Why India can't live without coal despite its negative environmental effects

A lone well sits in the middle of the Bhatali village square in central India's coal-rich Chandrapur district, steps from a massive open-pit mine.

The well is dug 10 times deeper than previous ones, which all ran dry years ago, and the water spurting from it is not safe to drink.

"Our lands have gone to waste," said village leader Subhash Gaurkar, pointing to the coal mining activity that surrounds the town. 

Mining of the highly polluting fossil fuel in Chandrapur, like in many other coal-rich regions of India, has siphoned most of what was, at one time, a plentiful water supply. 

India is the world's second largest producer of coal, behind China. Critics worry that fossil fuel will be the centrepiece of the country's energy production for several decades yet, along with the environmental and health consequences that come with it.   

"Our wells are 30 feet deep and the mines are 80 feet deep," Gaurkar said. "The mines suck all the water, so we don't get that water. How can farmers irrigate their farm then?"  

Manoj Waghmare, 36, doesn't any longer. His field, across the street from the large coal mine, sits empty and devoid of crops. 

"Nothing can grow here now. We have nothing left," he said, claiming silt and water from the nearby mine has seeped into the soil, contaminating it. 

"Our land of 60 years has become completely barren," Waghmare said. 

(The mine has compensated other farmers in the area for loss of land, but Waghmare said he is still waiting for his sum.)  

With the area's groundwater depleted, drinking water comes from a small, makeshift treatment hut set up near that lone well — a government-built system that pumps water from the nearby Erai river. 

Villagers line up to use a pay-by-card system to fill up their large jugs with water. The cost: 20 litres of water for five rupees (roughly eight cents Cdn).

It's emblematic of the harmful effects of coal extraction on local communities, according to Suresh Chopane, president of the Chandrapur-based environmental non-profit Green Planet Society.

"Water everywhere, not a single drop to drink," Chopane said. "This is what the situation is in Chandrapur."