect preservation of certain deciduous an-               its darkness. Diluters of coal’s dark beauty such as
                                 giospermous genera, ginkgos and some conifers.                   sand gravel, mud and moisture, lower the heating
                                                                                                  capacity too and render certain deposits useless.
                                 coal is not always Black                                         A classification based on heating capacity and
                                 Although chemically coal contains carbon, which                  impurities is given below:

                                                                                                           GeoGraphy and you  March - april 2015         9
Fig. 2: Shaft Mining

                             Smoke escaping to
                             surface due to fire

                                                                                                 Pumping station

                                                                                                                        Surface

                                           Water table

                                                                                                                        305 m

                                              Worker trolly

        Coal
        seam
        fire

                                Lift
                                                                              Water
     Gas bed                                                                  pumping
                                                                              pipe

                                                                                  Gas

                                                                         Accumulated
                                                                         water
                                                                                                                        1500 m
                                                                                                                                  illUSTRaTiOn: PREROna maJUmdER

     Vertical shafts are sunk to reach the coal bed, and a network of galleries is dug underground. lifts or box like
     cages are used to access the mine. Often explosives are set in the coal face for loosening coal into lumps.
     Shaft mining is the most expensive of the mining methods because of the overhead costs of ventilation,
     lighting, water supply and underground haulage. The mining company also must take precautions against such
     possibilities as gas poisoning, explosion, floods and the collapse of tunnel roofs.

10    March - april 2015  GeoGraphy and you
Opencast mining or stripping
is the easiest way to mine. It
hardly disturbs the underlying
                                                         deposits makes bituminous coal the most popular
                                                         industrial choice. It is this coal when heated in a

strata, although large traCts
                                                         special oven produces coke, which is an essential
                                                         raw material for the iron and steel industry.

of agriCultural lanD may
                                                         Another type, i.e., sub bituminous is a coal whose
                                                         properties range from those of lignite to those

be devastated.                                           of bituminous and are used primarily as fuel for
                                                         steam-electric power generation. It may look dull,
                                                         dark brown to black, soft and crumbly.
                                                         Anthracite: It is the hardest and the best type of
Peat: It is the first stage in the formation of coal     coal with a shiny black appearance. With a carbon
and contains high amount of moisture but very            content above 90-95 per cent and little impurities
low carbon. In a normal fossilization process, coal      anthracite’s heating capacity is higher, burns
formation begins when vegetation is buried and           longer and leaves little residue and smoke. Yet
partly decomposed to form peat. Peat is a fibrous,       anthracite, though the best, is not popular. Firstly,
pale to dark brown, somewhat porous and a light-         because the deposits are scarce, and secondly,
weight intermediate. It looks like charcoal and is       because it’s the hardest coal mining is not only
also known as bog coal. Because of the low carbon        difficult but expensive too. Thirdly, anthracite
content (i.e. 25 to 30 per cent), peat has a low heat    has a high ignition temperature, and takes a long
value, and therefore it is not generally used as an      time to kindle. Thus, anthracite constitutes only
industrial fuel. Its calorific value is only 75 therms   about 5 per cent of the total coal production of the
per tonne as compared to bituminous, which is            world and, is not commonly used in industry and
approximately 275 therms.                                transport. However, it may be used for domestic
Lignite: Also called brown coal, as it is usually        heating, bakeries and for boilers.
brownish in colour and crumbly in texture. Lig-
nite or soft brown coal is formed from peat after        extracting coal
the evaporation of aqueous parts and other gases.        Man has discovered many ways to access this use-
Lignite is mainly used for preparation of petrol         ful resource. Some of the methods are listed below:
and natural gases and warming-pans. Lignite has          Stripping or opencast mining: Opencast min-
a high moisture content and emits a lot of vapour        ing or stripping is well suited for areas where coal
and smoke when burned. It is soft in disposition,        seam lies at or near the surface not more than 60 m
has little heat value (because its carbon content is     deep. The seam should be more or less horizontal
only 35 to 40 per cent and the calorific value is even   with the prerequisite for a thin and soft overlying
less than 24 megajoules/kg) and easily cracks and        strata, very much like a crumbly black current pie.
crumbles when exposed to air. It is generally used       This is the easiest way to mine, as it hardly dis-
only as a supplement to bituminous or anthracite.        turbs the underlying strata, although large tracts
Bituminous: It is the most widely used coal              of agricultural land may be devastated. Modern
type in the world. By the increasing pressure and        conservation techniques can now restore former
temperature of the overlying sediment, lignite           areas of opencast mining, examples of which may
transforms into better quality bituminous. Com-          be seen in the Appalachians and Australia.
paratively hard bituminous coal is powdery in            Hill slope boring: Giant sized augers (boring in-
texture and with characteristic stratification. It       struments) are used to dig out coal on hill slopes.
generates less amount of smoke during burning            These augers can reach as far as 105 m below the
and is mainly used in industries, thermal power          ground.
plants, households, steam locomotives and in             Underground mining: Also known as drift or
gas production. Its carbon content is very high,         adit mining where a tunnel is cut into the coal
about 80 per cent, giving it a black appearance          bearing stratum. This type of mining operation is
and a hard texture. Its high carbon content also         undertaken in hilly areas, where there is a slightly
renders a high heat value of 26.7 megajoules/kg.         inclined or horizontal coal seam with a thick
In addition, low emission of smoke and minimal           overburden.

