World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated annually on 5 June and is the United Nations’ principal vehicle for encouraging awareness and action for the protection of the environment. First held in 1974, it has been a platform for raising awareness on environmental issue such as marine pollution, human overpopulation, global warming, sustainable consumption and wildlife crime. World Environment Day is a global platform for public outreach, with participation from over 143 countries annually. Each year, the program has provided a theme and forum for businesses, non government organizations, communities, governments and celebrities to advocate environmental causes. Jharkhand is the mining state of Eastern India – it is the mined coal from here that has made this Indian state world-known for being the second largest coal producer. Second only to China, India extracts from it’s soil a quantity of coal overly sufficient for its energy and transport needs; the remainder is exported worldwide. 90% of the mines, which work continuously, are open-air and most of these work upon auto-combustion which releases an incalculable amount of carbon monoxide – the cause of global warming. Whole forests have been destroyed to make way for this brutal extraction and to satisfy the country’s ever-growing development.

The concessions for coal mining are granted by the central government and managed by both state and private owned enterprises, thus creating a social and economic imbalance in the area. Everything rotates around the mining industry which was once an agricultural area and is now fully converted to coal mining. Many people are jobless and can not cultivate their fields because groundwater aquifers are polluted by agents deriving from coal combustion. These thousands of people, without economic opportunities, are forced to work illegally, in nonexistent safety conditions and with state police always on their backs. The dramatic increase of pollution due to this brutal coal extraction is causing the population to suffer from the most serious respiratory diseases, from lung cancer to silicosis, from many typologies of tuberculosis to obstruction of the respiratory system. Related, as well, are severe blood diseases caused by carbon monoxide inhalation, cardiac disfunction and a short-life expectancy (which does not exceed the 50 year mark). These diseases are destroying the future of this Indian state in the name of progress.

It is possible to purchase prints about The Indian Coal Project in Emporium