Deocha-Pachami-Dewanganj-Harinsingha

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Deocha-Pachami-Dewanganj-Harinsingha is a proposed coal mine in Deucha, Birbhum, West Bengal, India.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Deocha-Pachami-Dewanganj-Harinsingha	Deucha, Birbhum, West Bengal, India	24.05916, 87.59965 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the coal mine:

Loading map...

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Project Type	Opening Year	Closing Year
Proposed	Announced	New	–	–

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
–	–	–	Surface	–	–	50*	*

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt)	Year of Total Reserves Recorded	Total Resources (Mt)	Coalfield	Coal Type	Coal Grade	Primary Consumer/ Destination
–	–	2102	Birbhum	Subbituminous	Thermal	–

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
West Bengal Power Development Corp Ltd	West Bengal Power Development Corporation	India

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the GEM April 2024 Global Coal Mine Tracker dataset.

Background on Mine

The Deocha-Pachami and Dewanganj-Harinsingha coal blocks lie adjacent to one another on the Birbhum coalfield, over an area of 12.3 square kilometers. With indicated reserves of 40.7 billion tons, this coalfield is one of India's largest.

India's Ministry of Coal is currently in the process of allocating these coal blocks (as a single block) to an as-yet-undetermined state-owned company. While the Ministry stated in June 2013 that it hoped to allocate this block to a state company "within a week," that process is apparently still ongoing as of May 2015. The initial investment is expected to be around 100 billion rupees, or about $1.5 billion.

The West Bengal Power Development Corporation was allotted the coal block for development.

After some delay, in 2021, pre-mining activities began.

As of 2022, a protest movement remains ongoing to cancel the project. The region is home to 3,010 families, including 1,013 from tribal communities.

December 2021: Indigenous groups fend off Dechoa-Pachami mine brandishing bows, arrows, scythes

Deocha-Pachami Harinsingha Dewanganj Coal Mines, if completed, would the world’s second largest coal mine. In December of 2021 in Dewnaganj (one of 18 villages impacted by the mine) one of the over 100 women leading resistance to the mine was beat by police to the point that she miscarried. Despite ongoing repression, large projects in the area. like this coal mine, are frequently canceled:

Tata Motor canceled a car manufacturing plant, Indonesia's Salem group canceled its chemical hub project in 2007, and the Damodar Valley Corp. coal mine was canceled in 2017.

Adivasi (indigenous) women defend their home from mining. Source: Gulmorhquarterly.com

Politicians have weighed in as well: "If the police are used to evict you, we'll legally break the police's hands. You keep your sticks ready for the appropriate use," said Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, a leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and a member of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament.

Digging surveys began in July 2022. Youth from 260 families that did give up their land were appointed junior constable by the West Bengal to Police.,

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Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.