                                                                 GeoGraphy and you  March - april 2015    11
Opencast mines continue to flourish
                                                                           in India. In the recent times, we are
                                                                                  poised for a new coal driven
                                                                        revolution, even as nations across the
                                                                                world are moving away from it.

Slope mining: This is practiced in areas with           ground haulage. The safety in the mines has to be
steeply tilted coal seams or where coal is below a      ensured by providing proper ventilation so that
thick overburden. An inclined tunnel known as           fire accidents don’t occur. This also helps reducing
slope is constructed and a conveyor belt of a cable     health hazards for miners. Miners also need to be
                                                                                                                   PHOTO: HaUling COal TO TRUCkS in RaniganJ, amaR kUmaR naYak

car is used for bringing out coal through the tunnel.   aided with better geological information pertain-
Shaft mining: This method of mining is used             ing to the seasonal movement of water tables in
for reaching deep-seated seams (305 m to 1500           order to equip them against the danger posed by
m below the surface). Vertical shafts are sunk to       the crushing inflow of water. Also efficient pump-
reach the coal bed, and a network of galleries is       ing stations to pump the water out of the mines
dug underground. Lifts or box like cages are used       need to be placed. The mining company must
to access the mine. Often explosives are set in the     take precautions against such possibilities as gas
coal face for loosening coal into lumps.                poisoning, explosion, floods and the collapse of
  Shaft mining is the most expensive of the             tunnel roofs.
mining methods because of the overhead costs
of ventilation, lighting, water supply and under-       Email: editor@geographyandyou.com

12    March - april 2015  GeoGraphy and you
[In brief]

                                                                                                                                                 Opencast extraction

                                             The great Indian coal                                                         India possesses
                                             a significant place in the annual upraising of coal in the world. India is rich in bituminous,
                                                                                                                                                      of good quality
                                                                                                                                                   Gondwana coal in
                                                                                                                                                  Jharia, Jharkhand.
                                             although traces of peat may be found in the Nilgiris and Jhelum valley of Jammu and
                                             Kashmir. The coal in India is categorised as Gondwana and Tertiary. Gondwana coal is
                                             that which is formed during the carboniferous age, and is found primarily in the river valleys
                                             of Damodar, Son, Godavari and Wardha. Anthracite is present in the Gondwana rocks
                                             of Eastern Himalayan foot hills and in the Eocene rocks of Jammu and Kashmir. Tertiary
PHOTO COURTESY: JHaRia,JHaRkHand; SamRaT35

                                             deposits indicate coal formed more recently in the geological age. These deposits have
                                             mainly resulted due to the earth movement that accompanied Himalayan orogeny. Lignite
                                             is obtained from Assam, Kashmir, Kerala, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. A trace amount of
                                             lignite is also found in the Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts of West Bengal. There are 15
                                             coal producing states in our country among them eight major states are Madhya Pradesh,
                                             Jharkhand, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh
                                             and Chhattisgarh.
                                             Source: Geological Survey of India, Kolkata

                                                                                                                      GeoGraphy and you  March - april 2015      13
[In brief]

the Coal Files
Coal is important for the economic development of our nation. But, is it so
imperative that we ignore the bleak future the path foretells? The world has seen that
and been there, do we have to pay the price too?

                                        Coal Mining                                                             VPt draws
                                        Banned in                                                               Flak For Coal
                                        india’s Mahan                                                           dust Pollution
                                        Forest                                                                  in aP: PuBliC
                                         The Mahan forest in                                                    hearing on
                                         Madhya Pradesh will now                                                Port ProjeCts
                                         be kept off limits for coal                                              The people of Visakhap-
mining, due to a right to information (RTI) based intervention         atnam Greater City, have made a fervent plea to the authorities
by Greenpeace (India), an international activist group working         of the Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) to stop handling dirty
on environmental issues. Mahan in Madhya Pradesh is one of             cargoes such as coal and protect the health of the two million
the largest sal forests in Asia. Spread across 1,600 hectares,         residents in the city and its vicinity. The plea was made at a public
it is home to over 50,000 indigenous people and endangered             hearing on port projects held near the administrative office here.
wildlife species. In June 2014, the Intelligence Bureau had ac-        VPT Chairman M T Krishna Babu tried to assure the irate public
cused Greenpeace (India) of acting against ‘national interest’ for     that the Port would take all possible pollution control measures
opposing mining in the Mahan coal block. Protection of Mahan           and that in the next few years, Rs 200 crore would be spent on
comes as a blow to Essar Energy, which hoped to mine the for-          pollution control at the Port.
est to supply coal for its nearby power plant. The Mahan tribes           The people in the old city are suffering from respiratory
are entitled to a referendum about the envisaged development           problems and other maladies due to the pollution caused by
of the forest, which they say, have been bypassed. Many other          the Port. Now, without taking any steps to control the present
coal blocks fall under dense forest areas, considered for mining,      pollution, the Port is embarking on expansion of capacity. It
for instance, Marki Mangli II and Namchik-Namphuk. Mahan is            was also pointed out that the environment impact assess-
indicative of how India will need to balance its economic growth       ment (EIS) report was full of flaws and no attempt was made
while making key decisions about forests, conservation, and            to study the pollution issue seriously and find solutions. In
sustainable development. India is under a lot of pressure globally     response, Krishna Babu said the issues raised by the public
while tackling climate change, yet is drawn to the quick and cheap     would be taken note of and every effort would be made to
gains from coal despite the high social and environmental cost.        address them.
Source: RTCC News, March 25, 2015                                      Source: WebIndia123.com, April 10, 2015

