Dear Associates of Indian Coal Mining Industry
When would we be able to prevent/avoid the kind of disasters in Indian Coal mines such as the one in Jharkhand few days ago. Comparatively opencast mining is safer than underground mining, but such mishaps are occurring now and then in opencast mines also.
Can we term it an act of God, if not aren't such accidents avoidable?
It is a common perception from a villager in states like Jharkhand who digs/steals coal from the mines of CIL and other abandoned opencast mines to the bureaucrats at the helm of both the public sector coal companies in India, that 'mining kya hai...simply remove the dirt/waste rock and dig the coal'.
Gone were the days when underground coal mining with so many challenges like dangers of methane explosion, coal dust explosion, inundation with surface or underground water etc, where coal production was incidental.
Availability of huge coal deposits at shallow depths have made quantum jumps possible in opencast mining which in turn made spectacular growth in power generation in the past 2 or 3 decades. With outsourcing both overburden removal and coal extraction in CIL/SCCL, plethora of contractors with their experience in working irrigation projects have entered the coal mining arena. With their efficient working culture they are able to remove huge volumes of Overburden at a fraction of cost of departmental OB removal of the public sector coal mining companies. In the process corners are cut, safety given a go-by and in case a life is lost they spend few lakhs of rupees as compensation and bribes to the inspecting government officials and the business is carried on as usual.
It is also a fact that by outsourcing, the public sector coal companies abdicate their responsibilities by neglecting the safety aspects. The disasters of such nature point out systemic failure than any omissions and commissions of individuals at the bottom the hierarchy.
Formulating risk management programs, implementing it and reviewing at regular intervals, correlating the geological data like faults and other discontinuities with the historical data to predict and take corrective action, not taking help of scientific institutions specialising in slope stability studies etc. seem to be lacking.
The attitude of reacting /responding to the violations pointed out by DGMS in a compliance mentality should give way to 'Duty of Care' approach. The management and employees have to frame and implement SOPs, if necessary in consultation with scientific and research institutions.
Geology is only a science of estimation and god only knows what is inside the rock mass.Nature is ruthless and it manifests and doesn't fall into the frame works we construct. That being conventional wisdom, we should take advantage of modern technologies like 3D- seismic surveys and geophysical logging to map the geological disturbances more accurately and adopt suitable slope monitoring techniques. Ab initio at the planning and design stage itself safety of men and machinery should be the top most priority.
As Morphy's law reminds us ' A THING THAT CAN GO WRONG WILL GO WRONG', wisdom lies in proactiveness, strong will to change the dirty image of the black diamond
Posted by: jdattatreyulu@hotmail.com
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Directorate General of Mines Safety, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Govt. of India
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