Current Member of Parliament for Jharia is from is Pashupati Nath Singh from BJP who represents Dhanbad district in 2019 Lok Sabha. Current Member of Legislative Assembly is Purnima Niraj Singh from congress

Location edit

Jharia is located at 23°45′06″N 86°25′13″E / 23.751568°N 86.420345°E / 23.751568; 86.420345.

Note: The map alongside presents some of the notable locations in the area. All places marked in the map are linked in the larger full screen map.

Jharia, earlier a census town, was combined with other urban units to form Dhanbad Municipal Corporation in 2006.^[5][6]

Jharia is spread over parts of Ward Nos. 36,37 and 38 of Dhanbad Municipal Corporation.^[7]

Overview edit

The region shown in the map is a part of the undulating uplands bustling with coalmines in the lowest rung of the Chota Nagpur Plateau. The entire area shown in the map is under Dhanbad Municipal Corporation, except Belgaria which is under Baliapur (community development block). The places in the DMC area are marked as neighbourhoods. The DMC area shown in the map is around the core area of Dhanbad city. Another major area of DMC is shown in the map of the southern portion of the district. A small stretch of DMC, extending up to Katras is shown in the map of the western portion. The region is fully urbanised. Jharia (community development block) has been merged into DMC. Three operational areas of BCCL operate fully within the region – Sijua Area, Kusunda Area and Bastacola Area.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13]}

Police station edit

There is a police station at Jharia.^[14][15]

As of 2001^[update] India census,^[16] Jharia had a population of 81,979. Males constitute 54% of the population and females 46%. Jharia has an average literacy rate of 68%, lower than the national average of 74.5%: male literacy is 74%, and female literacy is 60%. In Jharia, 14% of the population is under 6 years of age.

According to the state government this is the worst site of India, the town of Jharia is to be shifted due to the uncontrollable coal mine fires (see below), which have found to be undousable, leading to loss of property and lives. Coal worth Rs. 60,000 crore (US$12 billion) is lying unmined, and the state government feels the shifting will help in exploiting this resource.^[17] The Jharia Rehabilitation and Development Authority is supposed to relocate much of the population to Belgaria and other towns nearby.^[2] However, as of 2017, the organization was facing considerable challenges in acquiring land and doing construction,^[2] and a 2016 book reporting on the relocation effort, found that the relocation was not accounting for Just Transition of jobs, or adequate high quality housing.^[3]

The coal field lies in the Damodar River Valley, and covers about 110 square miles (280 square km), and produces bituminous coal suitable for coke. Most of India's coal comes from Jharia. Jharia coal mines are India's most important storehouse^[18] of prime coke coal used in blast furnaces, it consists of 23 large underground and nine large open cast mines.^[17]

The mining activities in these coalfields started in 1894 and had really intensified in 1925. The first Indians to arrive and break monopoly of British in Coal mining were Gujarati people from Kutch.

After the mines were nationalized in 1971, due to easy availability of coal, many steel plants were set up in close proximity to Jharia.

Coal field fire edit

Jharia is famous for a coal field fire that has burned underground for a century. The first fire was detected in 1916.^[17] According to records, it was the Khas Jharia mines of Seth Khora Ramji, who was a pioneer of Indian coalmines, whose mines were one of the firsts to collapse in underground fire in 1930. Two of his collieries, Khas Jharia and Golden Jharia, which worked on maximum 260-foot-deep shafts,^[19] collapsed due to now infamous underground fires, in which their house and bungalow also collapsed on 8 November 1930, causing a six meter subsidence and widespread destruction.^{[20][21][19][22][23][24]} The fire never stopped despite sincere efforts by mines department and railway authorities and in 1933 flaming crevasses lead to exodus of many residents.^[19] The 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake led to further spread of fire and by 1938 the authorities had declared that there is raging fire beneath the town with 42 collieries out of 133 on fire.^[25]

In 1972, more than 70 mine fires were reported in this region. As of 2007, more than 400,000 people who reside in Jharia are living on land in danger of subsidence due to the fires, and according to Satya Pratap Singh, "Jharia township is on the brink of an ecological and human disaster".^[26] The government has been criticized for a perceived lackadaisical attitude^[27] towards the safety of the people of Jharia.^[28] Heavy fumes emitted by the fires^[29] lead to severe health problems such as breathing disorders and skin diseases among the local population.^[30]

• Raja Shiva Prasad College was established in 1951 at Bhagatdih, Jharia. It was shifted to Belgarhia, 5 km away, in 2018, because of an underground mine fire.^[31][32][33]

In 2018, researchers at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Belgium revealed a created map of global atmospheric ammonia, by combining nine years of satellite data, that show Jharia and surroundings are heavily ammonia polluted from burning coal mines.^[34] The emitted ammonia reacts rapidly with other air pollutants, and thereby helps to form fine particulate matter that shortens the human lifespan through respiratory and coronary diseases. Moreover, the gaseous ammonia and ammonium compounds formed from it in the atmosphere, are deposited into ecosystems, throughout the Himalayas, damaging sensitive habitats — especially those naturally adapted to need clean air.^[35]

There used to be a railway station in Jharia locality which is no more due to underground fire hazard it was closed on 2004 however remains are still there.

• Jharia Raj

• Official data on Jharia Block
• Official map of Dhanbad district Archived 16 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine
• Pictures of the coal town of Jharia

Further reading edit

• Reinventing Jharia Coalfield. Edited by N.C. Saxena, Gurdeep Singh, K.N. Singh and B.N. Pan. Jodhpur, Scientific, 2005, vi, 246 p.. ISBN 81-7233-398-6.
• "Satellites track the fires raging beneath India". New Scientist (2560). 18 July 2006.
• Roychowdhury, Indronil (15 October 2006). "German major eyes Jharia coal fires". Kolkata Newsline. Retrieved 2 May 2009.^{[dead link]}
• "India: Children of the Inferno". Unreported World. Season 17. Episode 7. 24 April 2009.
• "Coal mine fires an election issue in Jharkhand". The Hindu. 12 April 2009. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 2 May 2009.
• "Web documentary about the people who live in proximity to the underground coal fires". Bombay Flying Club - www.bombayfc.com. 6 May 2009. Archived from the original on 15 May 2009. Retrieved 2 May 2009.
• eBook about the Jharia Coalfields, Zipfel, Isabell https://www.amazon.com/The-Jharia-Coalfields-ebook/dp/B0095I2AH4