Socio economic impact of mining activities: a case of Tamnar mining area Chhattisgarh

Abstract

Raigarh district, which is rich in minerals like coal, limestone & dolomite is situated in the easternmost part of Chhattisgarh. The district lies on the Mand-Raigarh coalfield (the largest coal reserve in the state). This district has experienced rapid industrialization over the last few years, and the coal mines in the district are continuously expanding over the years. The “Tamnar mining area” which is the oldest mining area in the district has had significant positive and negative impacts due to the coal mining activities. With the recent development in which government has reallowed involvement of private companies in commercial coal mining, the ever-growing coal mines are expected to expand more rapidly in the near future. It is a common observation that mineral-rich land has a fair amount of forest cover on the ground as well. In addition, numerous studies show that the mining and mineral industries have continuously struggled to encourage development in their neighboring areas. This phenomenon is popular all over the world and has been referred to as "the resource curse". The Chhattisgarh scenario also confirms the above assertion of the presence of a resource curse in the state. Resource curse refers to the paradox that areas with abundance of mineral resources tend to have less/negative economic growth then the areas with lesser mineral resources. Special schemes like the “Corporate Social Responsibilities” and “District Mineral Funds” have been initiated by the government of India in order to improve the capabilities (providing them opportunities to learn skills, get education, health facilities, etc) of people in mining affected areas and undo the resource curse. A number of studies conducted at District, State and National scale have verified the existence of resource curse in mineral rich areas. Whereas this study is conducted at a macro level (within the district) to compare if the directly impacted villages aroundthe coal mines either have a better or worse socio-economic profile when compared to the villages which are not at all impacted by any type of mining or industrial activity. The mining impacted group of villages were compared to the non-impacted groups based on five aspects i.e.: Education, Health & Sanitation, Income & Employment, Assets owned, and the Physical & Social infrastructure available in these villages. Inspired from the literature review it was expected that the mining impacted villages will be lacking behind in comparison. All though the outcomes which are calculated using a difference of means analysis using a paired t-test using two samples, it was found that the mining impacted areas are performing significantly better in four out of the five aspects that were compared. And the inputs received from the CSR funds & activities have been a major contributor in the wellbeing of this area. Thus, based on the macro scale study we can conclude that no significant evidence for the existence of resource curse were found in the Tamnar mining area.