Abandoned mines a health hazard

Jharkhand: Roro hills, 20 kilometers from Chaibasa in Singbhum: Women can be seen dressed in widows' garments. Here there are no leafy trees or humming streams. The only thing that can be seen here is toxic waste - the left overs of 70 years of mining, first by small, local players, then by big ones like Tata and Birla.

The place reeks of tell-tale signs of careless closure and the 14 villages that surround the mountains pay a price for this everyday. The hills in Singhbum were once mined both for asbestos and chromium. For the past 20 years, waste from asbestos mining has been lying here and this is flowing into the villages causing havoc as asbestos is a known carcinogen.

If there's one example of sheer corporate and Government negligence, it is this.

0.7 million tonnes of toxic waste is not exactly a playground for children, and for the children of Roro hills, it is an endless hunting ground. They come here to scavenge for iron scraps. The slope of the hill, which is now a powdery slide is used as a giant slide by the children.

However, what they don't know is that such naked exposure to asbestos dust could result in serious diseases like asbestosis, asthama and even cancer. But the sad part of it all is that the toxic waste is too much and too close to be completely avoided by the people here.

Roro is a village of former asbestos mine workers. The past few years alone have reported 10 deaths, all former workers. Many like Mangal Sundi are still battling for survival.

Part of his ailment has been diagnosed as TB and life seems to ebbing away.

"I was working in the crasher. They produced asbestos over there. I feel that someone should help me recover," says he.

There are other signs of ill health that other miners sport - like fading eyesight.

Says another ex-asbestos mine worker, Dumbi Boipoi, "I can't see properly. Only when people call me and I look in their direction do I see a hazy outline."

Others say that apart from the side-effects to their health, there were other aspects like being monetarily exploited. Some say they would get paid as low Rs seven per day.

And it's not just human beings who are affected. The wind and the rain carry carry the toxic waste downhill, flooding the fields. The result - barren lands and toxic water.

Says Mukund Sundi, "They mined our hills and left us like that. Our lands turned barren, so who's responsible - the Birla company is responsible."

And the shocking admission comes from the people concerned themselves.

Says CMD Bharat Coking Coal Ltd Partho Bhattacharya, "Earlier, there were no mine closure plans. We did the mining, we went away and the miners went away. Reclaimation was not considered an integral part of the mining process and nor were the costs of reclaimation factored into the total cost of production and pricing."

There were no rules for waste disposal, or scientific closure of mines either. It had become easy for companies to exploit the land and then simply leave.

The result - there is not just one Roro, but innumerable places like Roro dotting the landscape across India.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/abandoned-mines-a-health-hazard/24875-3.html