14      March - april 2015  GeoGraphy and you
Coal rush in                     two-thirds of Indians were burning biomass fuels for cooking
                                        india Could                      and heating.
                                        tiP BalanCe on                   Source: Daily Mercury, December 11, 2014
                                        CliMate Change
                                         Decades of strip min-                                                 Coal’s BlaCk
                                         ing have left the town of                                             wind: Pregnant
                                         Dhanbad in the heart of                                               woMen in Parts
India’s coal fields a fiery deposit of black slag, sulphurous air                                              oF india adVised
and sickened residents. But rather than rethink their exploitation,                                            to stay away
the government is digging deeper in a coal rush that could push                                                  In some Indian regions, a
the world into irreversible climate change and make India’s cit-                                                 married woman will return
ies even more unliveable, scientists say. India’s coal rush could        to her mother’s house for the last trimester of pregnancy and the
push the world past the brink of irreversible climate change.            birth of her child. But in Mettur, pregnant women are advised by
Indian cities are already the world’s most polluted and hottest,         their doctors to stay away. ‘Black wind’ from a coal yard wafts
with spring temperatures in Delhi reaching 120oF. Traffic, which         constantly across poor neighbourhoods. People complain of
will only increase with new mining activity, is already the world’s      asthma, wheezing and frequent colds. India relies heavily on
most deadly. And half of Indians are farmers who rely on water           energy from coal. Accounting for 71 per cent of electricity, coal
from melting Himalayan glaciers and fitful monsoons.                     will remain a key player over the next decade. The poor pay the
   India’s coal is mostly of poor quality with a high ash content that   highest cost of India’s dependence on coal. Already burdened
makes it twice as polluting as coal from the west. Nearly 90 per         by chronic disease, poor nutrition and inadequate health care,
cent of India’s coal is from strip mines, which are environmentally      they also are highly exposed to air and water pollution. In Jharia,
costly. Residents accuse the government of allowing pollution as         700,000 people are exposed to toxic smoke that seeps from
a way of pushing people off land needed for coal rush.                   the ground as fires from opencast coal mines burn. Mercury-
Source: The New York Times, November 17, 2014                            laced ash from five mega power plants in the Singrauli district
                                                                         in central India is polluting air, water and soil. These areas are
                                        ConserVation                     now mobilising documentation of coal’s health impacts on their
                                        grouP says Coal                  residents in an effort to gain environmental protections from
                                        Pollution will                   local politicians and world leaders.
                                        kill PeoPle in                   Source: Environmental Health News, November 20, 2014.
                                        india
                                        The Indian group trying to                                             death By Coal
                                        stop a Galilee Basin coal                                               The Indian government’s
mine development claims burning its coal will increase deaths.                                                  plans of expanding its
But miner Adani disputes the claim and states coal will produce                                                 coal-based power produc-
less pollution than burning wood and dung, which is currently                                                   tion may result in hundreds
widespread in India. Indian group Conservation Action Trust                                                     of thousands of premature
(CAT), who have taken Adani to court to stop the Carmichael                                                     deaths by 2030 due to
mine, released a report claiming coal would increase ‘premature          increase in emissions. A report by Mumbai based non-profit,
deaths’ to 229,500 by 2030. The report said the increase in coal         Conservation Action Trust, and Urban Emissions, an independ-
power generation would “seriously harm the health of the Indian          ent research group, estimates that in another 15 years between
rural poor”, the basis of CAT’s legal challenge.                         186,500 and 229,500 people may die premature deaths annu-
    But an Adani spokesman said CAT’s models were flawed, and            ally due to this increase. The study envisages a trebling India’s
Indians were exposing themselves to far worse pollution. At the          coal consumption from 660 million tonnes (MT) to 1800 MT a
heart of CAT’s claim lies a comparison to the rollout of thermal         year. The study also outlines that enforcing the use of flue-gas
coal generation capacity in the emerging Asian economies such            desulfurisation (FGD) to scrub out the highly toxic sulphur during
as China over the recent decades.                                        or after the burning of coal could bring down premature deaths
    Adani’s progressive plans to deliver power to those who lack         by as much as 50 per cent annually. In monetary terms, utilising
it is underpinned by the rollout of supercritical technology that        FGD technology could reduce health care related costs. But that
burns less fuel more efficiently, with substantially reduced emis-       it will also save thousands of lives across the country is perhaps
sions, compared to legacy infrastructure utilised elsewhere. The         a more urgent reason to consider its enforcement.
spokesman said that a US Energy Administration report showed             Source: Quartz India, December 9, 2014

                                                                                   GeoGraphy and you  March - april 2015                15
[Coal Driven]

                                                  Indian Railways transporting
                                              coal from the Jharia mines to iron
                                                           and steel industries.

