The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides.
India Today NE has a very interesting article about the risk of coal waste landslides to communities in Ledo, which is in Margherita co-district in Assam, N. India. The article states:-
“Residents of Jharna Basti, China Basti, and Malu Pahar in Ledo, Margherita co-district are facing a growing threat of displacement due to landslides triggered by coal dumping. The North Eastern Coalfields (NEC), a subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL), has established a coal dumping ground in the area, raising serious safety concerns … Recently, NEC marked the area with red flags, designating it as a “danger zone”—a move that has intensified residents’ fears.”
The Google Earth image below shows the location of Jharna Basti (located at : [27.2881, 95.7465] – the other two communities names are in the same area:-
Mining in this area is a mixture of licenced and illegal activity, with the latter flourishing in recent years. This is leading to uncontrolled dumping of mine waste.
Take a look, for example, at this mine waste pile:-
The image shows waste being free-tipped from trucks, and being allowed to flow down the slope. I am particularly concerned about the structure in the waste pile where I have placed the marker:-
I think it is highly likely that the coal waste failed to create this sharp rear scarp. It is extremely fortunate that this did not transition into a flowslide – I would consider this to be a near-miss event for a catastrophic failure.
The area shown in the above image appears to have been re-excavated since, so the immediate threat at this site may have gone. However, it illustrates the very real concerns about the management of coal waste at Ledo.
In many ways, the situation feels similar to that of Aberfan, with poorly controlled mine waste dumping onto unprepared land. Urgent action is needed to ensure that there is no repeat of that tragedy.