Environmental Impact Assessment studies are increasingly undertaken before a project is cleared by the…

Question

Environmental Impact Assessment studies are increasingly undertaken before a project is cleared by the Government. Discuss the environmental impacts of coal-fired thermal plants located at coal pitheads.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Pithead coal plants concentrate air pollution, fly ash, toxic metals, water stress, forest loss and displacement in one landscape, so their impacts compound. CPCB's 2009 pollution index named Singrauli, Korba, Angul-Talcher and Chandrapur among 43 critically polluted clusters.

**Introduction**

Under the EIA Notification 2006, coal plants of 500 MW or more need central clearance. Pithead siting saves coal freight but stacks a mine and a plant on one airshed, watershed and forest, so impacts compound.

**Air, Ash and Climate Impacts**

1. **Gaseous Emissions**: Sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulates rise, while the December 2015 norms requiring flue gas desulphurisation keep slipping.
2. **Fly Ash Burden**: Indian coal is 30-45% ash; dyke breaches at Essar Mahan, NTPC Vindhyachal (2019) and Reliance Sasan (2020) in Singrauli buried fields in slurry.
3. **Toxic Metals**: A Centre for Science and Environment study (2012) found high mercury in the blood of Singrauli residents.
4. **Carbon Lock-in**: Coal powers over 74% of India's electricity (PIB, 2025), so each plant commits decades of emissions.

**Water, Land and Social Impacts**

SKETCH: iceberg | Pithead cluster impacts
visible: Smokestacks, Ash ponds, Mine dumps
hidden: Mercury in food, Groundwater leachate, Cumulative load, Lost livelihoods

1. **Water and Forest**: Cooling drains reservoirs such as Rihand and warm discharge harms aquatic life, while pits, dumps and ash ponds strip forests and fragment elephant habitat.
2. **Cumulative Pollution**: CPCB's Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (2009) put Singrauli, Korba, Angul-Talcher and Chandrapur among 43 critically polluted clusters, triggering a 2010 moratorium.
3. **Double Displacement**: Tribal families lose land to the mine and then to the plant; North Karanpura coalfield, host to NTPC's 1,980 MW plant, lies beneath 203 villages.

**Conclusion**

Pithead siting is economical but concentrates every impact of coal in one landscape. Only a cumulative, cluster-level EIA with enforced emission and ash norms can stop coal belts becoming sacrifice zones.

Environmental Impact Assessment studies are increasingly undertaken before a project is cleared by the Government. Discuss the environmental impacts of coal-fired thermal plants located at coal pitheads.

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