16   March - april 2015  GeoGraphy and you
By Staff Reporter

                                                              The Coalgate Concern
                                                                        coal blocks were allotted to private companies for captive
                                                                          mining through a 1993 amendment to the coal mines
                                                                       nationalisation act (1973). however, the caG found that the
                                                                       blocks were not allotted in a transparent manner, neither had
                                                                                    the companies begun production.

                                                        I
                                                                ndia has one of the biggest coal reserves in
                                                                the world, ranking only after China and                                        ReseRves in india
                                                                                                                                                 India’s coal reserves
                                                                the United States. As of April 1, 2014 India’s                                        as on April 2014
                                                                reserves were estimated at a total of 301.56
                                                                billion tonnes by the Geological Survey of
                                                        India (GSI). Of this, ‘prime’ coking coal stood at
                                                        5.313 billion tonnes, medium and semi-coking                        Jharkhand 80.71                                  26.76
                                                        coals amounted to 28.76 billion tonnes, non-coking
                                                                                                                               Odisha 75.07                                 24.89
                                                        coals stood at 266 billion tonnes and tertiary coal at
                                                        1.49 billion tonnes.                                             Chattishgarh 52.53                         17.42
                                                           More than half of India’s commercial energy
                                                        requirements are met by coal. As per the Coal                     West Bengal 31.31              10.38
                                                        Mines Nationalisation Act, 1973, coal belongs
                                                        to the people of India, and the Government of                 Madhya Pradesh 25.67             8.51
Photo courtesy: Flikr@creativecommons-crisPin semmens

                                                        India owns all the coal blocks. Coal mining                   Andhra Pradesh 22.48            7.45
                                                        thus could be done either by a governmental
                                                        undertaking or any government company, that                        Maharastra 10.98 3.64
                                                        is, a company where the government has a 51 per
                                                        cent share. However, an amendment in the Act in                         Others 2.8 0.95
                                                        1993, allowed coal blocks to be allotted to private      Figures in white: billion tonne.
                                                        companies for captive mining for power, steel and        Figures in yellow: Percentage of total reserves.
                                                                                                                 Source: Geological Survey of India.
                                                        cement production.
                                                                                                                 blocks which had thus far been allocated for free, be
                                                        allocation of coal blocks                                auctioned for the highest price possible. The Comp-
                                                        In June 2004, the Coal Ministry proposed that coal       troller and Auditor General’s (CAG),‘Performance

                                                                                                                            GeoGraphy and you  March - april 2015                   17
Fig.1: Coal Enactments Down the Ages

             Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act 1973
             (CMNA) allowed for the nationalisa-
             tion of the coal mines, thus bringing
             them under state control.                                                                The Coal Mines (Special Provisions),
                                                                                                      Second Ordinance, 2014 was promul-
                           Amendment of CMNA to allow private companies
                                                                                                      gated on 26.12.2014. The Ordinance
                          producing iron and steel to mine coal for captive
                                                                                                      also amended the provisions of
                          use. Captive use means that the coal produced has
                                                                                                      existing Acts thereby removing the
                          to be used for the purpose it was allotted.
                                                                                                      restriction of end use.

     1973     1976                                             1993                                           2014      2015
                                                                                  2003

                                       CMNA was amended again to                                                  Coal auction commences.
                                                                              Electricity Act passed and          29 blocks auctioned till
                                       include power generation
                                                                              private companies allowed to        now and 23 more to be
                                       companies to mine coal for
                                                                              generate power.                     auctioned in May 2015.
                                       captive use.

