India's state-controlled coal firm routinely violates the rights of local communities in the rush to open new mines to meet the country's growing demand for power, Amnesty International said Wednesday. A report from the human rights group said Coal India, the world's largest coal producer, had failed to consult the indigenous communities living near mines in central and eastern India on acquiring the land, or the environmental impact.
In some cases, it found, local communities did not even know that their land was being acquired for mining purposes until it happened. "Both the company and central and state governments don't seem to care to speak or listen to vulnerable Adivasi (indigenous) communities whose lands are acquired and forests destroyed for coal mining," said Aakar Patel, head of Amnesty International India.
India's indigenous communities form more than eight percent of the country's 1.2 billion people, according to the latest census of 2011. Many are illiterate and live in extreme poverty, relying on the land for food. The report said the central government had acquired land in all three Coal India mines its investigators examined, without directly informing affected families, or consulting them about their resettlement.
One interviewee said he only discovered the land was being acquired after the deal was signed. A Coal India official dismissed the findings of the report, saying it was "next to impossible" to blatantly flout rules and regulations in place for such communities that are often protected by various agencies, including state governments.
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