By Shrabana Chatterjee

Copyright thehindu

A public convention held in West Bengal’s Birbhum district in the Siuri area opposed the Deocha Pachami coal mining project. The locals, activists, and politicians participating in the mass convention held on Friday (September 19, 2025) alleged illegal land acquisition in the project and the displacement of Adivasi families without fair compensation.

Economist, activist turned politician Prasenjit Bose, veteran Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury led the convention along with local activists.

“Thousands of Adivasi, Dalit, and minority families are living in fear of displacement. The culture and existence of a society dependent on water, forest and land is being pushed to the brink of destruction,” an official statement from the convention stated. The local activists also said that this mining project will create a long-term water crisis in the area added to the already ongoing air and water pollution in the area due to the mining work.

Activists and politicians present at the convention demanded that a judicial enquiry be conducted into the whole project for corruption and sought for the work to be stopped immediately.

According to many experts, although the mineable coal reserves in Deocha-Pachami are estimated to be 1200 million tonnes, the coal layer here is buried under a basalt layer that is 90 to 245 metres thick.

In February, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced at the Bengal Global Business Summit that the project would ensure coal supply for a hundred years and generate one lakh jobs. But many politicians including the Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari have claimed that extracting coal from under such thick layers of basalt is close to impossible.

“The government’s claims are misleading. What is happening on the ground is not coal extraction but basalt mining in phases, pushed through without proper clearances,” alleged one of the organisers of the mass convention.

Since the inception of the project locals have been worried that land will be seized or that they will be relocated for what is being touted as India’s largest coal block. Locals and activists have staged multiple protests condemning the mining project.

Government officials, however, have claimed that there is a compensation of ₹39 lakhs and one job per family for whoever surrenders their lands for the project. But many on the ground have said that there is a lack of transparency in the compensation process leaving their futures uncertain.