The people of Chhendipada area of Angul district are panicked over loss of land, house and livelihood for the recently-auctioned Radhikapur (East) coal mine. The Aditya Birla group owned EMIL Mines and Minerals Resources Limited is the winning bidder for the Radhikapur (East) coalmine.
The coal block , spread over an area of 10.16 sq km, has a net proved reserve of 176.33 million tonnes (MT) of fossil fuel."Radhikapur (East) coal mine belongs to Angul-Talcher coal belt, close to Satkosia and Similipal Tiger Reserves and it will seriously affect and fragment Similipal-Satkosia wildlife corridor," told activist Er Sashmita Behera.Satkosia is the meeting point of two bio-geographic regions of India; the Deccan Peninsula and the Eastern Ghats, with immense biodiversity.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority has identified a potential link for the migration of wild animals from the Similipal Tiger Reserve to the Satkosia Tiger Reserve and has proposed a corridor. The corridor is highly fragmented due to intense mining and industries activities.
Many water streams of this area have gone dry and water flow has decreased by 50 per cent due to large deforestation for various industries and mining projects . Villagers of Angul and Talcher are facing water scarcity and other ecology hardship. People of the coal rich area are presently living with hardship due to increasing man-animal conflict in human habitations. This is happening due to water and fodder scarcity in jungles and hills in view of large scale mining. In view of the commercial coal mining in Chhendipada area, it is feared that the mining will pose a threat to the abundance and diversity of flora and fauna.
The cumulative impacts of mining in this region will further aggravate the sustainability challenges of the landscape due to disturbances and deterioration of forest ecology.
Villages like Jhintipal, Gopiballabhpur, Gopinathpur and Barpada will be directly and immensely affected by Radhikapur (East) coal mine.
Radhikapur (East) Coal Block which was previously allocated to Tata Sponge Iron and its co-allottee was de-allocated as Supreme Court of India pronounced the coal block allocation process as illegal. The issue of the particular coal block has been lingering since 2012 as Tata Sponge failed to develop the block due to stiff opposition by the concerned villages.