By Dr Eladbor Laloo
‘Then the men of the city said to Elisha, …. the situation of the city is pleasant, ……. but the water is bad, and the ground barren.’ And he said, ‘Bring me a bowl, and put salt in it. ………….. Then he went out to the source of the water, and cast in the salt there, and said- …….. ‘I have healed this water, from it there shalt be no more death or barrenness’- II Kings 2:19-22. (NKJV)
The above incident occurred during the Biblical times, 10,000 years ago in 8000 B.C. in the settlement of Jericho. The salt was obtained from the Dead Sea whose salt concentration is very high, close to Jericho. Today, are we not making the same hue and cry- ‘our water is acidic causing the land to be barren in the mining areas?’. ‘History has repeated itself’. Is Prophet Elisha a scientist, or it is any application of common sense. To neutralize water with salt means that the water of Jericho must have been acidic. A friend who visited Jericho recently said it was reclaimed and very fertile at the moment. What causes the water of Jericho to be acidic?. Recent excavation has revealed the presence of copper mines south of Jordan not far from Jericho. Copper occurred as sulphides responsible for producing sulphuric acid. Is smelting of the copper ore done in Jericho? The deposit of copper-lead-zinc ore in India is in Zawar, Rajasthan; lead is being smelted at Tundoo, Bihar. Was the same strategy adopted in those days?. These are postulations and application of common sense which needs to be authenticated. The question of the hour is- Has God blessed us with the same medium like the people of Jericho, to neutralize the acidity and reclaim our land?. The answer is ‘yes’.
In the Lease Agreement of the Cherra Raja with the East India Company, coal was being worked out in the hills of Cherra Poonji (called at that time) in 1840. It stipulates taxes to be received from East India Company(EIC) at a certain rate per 100 maunds of broken coal. Presumably what was stipulated was a kind of royalty in respect of the coal extracted. The document also confers on the Company the right to mine coal in such other places in the Raja’s territory as may be discovered thereafter. Coal is to be worked out in accordance with the conditions of the lease. In 1857, another agreement was signed by another Raja of Cherra Poonji in favour of EIC. The document seemed to have confirmed the provisions of two other agreements executed by predecessors of the Raja dated 10th November 1829 and 19th October 1830. The agreement shows that a right to take limestone from Cheera Poonji hills was granted to EIC by agreement in 1829. Hence, limestone and coal mining started in 1829 and 1840 respectively. These are the major minerals of the state.
Coal and limestone occur in an east-westerly direction in the southern part of Meghalaya. Why this is so? A ‘sermon’ in the rural areas, will make people fall asleep. A strategy of story-telling (iathuhkhana) has to be adopted. In my daughter’s KG class interview, the principal wanted to know why there is no coal in Shillong. Minerals are associated with the age of the rocks. As per the geological time scale, coal occurs in Meghalaya in the young rocks of Eocene Age ( c 58.8 to 33.9 million years) correlating to the New Testament book of Revelation. The rocks of Shillong are dated back to the Old Testament but coal is not mentioned in the Book of Genesis. These young rocks (NT) are deposited in the southern part of the State. Majority of coal in India is deposited in the Permian-Carboniferous Age called the ‘Gondwana’, middle part of the OT, ( c 299.6-359.2 million years). An author in an article in ST quoted 4000 million years., where flora or fauna life does not exist at that time. Generally, coal is formed in swamps or in brackish or fresh water BASINS, with abundant plant material.
In Meghalaya, coal is deposited in a ‘Lagoon’, not in a basin. The coal seam is lens-shaped, thick in the center, reduced thickness on both sides and disappears; it then spreads sporadically in a huge area. They form a series of broken, individual thin lenses. Technically, to mine an ore body, the length, breadth, thickness strike length, and dip (angle of ore with the horizontal) is computed for ‘mining plan’. In such ‘lagoon deposit’ it is extremely difficult as there is no continuity in the strike direction. There is no syllabus nor was I taught as a ‘geologist’ on mining methods of a metallic ore/coal in the Indian School of Mines(ISM). ISM was established, an Institute exclusively for ‘earth science’ in 1926, on the model of the Royal School of Mines, London. Courses are Applied Geology, Applied Geophysics, Mining Engineering and Petroleum Engineering. In the first 2 years of study, we look at all the 4 branches along with honors course of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics and with allied subjects. From the 3rd year and for the next 3 years we specialized in our chosen course. It is the Mining Engineer who mines the mineral, and not a geologist. A geologist provides the mining engineer a 3-dimensional picture after mapping and drilling. This could not be done in the case of Meghalaya’s erratic coal deposits. In spite of all these problems, the geologists have never sat with folded arms. Geologists from the Central Mine Design and Planning Institute,(CMPDIL),Ranchi, a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd(CIL) and geologist from the state government have worked in tandem since early 1982, on the study of the thin coal seams.