Audit of Allocation of Coal Blocks and Augmenta-                      by the previous government. In a feature published
tion of Coal Production’, Report No. 7 of 2012-13,                    on April 21, 2015, Business Standard claimed that
found that the government had failed to introduce                     according to their analysis, the auctions could
the auction route, though it could have done so as                    fetch a potential revenue of INR 6,284 crores to the
early as 2006, causing of approximately Rs 1.86 lakh                  coal bearing states, once all the auctioned blocks
crore loss to the public exchequer.                                   begin production.
                                                                          During the first round held between 14 and 22
The Scam                                                              February, the government successfully auctioned
The CAG further found that the allocation of coal-                    19 blocks under the under Schedule II (already in
blocks to private players had been undertaken in a                    production) class. The auction, however concluded
non-transparent manner. It also found that most                       with 15 blocks as four blocks came under the
companies had not begun production at all, and                        scanner for receiving low bids. Successful bidders
were in no hurry to do so, thus adversely affecting                   included industry majors like Reliance Cement,
the availability of coal.                                             GMR Chhattisgarh, Hindalco, Sunflag Iron and
  The Audit revealed that as of 2011, only 28 out                     Steel, Jaiprakash Associates, Jaiprakash Power
of 86 coal blocks allotted had started production.                    Ventures, OCL Iron and Steel, Bharat Aluminium,
Similarly, production from operational mines                          Essar Power MP, Jindal Power and UltraTech Ce-
was only 34.64 million tonnes, when the targeted                      ment. Round two was held between 4 and 9 May
output was 73 million tonnes as per the CAG’s Per-                    which resulted in the auctioning of 14 blocks
formance Audit. Very obviously, the private players                   (schedule III).
had no incentive to begin production immediately,                        The government earned a whopping 4 lakh
as they had received the coal blocks for free. In addi-               crores from the auction. Of the 33 blocks put up for
tion, the government had failed to enforce penalty                    auction, 29 have been successfully auctioned and
for non-production.                                                   another 38 allotted to state owned entities (Hindu
                                                                      Business Line, April 26, 2015). Coal secretary, Anil
coal auctions                                                         Swarup announced in a statement to the Press
Following the Supreme Court’s decision to cancel                      Trust of India on April 20, 2015 that the third
the 204 coal blocks allocated between 1993 and                        round of bidding for 23 mines, shall commence
2009, the new National Democratic Alliance Gov-                       from May 2015.
ernment stepped in and sanctioned the Coal Mines                         In the meantime, India’s coal import statistics
(Special Provisions) Bill, 2015. The Bill consents                    witnessed a massive 33.5 per cent increase in the
commercial mining and auction of these ready-to-                      last fiscal year. Official data enumerate that India
operate blocks.                                                       imported 168.4 million tonnes in 2013/14, while
  The government also claimed that state govern-                      mjunction, pioneers in e-auction services, put the
ments stand to make humongous profit from the                         figure at 181.58 million. The rise is due to fall in the
coal blocks auction—much more than the excheq-                        international prices which experts colligate to lower
uer lost because of arbitrary distribution of blocks                  purchases by China.

18    March - april 2015  GeoGraphy and you
Term Power                                                                                      Answers on PAge 46 ❯❯

Understanding coal:                                     India now ranks third amongst the coal
producing countries in the world, with nearly 60 per cent of the India’s total energy
requirements are met from coal.

1. Baghouses                             to coal for some altering purpose.      water Heaters
a. A generic name for air pollution      b. A kind of material used to control   c. Substances that are released
equipment which uses a range of          the output of Generators connected      into the air from power generating
filter bags/fabric types to separate     to the electricity network.             plants among other sources.
particulate (dust, ash, powders,         c. A non-renewable resource
etc.) from the exhausting air stream.    obtained otherwise from natural         8. Flue Gas
b. Waste plant fibre left after the      means of production.                    a. Finely divided particles of ash
juices have been removed from                                                    entrained in gases resulting from
sugar cane by crushing.                  5. Combustion                           the combustion of fuel.
c. A casing containing thousands         a. The process of slowly turning the    b. Emissions from power plants
of long cloth bags used to remove        Turbine-Generator shaft to prevent      and their by products form
Flyash from Flue Gas.                    bowing while it is still hot after      particulate matter, ozone smog
                                         shutdown                                and air toxins.
2. Boiler                                b. The process of retrieving energy     c. A combustible substance formed
a. A dispenser required to produce       from the burning of fuels in the most   by the partial decomposition of
electrical energy.                       efficient way possible.                 vegetable matter without access
b. A device found in power plants        c. The process of designed to           to air.
for generating steam for power,          burn coal with little or fewer
processing or heating purposes, or       emissions possible.                     9. Flyash
hot water supply.                                                                a. The combustion exhaust gas
c. A machine which helps in helps        6. Electronic                           produced at power plants.
in avoiding emission of carbon           Precipitator                            b. Finely divided particles of ash
dioxide in the air.                      a. A pollution control device that      entrained in gases resulting from
                                         removes particles from a flowing        the combustion of fuel.
3. Clean Air Act                         gas (such as air) using the force of    c. A major contributor of gastifi-
a. A federal law that defines EPA's      an induced electrostatic charge.        cation plants which target synthetic
responsibilities for protecting and      b. A machine which emits gaseous        oils and gases as end products.
improving the nation's air quality       substance at standard conditions
and the stratospheric ozone layer.       when fossil fuels are burned.           10. Mercury
b. Law regarding availability            c. A device generating sufficient       a. A metallic element that is toxic to
based on unit outages and                electrical power to drive pumps and     human beings whose emission into
load reductions.                         fans on only one unit in the power      the environment has come under
c. A treaty which includes               station until it comes online..         increasingly tight restrictions.
restrictions on amount of power                                                  b. Highly concentrated forms of
generation of non-renewable fuels.       7. Emission                             far-ancient sunlight trapped in
                                         a. The process of back-flushing         organic cells.
4. Coal additive                         with the help of compressed air.        c. An analysis of coal based on
a. A type of substance, either liquid,   b. Steam extracted from the             removal of water and ash from the
solid or gas, that is manually added     Turbine to provide heat to the Feed     Coal sample.

