In a rapidly changing world, there are some communities that struggling to keep their identities intact in trying to keep up. Mohan Kumar Bhuiyan belongs to one such adivasi community who live dangerously perched between the open minefields of Tata, on one side and Central Coalfields, on the other. He and his neighbors have already been given eviction notices and…
IndiaUnheard Correspondent Mohan Bhuiyan belongs to an adivasi community who live dangerously perched between the open minefields of Tata, on one side and Central Coalfields, on the other. In today's video he documents that effects of dumping mining debris. He has made many such videos which chronicle the havoc wrecked by mining on nature and life. Companies that mine crores from the land and give back only destitution and distress. Tomorrow, on the 26th October, 2012, representatives from CCL are arriving in his village. They will ‘survey’ his house and the other 70 houses in the village. In less than a month, they will be bulldozed. Around 350 people in his village including children and women, will be forcibly displaced from their homes.
He speaks of his situation below:-
"300mts to the west of my village are the blackened coal mines of Central Coalfields Limited. Less than 300mts to the east are mining pits belonging to the Tatas. When the mining companies first arrived in my village, they came with promises of water, education, health, work and development. In 1984, they fooled us into acquiring the land on which we had our homes and our fields. But because the compensation and rehabilitation were never given, we refused to move."
"For the last 20 years, we have been living in the most miserable conditions. The mining has destroyed our land. Our ponds and fields have dried up and become unusable. The air is polluted with dust and ash. It is unfit for breathing. The companies couldn’t care less. They were mining crores worth of coal from our land and gave us nothing in return. From a self-sufficient agricultural village, we have been pushed into destitution. But atleast we had our homes."
"Tomorrow, on the 26th October, 2012, representatives from CCL are arriving in my village. They will ‘survey’ my house and the other 70 houses in the village. In less than a month, they will be bulldozed. Around 350 people in my village including children and women, will be forcibly displaced from our homes."
"I have seen the area where other displaced families living in villages nearby have been displaced to. It is a no man’s land. There are no schools, no roads, no hospital, and no water connections. It is arid, dead and unlivable. The companies just tear a check, hand it to the people and ask us to leave. They promise that they will train us in newer ways of livelihood but I have never heard of any such training takings place. We will be left to our fates."
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