Comparatively, the thickest coal seam in India is 131.5 meters in Madhya Pradesh. During the period, different mining modules were computed. It was a vain attempt. Based on whatever data available on the above study, CIL, conducted an exploratory mining in Mawlong- Ishamati in 1982, for an in depth study of the behavior of the coal. It ended in mining more soil than coal and considered the project unfeasible. After 31 years, the nostalgic remnants of the operation are lying in the DMR campus in the form of steel rails used in the unsuccessful mining. In the late 80’s, CIL again ventured in Jadigitim, Darrengiri coal fields of Garo Hills. My Punjabi classmate, a mining engineer was entrusted with the task. Being a remote area, CIL made an airstrip as per the MMDR Act for the purpose of using an air-ambulance. The CIL plane made a trial landing. Assam Siilimanite Co, made an airstrip in Wahblei, Sonapahar for their Sillimanite Mines based on the same Act. The monoplane is still seen in the workshop at Sonapahar after Bharat Refractories Ltd., took over. Jadigithim proved to be another failure. The remnants being the airstrip and metal scraps if those are still available.
The Coal Mines Nationalisation Act 1973, listed Borsora, Cherrapunji, Laitryngew, Mawsynram and Thangjinath Coalfields, published in the Gazette of Meghalaya, (October 13, 1973, Part VII, page 382). The then Union Minister of Coal cannot exempt the Act for Meghalaya. An amendment was to be incorporated. Why were no amendments proposed for mines operational after 1973? The Government of India nationalized metallic and non metallic mines for ‘conservation’ of mineral resources. Conservation does not mean ‘preservation (to stop mining). During the British Raj, many private mining companies were operating lucratively. There are different grades of ore body. These companies mined the highest grade for their maximum profit and abandoned the low grade ore. Minerals are depleting resources. For example, in Zawar the company extracted best grades of copper and zinc, leaving behind lead. Production on these metals is a drop in the ocean. Technologically, all the 3 metals could be extracted simultaneously. Lead could not be extracted from slag, a remnant after extraction of copper and zinc. The same is with coal mines. The idea of conservation is to blend the high and low grades of coal to produce the optimum grade; nothing is to be wasted. There are various grade of coal, peat, lignite, sub-bituminous, bituminous, semi-bituminous, semi anthracite, anthracite etc., based on their composition. In Meghalaya, bulk deposit is Sub-bituminous coal. No amendment is warranted as it cannot be blended with any low grade coal. Nationalization is not acquisition of land and property. Many private mining companies operate the metallic and non-metallic sector complying with the conservation policy. Iron ore mines are mostly operated by private companies. Tata operates their coal mines privately, in line with the nationalization policy.
Is coal mining in Meghalaya illegal due to the absence of ‘mining lease’? This is the question that is being asked in any meeting on mineral development outside Meghalaya. To apply a mining lease, a ‘mining plan’ is needed, a projection of the 3 dimensional model of the ore body. As stated earlier, it is not possible with the nature of coal deposits in Meghalaya. But, is that a criteria to make coal mining illegal? A private iron ore mine in Karnataka, was banned by the Supreme Court terming it as ‘illegal’. They had the mining lease so what makes it illegal? They did not pay the royalty and other taxes as per MMDR Act. In Meghalaya people mine coal from their own land and pay the royalty, taxes etc. Does this make it legal? This is debatable.
Issues of environmental degradation due to acid mine drainage (AMD) from coal mines and the medium that nature has blessed us with like the people of Jericho where the acidity discharge is neutralized and our land is reclaimed will be dealt in my next episode- ‘Man and his Environment’.
(The writer is a senior geologist and former Joint Director (Geology) with the Directorate of Mineral Resources)