Mining in Karanpura Valley

Location Map

Location:  The Karanpura Valley, approximately 60 kms. long by 30 kms wide, is a subsidi­ary river valley of the upper Damodar basin, lying to the north of the Damodar.  It falls in Hazaribag and Chatra districts of Jharkhand, with three Development Blocks, Barkagaon, Keredari and Tandwa, as its main centres.

The Karanpura Valley is located on Topo Maps 73 - A/13, A/14, E/1, E/2, E/5, and E/6.  Its coordinates are:  latitudes  23^38"40' to 23^58"40' North, longitudes 84^46'20" to 85^24'15" East. 

It can be entered by road from Chatra in the north, Hazaribag in the north-east, Ranchi-Khalari in the south-west, and Urimari in the south.   To the south lies the Barwadih-Barkakana line of Eastern Railways.  A new rail loop branching from McCluskiegunj is in the process of entering the valley, and when completed will skirt the northern side of the valley.  The line is built to serve many new coal mines and the new North Karanpura Super Thermal Power Station

Its climate is tropical. Summers (max. 42 to min 25 C) are hot from March to June. Winter months from November to February are cold, temperature varying from 21  to 4 C.  Average annual rainfall is 1150 mm. and 90% of precipitation occurs  during June to September.

Physical characteristics  The Karanpura valley is a distinctive valley which is the core of the proposed North Karan­pura Coalfields.  A part of the Damodar water basin, it is a saucer like structure dominated by a number of distinctive hills.  In the centre,  near Barkagaon  stands  the predominant escarpment of Ma­haudi hill (2389 ft, with its upper 800 ft sheer sand-stone scarp).  At the western end of the valley, south of Tandwa,  stands the a large triangular hill mass of Satpahar (2081 ft).   The southern hill range of Aswa Pahar (2465 ft) separates the valley from the Damodar  basin.   

The valley drains into the Damodar River by the Garhi river at the western end, and by the Haharo river at the eastern end. The valley itself is very fertile with crops all through the year, and is one of the most fertile areas of Jharkhand.   Irrigation is provided by the Ghaghra  Dam near Lazidag, and by multiple small lift irrigation projects.   The land may be classified into three categories:  a) Forest area,  in many  parts now degraded, although it still provides good supplies of timber and fodder for the village people.   b) Tanr lands, which are the less fertile upper lands, but contain a generous supply of mahua trees (bassia latifolia), whose flowers and fruit are an important source of livelihood for the local population.  3) Lower rice fields, don, which provide the staple rice crop, and a second wheat crop if irrigation is available.

The valley is,  as we note below, also very rich culturally and  environmentally,  It is also rich in reserves of good quality coal available relatively close to the surface  It is this fact that has turned it into one of India’s environmental hot spots.  

Special Cultural and Environmental characteristics

Forest:  The area is  rich in biodiversity, a more detailed list of its flora is enclosed in Annex 1.  The surrounding hills are covered with age old sal (shorea robusta) trees inter­spersed with the agriculture lands of tribal hamlets.  A distinc­tive feature is thousands of fruit bearing mahua trees (bassia latifolia). 

Each of the tribal villages has its own sarna or sacred grove.   This is a cluster of primal forest trees that was left uncut when their ancestors first moved into the area and cleared the forest for fields.  The village sacred specialist, (pahan) performs worship there a few times a year, the major occasion being Sarhul.  The sarna serves to anchor the tribals relationship with the land, linking “this world” with “the other”. When mining takes place,  Coal India’s  current policy has been  to replace the sarna with another, or to give compensatory money for it. Both solutions indicate a complete lack of understanding.  As an alternative, at Piparwar they left the sarna and mined around it.  After some years, the trees died.   As an example, the sacred groves of the Ashoka mine project alone are recorded in Annex  2

Animal Corridors The valley has importance in other ways.  Its wooded hills  have always served as natural "corridors" for wild animals,  connect­ing the jungles of Palamau in the west, to those of Ranchi in the south and the Konar watershed in the east. "Very good coppice forest of high wildlife value" is the report of the forest dept.  (Carter 1997 & 2000, Vagholikar 2000a, 2000b)   These corridors are being cut both by the mines and by the railway line which are being built into the valley.   The destruction of wildlife corridors means the destruction of wildlife.
 

Cultural Sites  The valley also provides a rich cultural heritage: Significant rock art sites have been located in the hills surrounding the valley, the full details of these are  in Annex 3. (Also refer to website  http://www.international.icomos.org/risk/2001/india2001.htm).

Besides these there are sacred burial grounds of a former tribal civilization, marked by megaliths.  When the people cle­ared the lands, and their elders died, they buried them on the outskirts of the village and erected these megaliths.  (In colo­nial times when there were disputes  over lands with encroaching land grabbers, the tribals would point to the megaliths as their "land documents").  xxx
 

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