BILASPUR, Chhattisgarh, India — Southeastern Coalfields Ltd. has 62 mines in Chhattisgarh, a southcentral state in eastern India. Chhatisgarh is perennially neck and neck in the race with neighboring Jharkhand for the title of largest coal-mining state.
Last year, Chhattisgarh alone produced 113 million metric tons of coal, or 20 percent of the total national coal production. Part of the reason this is possible is because Chhattisgarh receives ample rainfall; it is home to four major rivers, including the Mahanadi; and it sits atop one of India’s largest coal reserves, including the world’s second-largest open-pit coal mine in Gevra.
Some 40 million people — most of them farmers — in both Chhattisgarh and neighboring Odisha depend on the Mahanadi River for their homes, farms, businesses, and electricity. (Image © Aubrey Ann Parker / Circle of Blue) 
Coal mining equipment. (Image © Aubrey Ann Parker / Circle of Blue) 
To tap an underground coal vein, the rock and dirt, called overburden, must be removed. At Southeastern Coal Ltd.’s massive open-pit mine in Gevra, the thick coal seam lies below the gray overburden. (Image © Aubrey Ann Parker / Circle of Blue) 
Southeastern Coal Ltd.’s massive open-pit mine in Gevra — the largest mine of its kind in Asia and the second-largest in the world — is responsible for almost 30 million metric tons of production annually. The mine is so massive that it can be seen from space. (Image © Aubrey Ann Parker / Circle of Blue) 
India’s decreasing water supplies and increasing energy demands are ominously tied. The country’s natural water supply is pumped from groundwater and rivers, then transported to produce steam and to cool generators at power plants. (Image © Aubrey Ann Parker / Circle of Blue) 
Last year, national demand for coal reached 652 million metric tons, 70 percent of which was used in coal-fired generation. But since India only mined 540 million metric tons, the nation had to import 112 million metric tons — nearly equivalent to what it pulled out of Chhattisgarh’s mines in 2012. India’s newest Five-Year Plan calls for coal mining to nearly double by 2017, which will be led, in part, by Southeastern Coalfield’s march towards 118.2 million metric tons of coal production, a 5 percent rise over last year. (Image © Aubrey Ann Parker / Circle of Blue) 
India’s increasing energy demand and decreasing water supply are ominously tied. Annual mean rainfall nationally has dropped 8.9 percent over the last 50 years, and a 2004 winter drought dropped the generating capacity of three coal-fired power plants in Delhi by 80 percent. Pollution also is a big cause of water scarcity. In Delhi, bubbles of methane gas seep from the surface of the Yamuna River. (Image © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue) 
A closed loop of rail cars, moving automatically on a conveyor system, transport coal from the Gevra mine to power plants on the loop. India is modernizing its coal sector, but not fast enough to keep up with rising demand. Severe shortages of electricity are endemic in almost every region of the country. Moreover, India’s rail system is not large enough to efficiently transport coal from the coalfields in the east to power plants in the west and north, where the majority of the country’s coal-fired generators operate. (Image © Aubrey Ann Parker / Circle of Blue) 
The jerry-rigged electric network in Delhi’s old town market area. A modernizing country confronts an electricity transport sector that wastes one-quarter of the power produced by India’s utilities. (Image © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue) 
One of the signs promoting a safe work environment on the campus of the Korba mine’s office headquarters. (Image © Aubrey Ann Parker / Circle of Blue) 
Almost three-quarters of Chhattisgarh’s electrical production relies on the Mahanadi River. Along with the GMR plant, 58,000 megawatts of new generating capacity is planned, most of which will use the Mahanadi to produce steam and to cool generators. (Image © Aubrey Ann Parker / Circle of Blue) 
Because of outdated transmission and an ancient grid, India loses during transport almost one-quarter of the electricity that it produces. A tangle of wires in Delhi’s teeming old town market area — a good bit of it made up of illegal connections — reflects the trouble that India encounters in modernizing its electrical supply and transmission network. (Image © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue)
This slideshow accompanies Mismanagement of Abundance: Constellation of Coal Mines Across India Not Enough to Prevent Blackouts, the third story by Keith Schneider in Circle of Blue’s Choke Point: India series. Photos by J. Carl Ganter and Aubrey Ann Parker, Circle of Blue’s director and news editor, respectively. Contact Keith Schneider
Choke Point: India is produced in collaboration with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and its China Environment Forum, with support from Skoll Global Threats Fund. The Wilson Center’s Asia Program, which provided research and technical assistance, produces substantial work on natural resource issues in India, including articles and commentaries on energy, water, and the links between natural resource constraints and stability.