India’s coal mining industry pays off as winter looms

The miner, Rabi Behera, was standing by a vast, ash-colored coalfield that had no doubt about the job at hand. With ever-increasing temperatures, India must keep its power grid standing - and for now that means digging up ever-increasing amounts of the dirtiest fossil fuel.

It's hard to survive without electricity during the summer, he said, and it's hard to survive without big trucks rumbling in clouds of black dust. Every year, our production goal is raised. We produce more coal every year. This year has been less blistering than 2022, when temperatures in New Delhi climbed past 49 degrees Celsius, but February still broke records, April saw lethal conditions and forecasters issued warnings for this month, when pre-monsoon heat tends to peak. Extreme temperatures are becoming more frequent, and that is driving electricity consumption surges, which in turn push up demand for fuel from vast Pits like Gevra s in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh, where Behera works - soon to become the largest coal mine in the world.

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