Farmers pay the price: Coal ash pollution turns fertile fields barren

By Raj Kumar Sinha* 
Approximately 71.22 percent of India's electricity is generated from coal-based thermal power plants. The total installed capacity of 180 thermal power plants in the country is 212 gigawatts (1 gigawatt = 1000 megawatts), which is to be increased to 260 gigawatts by 2030. According to ground reporter Shishir Agarwal, 2,918,265 million tonnes of coal were used for electricity generation from April 2023 to 2024. During this period, 1,167,308 tonnes of fly ash and bottom ash were produced. Out of this, 578,388 million tonnes of ash have been utilized.
Meanwhile, 835,086 million tonnes of ash have been dumped in low-lying areas. According to the rules, fly ash is used in four ways: highway construction, cement production, brick manufacturing, and wasteland reclamation. It is believed that elements like sodium, potassium, and zinc present in the ash can increase the productivity of crops, hence its use.
Madhya Pradesh has 15 thermal power plants in the government and private sectors, with a total power generation capacity of 22,730 megawatts. Annually, these thermal power plants generate 28,517,588 metric tonnes of ash. In the thermal power plants of Sarni, Anuppur, and Narsinghpur, the utilization of fly ash ranges from 80 to 95 percent. The remaining plants have piles of fly ash. According to the notification of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change dated December 31, 2021, it is mandatory for coal-based thermal power plants to utilize 100 percent of the emitted ash. After burning coal for electricity, the collected ash is classified into fly ash and bottom ash. Fly ash is a fine powder, while bottom ash contains heavier particles that settle at the bottom of the boiler. Fly ash travels long distances in the air.
It contains heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and mercury, which enter the body through respiration. According to a report by Coal Ash India, this can lead to skin infections, lung and prostate cancer, and permanent brain damage. According to the guidelines of the Central Pollution Control Board, thermal power plants are unable to utilize the ash. The extent of the devastation can be understood from an example. Due to the 600-megawatt Jhabua Thermal Power Plant located in Ghansaur tehsil of Seoni district, the ash emitted from it has damaged the surrounding fields.
Maniram, a 65-year-old farmer from the village, used to cultivate paddy in the Kharif season and wheat in the Rabi season. However, his 2.5-acre field has been lying barren for the last three years. The reason? The ash emanating from the nearby plant. Maniram's field is situated along the Gondi stream. He says, "When the ash started falling, the grains stopped growing. Now the field lies idle." Due to repeated crop failure caused by pollution, he had to abandon farming on this land. Mohanlal Yadav of Bineki village, who once cultivated 15 acres of land, has seen his 5 acres of land lying barren since 2016. He claims that the continuous flow of ash-laden water from the plant has made it impossible for him to grow crops.
The local Gondi stream, which is a natural source and important for farmers and livestock, has also been polluted by the ash from the plant. The Gondi stream meets the Temer River, which is a tributary of the Narmada. On the banks of the Narmada River, the proposed installed capacity of 18 thermal and nuclear power projects is 25,260 megawatts. Out of the 22,460 megawatts of thermal power plants, the 6,900-megawatt capacity thermal power plants of Jhabua Ghansaur (Seoni), BLA Gadarwara (Narsinghpur), NTPC Gagadarwara (Narsinghpur), Singaji (Khandwa), and NTPC Khargone have already started. Approximately 3,238 liters of water per hour are required to generate 1 megawatt of electricity.
If the proposed thermal power projects are set up, 72,725,480 liters of water per hour will be drawn from the Narmada. To produce 1 megawatt of electricity, at a rate of 0.7 tonnes of coal, 15,722 tonnes of coal will be burned per hour, resulting in 40 percent ash. This means that with 6,289 tonnes of ash being produced per hour, its disposal will not be easy. The experience of the Sarni Satpura Thermal Power Plant shows that discharging ash from this power plant into the Tawa River turns the water milky, and fish die.
After public consultation in September 2015, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change revised the emission standards for Indian thermal power plants. All thermal power plants were expected to comply with these by 2017. However, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has been extending the deadline set in 2017. Once again, on December 30, 2024, the ministry, without citing any reason, issued a notification amending the environmental protection rules, extending the deadline for compliance with sulfur dioxide (SO2​) emission standards for thermal power plants by three years.
Whereas, in the current climate change crisis, the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas) is a major cause, which is increasing the temperature of the Earth and the atmosphere. In 2015, during the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Paris, nations agreed on a legally binding commitment to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by pledging to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. This is known as the Paris Agreement.
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*Bargi Dam Displaced and Affected Association