                                                                      GeoGraphy and you  March - april 2015         19
[Coal Driven]

We will continue to depend on
coal power, despite constraints
in increasing coal production.

20    March - april 2015  GeoGraphy and you
By Abhijit Sarkar

                                                  Coal dependency in
                                                 India’s energy needs
                                                  Domestic coal production has been falling behind demand.
                                                      Allowing private merchant miners and removing the
                                                 ‘electricity’ and ‘non-electricity’ differentiation could serve to
                                                                      strengthen the sector.
PHOTO COURTESY: FlikR@CREATivECOmmOnS-RAmkUmAR

                                                                              GeoGraphy and you  March - april 2015   21
W
                       ith a service sector-led                                             accounts for almost 3/4th of electricity generated
                       economic growth, the energy                                          from conventional sources in India. In fact, after
                       intensity of the Indian                                              a two year fall in 2009-10 and 2010-11, the share
                       economy has been on the                                              of coal in electricity generation increased by 4.5
                       decline at a pace faster than                                        percentage points in the last four years. The left-
the rest of the world (figure 1). The decline, accord-                                      over quarter is shared by petroleum (11.8 per cent),
ing to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme                                             natural gas (10.2 per cent); and hydro and nuclear
Implementation, 2015, Energy Statistics has been                                            power (4.5 per cent ). The continued dependence
1.3 per cent, as against -1 per cent the world over                                         on coal is also reflected in the less than 2 per cent
(https://yearbook.enerdata.net/energy-intensity-                                            annual growth in electricity generation from
GDP-by-region.html).                                                                        petroleum and natural gas as against a 3.9 per cent
   Despite this, the overall demand for energy is                                           growth in thermal power generation over 2005-06
expected to continue rising in the near future due                                          to 2013-14. Though hydro and nuclear power gen-
to several factors, which include:                                                          eration grew at a marginally higher pace of 4 per
◆ The target of a 8.5 to 9 per cent annual growth in                                        cent over the period, it hardly had any impact con-
   gross domestic product (GDP);                                                            sidering their low base. This in itself will ensure
◆ The aim to increase the contribution of the                                               our continued dependence on coal for many years
   manufacturing sector to 25 per cent of GDP by                                            to come despite constraints in increasing coal
   2025 from the current 15 per cent;                                                       production or raising efficiency in thermal power
◆ Increase in per capita usage of energy with great-                                        generation or the initiatives taken to diversify and
   er economic prosperity and lifestyle changes;                                            increase power generation from nuclear and other
◆ Expansion in the energy distribution network to                                           renewable sources.
   cover larger populace.                                                                     Policy makers are well aware of the pitfalls in
   As of now, coal remains the single major source                                          over dependence on thermal power, and have been
of energy despite a declining share, and accounts                                           pursuing several alternatives. Renewable energy
for 41 per cent of all energy consumed in 2013-14.                                          sources including solar and wind energy, small
In fact, coal and crude petroleum accounted for 80                                          hydro projects of up to 25 MW, biomass power,
per cent of energy consumed in 2013-14 (figure 2).                                          urban and industrial waste based power, have seen
   The dependence on coal is revealed to be even                                            a 16 per cent per annum growth over the past 4
higher if we focus on the capacity for electricity                                          years, expanding from around 18,500 MW in June
generation (table 1) and electricity production                                             2011 to 32,000 in January 2015, as per the statistics
(figure 3). Almost 2/3rd of installed electricity                                           handed out by the Central Electricity Authority’s
generation capacity is coal based, and coal now                                             various reports on installed generation capacity.

     Fig. 1: Trends in Gdp, Energy Consumption, per Capita Energy Consumption and Energy Intensity

                                                Energy Intensity (mega joules per Re GDP)          Energy Consumption (in peta joules)
     70,000                                     GDP (Rs billion) (2004-05 prices)                 Per Capita Energy Consumption (in mega joules)                0.48
                                                                                    0.47
                                                                                                                                                                0.47
     60,000                                                                                                                                          57,418
                                                                                                                                     54,821
                   0.47                                                                                             52,475                                      0.46
                               0.46                                                               49,185
     50,000
                                                  0.45                             45,161
                                                               41,587                                                                                           0.45
                                                                                                       0.45
     40,000                                                       0.44                                                                   0.44                   0.44
                                                  38,966
                                 35,644                                                                              0.43
     30,000           32,531                                                                                                                                    0.43

                                                                                                                                     23,903         24,071
                                                                                  21,223          21,892           22,383                                0.42   0.42
     20,000                                    17,514          18,457
                               16.421
                    15,146                                                                                                                         19,522
                                                                                    18,148         18,459           18,622               19,641                 0.41
                                      14,636      15,390          15,994
     10,000          13,695
                                                                                                                                                                0.40

