Track 3-2-1: Grazing Pressure, Industrialisation, Land Use Change, Policies and Social Programmes

Description

This paper reviews the experience of ecological restoration adopted by Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), a Miniratna Company, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited, Government of India, Public Sector Undertaking to restore the mined out degraded land in Jharia Coalfield (JCF). JCF is one of the oldest coalfield of India and was mined in an unscientific manner for more than 100 years by the erstwhile private entrepreneurs until it was nationalised in 1972-73, due to which the coalfield was subjected to severe land degradation, mine fires and subsidence. The total degraded land in the JCF in 1986 was 6,294 hectares. In the span of ~25 years (1986-2011), BCCL had taken up plantation/afforestation on 3676 ha of degraded lands through District Forest Office. Now, BCCL is trying to restore these mined out degraded land ecologically. The ecological restoration is to establish a three-tier vegetation comprising of native species grasses as lower tier, shrubs and bushes as middle tier and trees as upper tier with an objective to establish biodiversity and food chain; to improve the local climate regime and socio-economic condition. In 2011, BCCL in association with Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun and Prof. CR Babu, Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystem (CEMDE), Delhi University started ecological restoration of the mined out degraded land and overburden dumps. Two study sites were taken up in 2011-12; one at Damoda (23°47'N and 86°30'E) of 7 ha and another at Tetulmari (23°81'N and 86°33'E) of 8 ha, respectively. The mined dumps were composed of big and small boulders of shaly sandstone, sandstone, shale and with traces of soil. Earlier, these dumps were profusely invaded by exotic weeds like Parthenium hysterophorus, Croton bonplandianus, Xanthium strumarium and Eupatorium odoratum, Lantana camara. Due to more than 100 years of mining and severe land degradation, there is no soil cover on the dumps and was poor in nutrients.

Efforts were specially made in selection of species which are native to the region; generate the large quantity of biomass to enrich the soil; ability to stabilize the soil structure; utility to the local community. Therefore, species of trees, shrubs, herbs, grasses with multiple use value like fuel, fodder, fruit, medicine were used during the process of ecological restoration.

In our study, the importance was given to the establishment of grass cover as grasses generate larger quantity of biomass; stabilize the slopes and bind the stratum. The grass cover also plays a key role in establishment of the lower trophic levels of the ecosystem. The grass species introduced are Cenchrus ciliaris, Cenchrus setigerus, Pennisetum pedicellatum, Heteropogon, Stylosanthes,hamata, Chrysopogon, Bothriochloia, Thysanolaena latifolia, Dichanthium, Arundo, Eragrostis, Cynodon dactylon, Chloris, Digitaria, Saccharum spontaneum, and Panicum. In addition, Shrub species Dodonaea viscose, Vitex negundo, Dendrocalamus strictus, Dendrocalamus asper and Bambusa bambos, Woodfordia fruticosa, Calotropis procera, Cassia tora, Datura stramonium, Ziziphus mauritiana, Tephrosia purpurea, Adhatoda zeylanica and Agave sislana and the tree species Albizia procera, Dalbergia sisso, Phyllanthus embilica, Albizia lebbeck, Bahunia variegate, Aegle Marmelos, madhuca indica, Ficus religiosa, Ficus hispida, Syzygium cumini, Casia Fistula etc have been introduced.

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Significance of Grasses in Establishment of Ecological Restoration in Mined out Degraded Land in Jharia Coalfield, Dhanbad

This paper reviews the experience of ecological restoration adopted by Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), a Miniratna Company, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited, Government of India, Public Sector Undertaking to restore the mined out degraded land in Jharia Coalfield (JCF). JCF is one of the oldest coalfield of India and was mined in an unscientific manner for more than 100 years by the erstwhile private entrepreneurs until it was nationalised in 1972-73, due to which the coalfield was subjected to severe land degradation, mine fires and subsidence. The total degraded land in the JCF in 1986 was 6,294 hectares. In the span of ~25 years (1986-2011), BCCL had taken up plantation/afforestation on 3676 ha of degraded lands through District Forest Office. Now, BCCL is trying to restore these mined out degraded land ecologically. The ecological restoration is to establish a three-tier vegetation comprising of native species grasses as lower tier, shrubs and bushes as middle tier and trees as upper tier with an objective to establish biodiversity and food chain; to improve the local climate regime and socio-economic condition. In 2011, BCCL in association with Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun and Prof. CR Babu, Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystem (CEMDE), Delhi University started ecological restoration of the mined out degraded land and overburden dumps. Two study sites were taken up in 2011-12; one at Damoda (23°47'N and 86°30'E) of 7 ha and another at Tetulmari (23°81'N and 86°33'E) of 8 ha, respectively. The mined dumps were composed of big and small boulders of shaly sandstone, sandstone, shale and with traces of soil. Earlier, these dumps were profusely invaded by exotic weeds like Parthenium hysterophorus, Croton bonplandianus, Xanthium strumarium and Eupatorium odoratum, Lantana camara. Due to more than 100 years of mining and severe land degradation, there is no soil cover on the dumps and was poor in nutrients.

Efforts were specially made in selection of species which are native to the region; generate the large quantity of biomass to enrich the soil; ability to stabilize the soil structure; utility to the local community. Therefore, species of trees, shrubs, herbs, grasses with multiple use value like fuel, fodder, fruit, medicine were used during the process of ecological restoration.

In our study, the importance was given to the establishment of grass cover as grasses generate larger quantity of biomass; stabilize the slopes and bind the stratum. The grass cover also plays a key role in establishment of the lower trophic levels of the ecosystem. The grass species introduced are Cenchrus ciliaris, Cenchrus setigerus, Pennisetum pedicellatum, Heteropogon, Stylosanthes,hamata, Chrysopogon, Bothriochloia, Thysanolaena latifolia, Dichanthium, Arundo, Eragrostis, Cynodon dactylon, Chloris, Digitaria, Saccharum spontaneum, and Panicum. In addition, Shrub species Dodonaea viscose, Vitex negundo, Dendrocalamus strictus, Dendrocalamus asper and Bambusa bambos, Woodfordia fruticosa, Calotropis procera, Cassia tora, Datura stramonium, Ziziphus mauritiana, Tephrosia purpurea, Adhatoda zeylanica and Agave sislana and the tree species Albizia procera, Dalbergia sisso, Phyllanthus embilica, Albizia lebbeck, Bahunia variegate, Aegle Marmelos, madhuca indica, Ficus religiosa, Ficus hispida, Syzygium cumini, Casia Fistula etc have been introduced.