Climate change
The Jharia coalfield is a storehouse of prime coke coal in the country, consisting of 23 large underground and 9 large open cast mines.
At present, more than 70 mine fires are reported from this region, burning away of an important energy resource, possessing danger to humankind.
The pollution caused by these fires affects air, water, and land, its smoke containing poisonous gases such as oxides and dioxides of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur, which lead to degradation of land not allowing any vegetation to grow in the area.
One of the most persistent threats from the fires is land subsidence. As the burning coal turns to ash, hollow pockets are created underground leaving the surface unstable and causing sudden collapses.
At night, the fields turn into an unnatural sight as blue flames dance across their surface, the firestorm beneath clearly visible through the fissures coursing over the ground.
Coal has been known to spontaneously combust when it comes in contact with the air underground and fires are frequently started and sustained by man-made factors such as the improper closure of abandoned mines or lightening.
Jharia has four lakhs people, and India has the highest density of such fires in the world, together with the largest population to live in subterranean coal fires -affected areas.

Coal burning is responsible for 40% of the global green house gas emission from fossil fuel (PEW center on global climate change)
Jharia is one of the biggest and main coalmine fields in India. Because of unprofessional mining in that area, the land suffers from coal fires.
Coal produces more carbon dioxide per unit of useful energy than other fuel (intergovernmental panel on climate change)
Coal mining leaves behind coal combustion wastes, contaminated ground water, barren landscapes, underground fires and toxic chemicals
Mines in Jharia (India), generate tones of waste rock a year
Preventing dangerous climate change means halting growth of CO2 emissions by 2015. The inescapable conclusion is that we have to phase-out the use of coal. (‘The true cost of coal’ Greenpeace International)
While the politicians debate over the global warming in the world, Jharia is contributing silently to global warming for more than 100 years already