              -                                                                                                                                                 0.39
                  2005-06      2006-07         2007-08         2008-09          2009-10          2010-11          2011-12           2012-13        2013-14

     Source: Energy Statistics 2015, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

22        March - april 2015  GeoGraphy and you
Wind energy has emerged as the frontrunner
                                                                                                          Coal now accounts for
among these, with installed capacity exceeding                                                      almost three fourth of
                                                                                                  the electricity generated from
22,600 MW as on February 2015, and estimated
on-shore potential exceeding 1 lakh MW. Grid

                                                                                                   conventional sources in India.
connected solar power also expanded from a
miniscule 8 MW in January 2010 to 3,400 MW
in February 2015, with targeted installation of
22,000 MW capacity by 2022 under the Jawaharlal
Nehru National Solar Mission as per the Ministry
of New and Renewable Energy’s, Annual Report                                             sources, but expansion of nuclear generation
2014 and Physical Progress Report 2015.                                                  capacity is unlikely in the face of considerable
  However, despite commendable expansion in                                              public opposition and investors dithering over
renewable sources, the fast expanding demand for                                         disaster liability issues.
electricity will ensure continued dependence on                                             The projected expansion of thermal power
coal, as reflected in the 2012 report of the Work-                                       generation during the 12th plan period implies
ing Group on Power for Twelfth Plan, which shows                                         an annual demand of 842 million tonne (MT)
an aggressive capacity expansion plan for the 12th                                       of coal for electricity generation, rising from 306
(2012-17) and 13th plan periods (2017-22). In fact,                                      MT in 2005-06 to 427 MT in 2013-14. Apart from
planned capacity addition during the 12th plan                                           electricity, coal will also be in demand for the
works out to 95,485 MW. Despite the priority ac-                                         steel, sponge iron and cement sectors. Keeping in
corded to grid interactive renewable energy, hydro                                       mind that the combined demand from these coal
and nuclear generation under the Low Carbon                                              dependent sectors has grown at more than 4 per
Growth Strategy, the planned capacity addition                                           cent in the 2005-13 period, reaching around 600
from non-coal based sources will only be around                                          MT by 2013-14, it is expected to cross 900 MT
1/3rd at 32,790 MW.                                                                      by 2016-17.
  One of the factors restricting the growth of non-                                        Despite this overwhelming dependence on
coal based alternatives is the cost factor (table 2).                                    coal, the 3.7 per cent growth in domestic coal
Even the minimum tariff for wind energy at Rs                                            production has been trailing behind demand
3.7 per unit is higher than the maximum tariff                                           due to policy and other bottlenecks such as non-
of Rs 3.2 per unit for pit head coal-based power                                         operationalisation of captive mines, subsequent
stations. Similarly, tariff for solar power ranges                                       cancellation of coal block allocation, and non-
from Rs 7.7 to 11.9 per unit. The estimated cost of                                      receipt of environmental clearances. This has
nuclear energy is comparable to conventional                                             resulted in a steady increase in net imports from

     Fig. 2: Energy Consumption and Dependence on Coal

                                                             Share of Coal and Lignite           Share of Petroleum
                                                             Coal and Lignite                    Crude Petroleum

                                                                                                                            9,909    9,939
                    10,000                                                                                                                     48 %
                               46 %                                46 %                                            9,325             9,316
                    9,500                 45 %       45 %                                        9,207                      9,178              46 %
                                                                                    9,137
                     9,000
                                                                                         43 %                   8,547                          44 %
                                                                  8,476
                    8,500                                                                         42 %
                                                                                                                                               42 %
                                                    7,926
                    8,000                                                                        8,248         42%                    41 %
                                                                                         8,071                              41 %               40 %
      Peta Joules

                                          7,459
                     7,500
                              7,009                                                                                                   39%      38 %
                     7,000                                        36 %               38 %                          38%      38%
                                          37 %      37 %                                         38%
                                                                                                                                               36 %
                    6,500                                         6,732
                              36 %                   6,536
                    6,000                                                                                                                      34 %
                                           6,136
                    5,500                                                                                                                      32 %
                                5,448
                    5,000                                                                                                                      30 %
                             2005-06    2006-07    2007-08       2008-09          2009-10        2010-11        2011-12    2012-13   2013-14

     Source: Energy Statistics 2015, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

                                                                                                  Geography and You  March - April 2015              23
Table 1: All India Installed Capacity of power Stations as on January 31, 2015
                Thermal                                                                               Nuclear            Hydro
                Coal                   Gas               Diesel              Total Thermal

                60
                156,191 MW
                          per cent     9     per cent
                                       22,971 MW
                                                         1      per cent
                                                          1,200 MW
                                                                             70
                                                                             180,362 MW
                                                                                        per cent     25,780 MW
                                                                                                              per cent   16      per cent
                                                                                                                         40,867 MW
               Figures in percentage indicate the category share in installed capacity under each category.
               Figures in MW show the actual capacity per sector.
               Source: All India Installed Generation Capacity Report, Central Electricity Authority.

