Nigahi Mines in Singrauli Region in India

With the Group of Ministers gunning for more forests for coal mining, Greenpeace organized a high level fact finding team to visit Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh to understand the impact coal mining has had on people, livelihoods and the ecology.
The four member team comprising noted human rights activists and experts on mining visited Singrauli between 9th and 10th of July 2011.
The fact finding team took stock of the existing impact of coal mining on Singrauli especially in the context of more forest blocks being allotted and given fast track approval for coal mining through the Group of Ministers (GoM), which will soon decide on the opening up of huge tracts of forest land in Central and Eastern India for coal mining, including Mahan Chatarsal and many other forest blocks in Singrauli. The team had meetings with various stakeholders including affected villagers, government officials, journalists and local activists to consider social impacts, ecological impacts and the process of decision making that the Group of Ministers discussing this issue has so far followed.