The distance of Talcher, the industrial town of Orissa, is around 220 km from the Bay of Bengal and 70 km from the Mahanadi in the south. The town is also bounded in the North-east direction by the second largest river of the State, Brahmani. Virtually, this industrial town is surrounded by big and small water bodies made naturally or by former rulers to counterbalance the temperature of this floating earth-top on coal rocks. Further, two gigantic nature-built river gorges like Satkosia and Rengali are situated in the South and North-west directions respectively of this coal town with wooded surroundings of Peninsular Sal forests with mountain outfits of evergreen and semi-evergreen forests.

But the present temperature of these surroundings is crossing all prohibitive factors and the mercury column is soaring. Two man-made factors are seriously working here. One is that large-scale coal rocks are being excavated through both underground mines and over-ground mines process from this region, which extends the coal profile up to Ib Valley. The people of this region use this fossilised fuel largely for their day-to-day work in addition to firewood obtained from nearby forests. The coal that is obtained from earth and being used as domestic fuel has to be de-carbonised before use. This process generates large-scale carbon thus carbonising the atmosphere in an extensive scale. Again the whole coal-bearing areas are deforested and the ground floor is made barren which becomes a major source of infra-red heat from sun.

As a result, the whole life-supporting system within this environment turns into life threatening for existence of living beings. The unscientific excavation of coal including improper storages creates situations for voluntary or involuntary fire in the coal piles because of volume-based pressure from the top towards the bottom which causes ignition in the stock piles. This is usually due to constant depletion of forest cover and drying up of ground soil causing hardening and conversion of short wavelength of sun rays into long wavelength leading to more heat energy thus causing serious ecological desertification and destruction of the life-support system. As a result, the ground water level is reducing day by day.

The second reason is the most serious situation which is being created by industries. In this locality, many industries, right from small to big and mega ones, are now under occupation of Nalco, FCI, TTPS and NTPC, which in every moment produce tonnes and tonnes of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxide, hydrocarbons, chlorofluoro carbons, particulate materials and fly ash to the air, water, surrounding atmosphere and the soil. Green house gas like carbon dioxide is the most dangerous gas for human survival. In normal state in the atmosphere this gas is not harmful, but if it goes beyond the limitations, it imposes green house gases, and if the concentration of carbon dioxide goes on in the atmosphere, more and more infra-red radiation is tapped by atmospheric carbon dioxide and the same is remitted to the earth.

Statistics have showed that every decade the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere increases by 4 per cent which also contributes to the increase in earth’s temperature. This gas allows the sun rays to enter the atmosphere but this also prevents the infra-red rays from returning back to the sky from earth surface. Ultimately, the earth surface becomes a hot frying pan due to constant deposition of CO2 in the atmosphere. The CO2 widens the field of human sufferings by causing climate change, reduction in visibility, air and water-borne diseases, effects on plant community and effect on structures for eroding actions.

The CO2 that is responsible for re-emission of infra-red to the earth surface and creation of heat waves, as it happens now in Talcher, is fully man-made. Generally, the solar radiation or the solar waves provides us the light energy that have short wavelength, but when this goes back to the atmosphere after striking the earth surface, it is transformed into long-wave radiation or heat. Since the molecules of the CO2 in the atmosphere absorbs long-wave radiation (heat), CO2 contained in the atmosphere is directly proportional to heat remitted to the earth surface which leads to disaster and becomes a major reason of climate failure. The ground of Talcher-Angul region happens to be a good platform to receive the remitted long-wave infrared radiations which in turn makes the region hotter. As a result, temperature in Talcher area is approaching 50 degree Celsius in the month of April itself.

If we go further deep into ‘Carbon Killing’ in Talcher, it can be observed that no plant in this locality looks green or show any presence of chlorophyll.

Every plant, right from sapling to big and from agricultural fields to forest lands, is laden with carbon dusts and fly ashes. Thus, photosynthesis or the assimilation of CO2 by plant bodies through green foliages becomes impossible. As a result, the plants are facing untimely death due to physical and physiological punishment inflicted upon them by the ‘Carbon Killers’ such as industries, hotels and ovens located in this tract. The administrators here are simply blind-fold and deaf to the crimes posed here. The agriculture crops are the worst affected due to the physical and physiological damage to the plant community. The productivity of these fertile lands are also going down due to the above reasons. Cultivable lands, water and air here are fully charged with carbon dusts which turns the whole area into a carbon desert with a black horizon. The desert is also experiencing peripheral increase in the intensity of heat waves at every moment.

A similar situation is also being noticed in other industrial areas like Rourkela, Jharsuguda, Bargarh, Rajgangpur and other industry-rich tracts of the State. Similar situation is also occurring in the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, where the cities are not only increasing peripherally but also vertically.

If life support systems like water, air, mother earth and bio-diversity are murdered in this cruel way, how can we expect the present race of human beings to exist in the globe, particularly in India and Orissa. The Eastern Ghats, which practically starts from Orissa and undivided Madhya Pradesh, is the lifeline of these two States. If we convert this natural and picturesque hill range into industries and mining pits, we shouldn’t expect the water sources to exist and provide support for our survival.

It is high time we seriously considered these shocking facts otherwise the day is not far off when we would also perish under this carbon canopy.

(The writer, a retired Divisional Forest Officer, is an environmentalist)