24   March - april 2015  GeoGraphy and you
Other Renewable     Renewable Total   Grand Total

 12      per cent
  31,692 MW
                    30     per cent
                    78,339 MW
                                      100
                                      258,701 MW
                                                    per cent

                                          Almost two third of installed electricity generation capacity is coal based. In
                                           fact, the share of coal in electricity generation increased by 4.5 percentage
                                             points in the last four years. It is projected that India will have a continued
                                               dependence on coal for many years to come. Thus, in a scenario where
                                            renewables occupy a fraction of the installed capacity, bagasse or agricul-
                                                    tural waste based sustainable power systems, may still be a far cry.

                                                                        GeoGraphy and you  March - april 2015           25
Fig. 3: Electricity Generation and dependence on Coal
                        14,000                                                                                    13,302          13,415       13,409       13,400           74 %
                                                                                                      12,829
                        13,000                                                                                                                                       73.5%
                                                                                         72.7%                                                                               73 %
                        12,000                                        11,098                                                                        72.6%
                                                     10,581                                                                                                                  72 %
                         11,000                                                        11,658             71.2%
                                      10,025
          Peta Joules

                        10,000                                             71.4%                                                  9,398                                      71 %
                                                                                                                  9,207
                                      69.9%              70.5%                                                                                   9,730         9,846
                         9,000                                                                                                                                               70 %
                                                                                                       9,137                           70.1%
                         8,000                                                       8,476
                                                                       7,926                                      69.2%                                                      69 %
                          7,000                      7,459
                                       7,009                                                                                                                                 68 %
                         6,000
                         5,000                                                                                                                                               67 %
                                   2005-06       2006-07             2007-08         2008-09         2009-10      2010-11         2011-12      2012-13        2013-14

                                                             Total                 Share of Coal and Lignite               Coal and Lignite

           Source: Energy Statistics 2015, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Table 2: Minimum and maximum tariff for                                                                  37 MT during 2005-06 to 166 MT during 2013-
alternate power generation based on types                                                                14. In 2015-16, power utilities alone will import
of generating station                                                                                    around 73 MT of coal.
                                                                                                           Overall domestic availability, though, is expect-
                                                                                                         ed to improve with the successful auctioning of coal
     3.2                            5.3                          4                                       blocks. With companies now having to pay for coal
                        0.9                    3.3                         2.8
                                                                                                         blocks, they will have to operationalise mines at the
 Pit-head                         Non-pit-head                Lignite                                    earliest to recoup their investments. However, even
 coal based                       coal based                  based                                      though the auctioning system enhances transpar-
 station                          station                     station                                    ency in the coal block allocation process, a few more
                                                                                                         steps are called for.
     4                              4.5                          10.7                                      Firstly, the differentiation between coal blocks
                        2.7                    4.2                         8.4                           into those for electricity generation and non-
                                                                                                         electricity captive use allows for differential
Natural gas                       Natural gas   LNG gas                                                  pricing, leaving scope for diversion of mined coal
based station                     based station based
(APM gas)                         (NAPM gas)    station
                                                                                                         into non-intended use. This also limits the number
                                                                                                         of bidders per block.
                                                                                                           Secondly, private participation is still limited to
     13                             5.8                          6                                       only captive users from the iron and steel, power
                        7.7                    0.9                        3.7
                                                                                                         and washeries sectors, with independent private
 Liquid based
                                                                                                         merchant miners not being allowed. As a result,
 stations (Nap-                   Hydro based                                                            reliance on public sector behemoth Coal India
 htha/HSD)                        station                    Wind energy                                 continues despite its failures in raising production
                                                                                                         levels. In fact, in 2013-14, it could only meet 86 per
                                                                                                         cent of fuel supply agreement (FSA) commitment
     7.7
                        NA
                                    11.9
                                               NA
                                                                3.4                                      to power utilities (other than the National Thermal
                                                                               1
                                                                                                         Power Corporation Limited), with production
                                  Solar CSP                                                              expected to touch merely 615 MT by 2016-17 from
 Solar PV                         (Concentrated               Nuclear                                    482 MT in 2013-14.
 (Photovoltaic)                   Solar Power)                Energy                                       Thus, to sustain India’s long term economic
The figures are in Rs per unit; and, represent maximum (top                                              growth by securing the country’s energy needs,
figure) and minimum (bottom figure) total tariff in both fixed                                           rapid expansion in coal production is needed, along
charge and energy charge.                                                                                with complementary enhancement of efficiency of
Source: Response by Government of India to Unstarred
                                                                                                         the thermal power supply chain.
Question No. 5072 in Lok Sabha on 13.08.2014

                                                                                                         The author is Vice President, Projects, Indicus Analytics
                                                                                                         Pvt. Ltd. (A Nielsen Company): abhijit.sarkar@indicus.net

26             March - april 2015  GeoGraphy and you
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