There may be little to be excited concerning the latest inauguration of predominantly mountainous Arunachal Pradesh’s first business coal mine at Namchik-Namphuk within the Changlang district collectively by Union Coal & Mines Minister G Kishan Reddy and Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu, marking the state’s first coal mine venture. With an formally estimated reserve of solely 15 million tonnes present in Arunachal Pradesh as in opposition to India’s whole of 389.42 billion tonnes as of April 1, final yr, it makes little sense to mine the ‘soiled’ mineral in an ecologically fragile Himalayan area, that includes various topography, together with snow-capped peaks within the north, hilly terrains, and vast valleys alongside its rivers, with elevations starting from snow-covered mountains to the Brahmaputra plains within the south. The so-called statutory and environmental clearances don’t make the venture a worthwhile enterprise. Coal mining in Arunachal could in the end prospect extra losses than positive factors.
There isn’t any dearth of coal in India. But, the actual fact is that coal shouldn’t be India’s fascinating long-term vitality selection though it stays a sensible necessity within the near-to-medium time period. Tasks just like the Namchik-Namphuk coal mine give a improper sign to the nation and the world at a time when India is pursuing bold and profitable renewable vitality initiatives in line with the worldwide development. Arunachal Pradesh doesn’t want coal for energy era. The state is about to develop into dwelling to India’s first absolutely indigenous 50-kilowatt geothermal energy plant, positioned in Tawang district. This venture is being funded by the Ministry of New and Renewable Power and is anticipated to be accomplished in three years. The state additionally makes use of different sources, together with small hydro energy stations, photo voltaic photovoltaic, and biomass energy vegetation. It will probably ignore the small coal deposit at Changlang for energy era.
The state has a bunch of different extra substantial and profitable confirmed mineral deposits similar to petroleum and pure gasoline (additionally within the Changlang district), limestone, dolomite, graphite, marble, iron ore, quartz, placer gold (in its rivers), lead and zinc, marble, copper, vanadium, and uncommon earth parts. It isn’t clear why the central and the state authorities are so excited concerning the tiny coal mine venture. Chief Minister Prema khandu, who has led the Bharatiya Janata Social gathering to victory within the Arunachal Pradesh Meeting elections a number of instances, together with an enormous win within the 2024 elections the place the BJP secured 46 out of 60 seats, would have in all probability finished higher by concentrating extra on the state’s infrastructure improvement, creation of meals parks, and employment-oriented micro, small and medium enterprises similar to horticulture, kiwi, ‘Wakro’ oranges, leveraging indigenous strengths in cane, bamboo, and handloom manufacturing and connectivity enhancements.
Regardless of the nation’s rising vitality demand, coal shouldn’t be being thought of as probably the most viable vitality possibility in the long term. It might be improper to disregard the truth that Indian coal is of notoriously low-quality, carrying excessive ash content material and resulting in extreme air air pollution that causes untimely deaths and well being issues. Burning this “soiled coal” leads to excessive emissions of pollution like particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, contributing to local weather change and environmental degradation. It might be improper on the a part of the nation to rely closely on fossil fuels making India weak to risky worldwide costs and geopolitical dangers. Quite the opposite, larger home renewable vitality manufacturing will improve the nation’s long-term vitality safety. It might be famous that India has made outstanding progress within the space of fresh vitality deployment, rating among the many world’s prime 10 nations for put in renewable vitality capability. Key targets embrace attaining 500 GW of non-fossil gasoline capability by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2070.
India at the moment ranks fourth amongst main nations when it comes to put in renewable vitality capability. The world’s prime 10 nations by put in renewable vitality capability as of mid-2025 are China, the US, Brazil, India, Germany, Japan, Canada, Spain, France, and Italy. Notably, China leads all of them considerably with 1,827.3 gigawatts, adopted by the US with 428.4 gigawatts, Brazil with 213.9 gigawatts, after which India 204.3 gigawatts, in response to Statista information from July 2025. Different main achievers on this regard are: Germany 178.7 gigawatts, Japan 132.3 gigawatts, Canada 110.5 gigawatts, Spain 88.5 gigawatts, France 74.3 gigawatts and Italy 72.1 gigawatts. The price of energy era from photo voltaic and wind sources has dropped considerably, making new renewable vitality tasks more and more aggressive with and even cheaper than new coal-fired energy vegetation.
The nation is selling new applied sciences, similar to inexperienced hydrogen, battery vitality storage techniques, and coal gasification, to help the vitality transition and scale back dependence on typical coal combustion. India is persistently positioned because the world’s fourth largest vitality client after the US, China, and Russia. Current experiences from each the Worldwide Power Company and Statista recognise India’s place as a number one international vitality client. Nonetheless, there isn’t any denying the truth that India’s vitality wants are rising sharply and, as of now, coal supplies the constant, dependable “baseload” energy that variable renewable sources like photo voltaic and wind are but to offer on a big scale. Additionally, coal-fired energy vegetation are important for balancing the grid and compensating for the intermittent nature of renewable vitality, making certain a steady and uninterrupted energy provide. The nation would require large funding in new applied sciences, grid modernization, and transmission infrastructure to maneuver away from coal-fired energy. Monetary challenges, an unstable regulatory surroundings, and India’s reliance on imported vital minerals can sluggish the tempo of transition.
Due to this fact, the nation is pursuing a balanced and pragmatic vitality technique. They embrace scaling-up of photo voltaic, wind, and different clear sources; specializing in battery storage and pumped hydro to deal with the intermittency of renewables; enhancing coal effectivity by retiring older, inefficient coal vegetation whereas utilizing high-efficiency, low-emission expertise for mandatory new capability; and enhancing environmental controls by the usage of applied sciences like Flue Gasoline Desulfurization (FGD) and Carbon Seize, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) on present vegetation to cut back air pollution.
At the moment, the most important problem earlier than the nation is the extraction of the mineral from the new-found Deocha-Pachmi-Harinsingha-Dewanganj coal block in West Bengal’s Birbhum district containing roughly 2,170 million tonnes of coal. That is India’s largest and the world’s second-largest coal block. The mining has been delayed by vital portions of basalt rock that have to be extracted first. Union Coal Minister G Kishan Reddy will do properly to work with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to faucet the nation’s large coal reserve in a single block as an alternative of encouraging the mining of very small portions of coal within the extremely eco-sensitive mountainous Himalayan state of Arunachal Pradesh. (IPA Service)
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