Adivasi Women Lead the Fight Against Coal Mining in India

A 65-year-old woman who goes by just her first name, Mayawati, is one of the indigenous women leading a nearly 200-mile march to protest the opening of more coal mines in the forest of Hasdeo Arand, in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.

Most Adivasi, or indigenous, communities in India are engaged in work linked to forests, such as harvesting and selling produce, or making traditional medicines derived from plants. For most Adivasi communities in the region, Hasdeo forests are intricately tied to their livelihood, and they want the government to recognize the environmental degradation mining brings — just as India’s coal ministry has announced a major push to produce 1 billion tons of coal a year by 2023-2024.

As much as 80 percent of land proposed for sale for new coal mines is occupied by the forest-dwelling and forest-dependent Adivasi communities.

“The forests are our bank,” thunders Mayawati, who is from Chhattisgarh. “I will protect it as it has protected me my whole life. I will not move from Hasdeo Arand as long as I am alive.”

Adivasi women have a long history in Chhattisgarh of protecting its forests. From patrolling fires and deforestation to protesting environmental degradation, the women have been at the forefront of climate action. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s India has shown that it does not want to hear the opinions of indigenous people.

‘My people are disposable’

At the Glasgow climate conference in November, India announced that it plans to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2070, and that it will cut its nonrenewable energy by more than half. These are both highly ambitious reaches. Many experts say that it is going to be extremely difficult for India to even achieve the 2070 target, which is a good 20 years after the goal set by more than 100 other countries.

Despite being the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gasses, according to the UK-based Carbon Brief, and having the second-highest amount of coal production, according to the International Energy Agency, India still hasn’t been able to electrify about 31 million households, official data show. On top of that, Modi’s hypocrisy with coal is well known within India. A week before his net-zero declaration in Glasgow, India’s coal ministry made the announcement about producing 1 billion tons of coal.

Many Indian Adivasi leaders protested outside the official Glasgow conference, having no participatory voice in the proceedings. Alice Barwa, an Indian Adivasi woman, was one of them.

“To the country leaders attending the summit, social justice sounds like anti-development,” she said in an interview. “Their development comes at the cost of my people and their land. My people are disposable in their lens.”

Hidme Markam is an Adivasi woman who was arrested on March 8, International Women’s Day, and has remained in jail for more than eight months for simply speaking out against mining in her community. She has been charged under the country’s anti-terror law, accused of being a Maoist-sympathizer.

“Adivasi women face a patriarchal commodification of land and body by men, dominant-caste communities, and capitalists,” Barwa said. “Hidme Markam is one of those women.”

Risk of devastation

The Hasdeo Arand area is a massive, unfragmented forest. Out of the 18 coal mining blocks in the region, Parsa East and Kete Basan (PEKB), and Chotia are the two active ones. Last year, the Indian government put up five coal blocks in the area for auction to private companies. But intense opposition from the state administration prompted the federal government to reverse the decision.

Despite the reversal, the government now plans to open up around 1,200 square miles within the forest to mining.

Once mining activities begin in the Parsa coal block, which is located in the middle of Hasdeo Arand, people in the town of Fattepur will be in danger of forced relocation, Mayawati and many others like her fear.

Lilawati, 25, a Fattepur resident asks, “Where will I go if all the forests are destroyed?”

The Korba region is another coal-rich area of Chhattisgarh. Mining began in the 1970s; years later, Adivasis displaced by the industry still haven’t received compensation or help with resettlement, in addition to being subjected to the slew of environmental problems that come with the excavation of coal.

Babita, a young 29-year-old Korba native, reminisces about her childhood spent playing in lush forests, her family’s fields, and local streams. But all of that changed when she was very young. “By the age of 10, I recall seeing large machines near our farm,” she said.

Thermal power plants were built nearby, and the area soon became coated with fly ash, a byproduct of coal combustion at the plants.

“By the time I was in my teens, the fly ash and dust were everywhere — in our water, on our crops, trees, houses, and even the clothes women put out to dry,” Babita said. “We didn’t even have electricity, so what was the point?”

The streams were contaminated, and groundwater was depleted, forcing Babita to walk nearly two miles a day to find clean water.

Adivasi women now at risk in nearby communities have paid close attention to what happened in Korba.

Man Kunwar Porte, who lives in Fattepur, is originally from Parsa East, part of the PEKB block set for new mines to be excavated by a company called Adani Mining. She is among one of the many women who are working to ensure that the state remembers the forests as they frame fossil fuel policies.

A coal mine is only operational for about 40 years, and once the resource is depleted, it is abandoned, leaving behind environmental devastation and deadly toxins. “But what happens to the families whose lives were destroyed by the mine after those years?” Porte asked.

Porte’s father died of a lung disease a few years ago, she said, and her brothers and mother suffer all kinds of diseases because of the mining.

“Adani has already ruined half my side of the family,” Porte said. “I will not let it take my forest or the rest of my family away from me.”