Basalt mining work resumes at West Bengal’s Deocha Pachami coal block, activists allege crackdown by administration

Local villagers in Birbhum district protest basalt mining, demanding a halt due to environmental and health concerns.

Basalt mining work at the Deocha-Pachami-Dewanganj-Harisingha (DPDH) coal project resumed on Thursday (March 6, 2025) evening, March 6, 2025, Birbhum District Magistrate Bidhan Ray said on Friday, after a three-day hiatus over fresh protests by local villagers since Tuesday, March 4.

On Tuesday, hundreds of local villagers primarily from the hamlets of Chanda, Mathura Pahari and Sagarbandi in Birbhum district’s Mohammed Bazar block had gathered at the project site where basalt mining started on February 6, demanding the mining work be brought to a complete and permanent halt. 

The protestors primarily comprised women and tribals from the three villages close to the area where mining work began. They planted a charka (stick) at the protest site, as part of a tribal ritual of symbolizing the stoppage of work till the stick is removed.

They had alleged that the project is causing irreparable damage to their environment and health and that forests had been cleared for mining without prior intimation to the tribals residing there. Protestors also stated that they would not surrender their birthright lands to the project and would decline the compensation package that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced, including monetary benefits, land, and a government job to one member of each family.

Local activists have now alleged a heavy clampdown by the local administration and police forces on Thursday in a large-scale protest gathering by villagers of Mathura Pahari, Sagarbandi, Chanda, and Pathar Para. 

“On Thursday, a large-scale meeting was planned for thousands of protestors at Sagarbandi at around 11.30 in the morning. Many villages were barricaded by a massive armed police deployment to prevent people from reaching the agitation. In the gathering, protestors decided to give the administration one week to remove all machinery and materials from the project site. Then senior police officers turned up at the gathering and started intimidating the villagers into withdrawing their protest,” local activist Jui Koley said on Friday.

She alleged that while villagers stayed resilient in their decision to not surrender their land, a small group of tribals from Mathura Pahari were forcibly taken to the local administration office on Thursday and “coerced them to consent to the resumption of mining work by removing the charka in the evening”.