Why is Jharia in flames?

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta speaks on his film ‘Hot as Hell’ on Dhanbad coal mines and the volatile issues surrounding it

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta is a journalist and an educationist. Since 1977, he has worked with various media organisations and publications in India. He also worked with Television Eighteen India Limited for almost six years. He is currently the director of School of Convergence in New Delhi. Paranjoy has directed a number of documentary films, of which Idiot Box or Window of Hope was produced by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT) and has been broadcast on the Doordarshan national channel. He has recently produced and directed a five-part documentary series in partnership with PSBT titled Hot as Hell: A profile of Dhanbad.

Hot as Hell is a documentary series that seeks to explain why underground fires — literally and metaphorically — are raging in and around the township of Jharia in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand for so many years. At a literal level, tens of thousands of residents of the town are living on top of a veritable inferno. At a metaphorical level, there are powerful mafia organisations that rule over this region and exploit the underprivileged — by mining illegally, supervising organised pilferage, running extortion rackets and bagging lucrative contracts. The documentary series attempts to explain Jharia's apocalyptic 'resource curse'.

In its totality, the five-part documentary attempts to understand why one of the wealthiest parts of India (in terms of mineral resources) is economically so backward. Not just in Dhanbad, in many parts of India and the world, mining and industrial projects marginalise the poor and exacerbate inequalities in the name of 'development'. Akash Bisht talks to the filmmaker. Excerpts from the interview…

You went to Dhanbad 25 years ago. How different is it from today's Dhanbad?

The shopping mall and the affluence of the elite seem to be even more apparent, because the shopping malls in Dhanbad are no different from shopping malls in Delhi, Pune or Kolkata. Except for that, the lives of the ordinary people have not really changed. The change has only been in the lives of the affluent.

The film Hot as Hell talks about the underground fires that have existed in Jharia for more than a century and are threatening the existence of many locals. However, the film doesn't show what causes these infernos and how they can be stopped.

Most of these fires happen by self-ignition, due to unscientific mining.  There are certain natural rules for mining. For instance, if you take out an X amount of coal, you must put in X plus a certain amount of sand to prevent the ground on top of the mine from subsiding (caving in). When you dig into a seam of coal, you have to maintain certain pillars, certain ceilings, to prevent the roofs from collapsing. According to geologists and mining engineers, these rules were not adhered to in Jharia.

Although I am not an expert, my purpose in making this film is clear: The problems of this area are not new, they have been known for a long time, so why is nothing being done about them? There are about four lakh people living on top of the most valuable coal that India possesses and their houses can collapse any moment. I have tried to show the lack of responsibility exhibited by the management of Bharat Coking Coal (BCCL) and the local administration. Some of them don't even believe that the underground fires exist. The point I have tried to raise is that what is happening in Jharia is not unique; it should concern every person on this planet.

Some say you did not speak to the common people, especially the miners. The few miners who were interviewed were not named in the documentary. Was this intentional?

This view has been expressed by a number of people. I do feel I should have included more voices of miners but I had specific reasons for not doing so. Even when I did interview ordinary people, I didn't identify them by name but merely as residents of that area. I feel that ordinary people in that area are extremely vulnerable and by naming them I might jeopardise their safety.

The reason I included an interview with Manjari Dutta was that she herself has made a documentary about one Babulal Bhuiya who was killed, allegedly by the Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF). As she herself says, 13 years after she made her documentary, all the people who were associated with the making of the film have either died or disappeared in unusual circumstances.

In your film, authorities claim that they will start an evacuation programme in 2007 that will be complete by 2017. Do you think it's possible to relocate more than four lakh people by 2017?

It is possible but a lot has to be done before that. How can it be done until a proper plan for rehabilitation has been worked out? In my opinion, not enough attention has been given to this problem. There is no will on the part of the political leadership to resolve this issue.

One million people live in Jharia and 40 per cent of them live right on top of the infernos. Lots of plans for relocation have been made, revised, and re-revised — ultimately nothing has happened.  If, by drawing the attention of the people of the country through this documentary, I can expedite the process, I would have done what I set out to do.

So there is no political will to carry out the necessary change?

First of all, there are too many people who have a great interest in these mines.  I believe this mafia contributes quite generously to politicians and civil servants. As a journalist was quoted in the film as saying, he has knowledge of entire cabins of the Rajdhani Express filled with Scotch bottles to be delivered to people in power in Delhi.  A former official of the election commission is fond of saying, “we keep talking about the criminalisation of politics in India; it is more relevant to call it politicisation of criminals”.

What do you have to say about the criticism that the film is too long? 

I acknowledge that people have got used to smart, clever, flashy sound-bites that attempt to capture the wisdom of the universe. I have stayed away from that. I have let people talk at length — some people find this boring but that is not the way I feel.

Your film only talks about mafia leaders who are dead. It does not disclose the names of the new dons of Dhanbad…

So that I can go back to Dhanbad again and again! I am being honest. I think it's important for me to continue this project and not give up. It's not that dead men tell no tales—highlighting the problem is more important. The names of the new mafia dons are known to the people who know this area.  I do want to add that even Dhanbad has seen some honest officers in the past—such as Madan Mohan Jha and KB Sarvasena.

What are your future plans?

I intend to go back to Jharia later this year and shoot some more film. I also want to make a separate episode on AK Roy, a senior trade union leader, which will also require some amount of shooting in Dhanbad and in and around Kolkata, because his family members live on the outskirts of Kolkata.