Echoes of the Ecological Handicaps Coal Complex Pollution in Dankuni area, West Bengal, India

Abstract

In the course of last few years, media has drawn attention to the crisis faced by the inhabitants of the Dankuni area, Hooghly district, West Bengal, India. Innumerable instances have been brought to the limelight, which clearly indicate wide spread environmental damage in the areas lying in close proximity of the Dankuni Coal Complex. The consequences of development strategies have been extremely adverse as far as environment is concerned. In its lust for immediate gains, the industry is following a myopic policy with no concern for pollution of air, water and land. While it is important to uphold developmental initiatives like the Dankuni Coal Complex (DCC), it is equally desirable that the residents in the vicinity of such establishments do not suffer. The obsession with quantitative economic growth has bred a natural conflict between environment and development. The very location of DCC is ecologically very sensitive as it has been set up adjacent to the Dankuni Drainage Channel which invariably acts as a receptacle channel for the coal complex effluent. Further accentuating the problem are the low-lying marshes, locally known as the Bhils, whose ecology has been long withstanding the onslaught of mass production, with inadequate attention on the rapidly degrading ecosystem. This is a humble report on the dehumanizing metamorphosis that an industry brings with active support of the Government in the life of simple folks who once considered themselves to be children of the Earth, but today are ‘ecologically handicapped.’