Date | Aug 10, 2016:
For a sector where the safety record is far from inspiring, the year 2016 has started off on a grim note. Latest figures for the first six months of this year show that in coal mining operations at just the two key mining public sector utilities — CIL and NLC — there was a “serious accident” every three days. Of this, there was a fatality every seven days — making it arguably the most dangerous profession in India.
The trend in fatalities shows that the situation has worsened compared to last year, where there were 38 fatal accidents involving an equal number of fatalities, translating into an average of one death every ten days in coal mining accidents. The two other grim statistics is that the compensation for disability or death — ranging between Rs 5.4 lakh to Rs 8.5 lakh per person — is under process for long. And that a number of those who perish are contract workers, who, or their immediate families, have practically no safety net apart from this payout.
Broadly though, the trend of average fatality rate and the number of serious accidents have been coming down over the years. That may be a cold comfort for policymakers considering that for extracting 100 million tonnes of coal, seven lives were lost on an average in 2015. Considering last fiscal’s coal production target of 700 million tonnes, the annual fatality rate works out to nearly 50 for the 12 months, of which, a majority were accidents involving roof and side walls collapses of a mine. An uptick in the economy, experts point out, could invariably lead to increased pressure on Indian mining utilities to ramp up output, prompting calls for re-evaluating the safety of those toiling deep in the bowels of the earth.
Alongside ship-breaking, mining has the distinction of being the most dangerous profession in India, as is the case in a number of developing economies such as China and Brazil. Industry insiders, including senior officers employed by the world’s largest coal miner, state-owned Coal India Ltd, concede that official numbers could be much lower than the actual deaths that take place deep inside the mines.
India produces 89 minerals by operating 569 coal mines, 67 oil and gas mines, 1,770 non-coal mines, and several more small mines, running into over a lakh, all of which translate into direct employment of about 1 million on a daily average basis and an overall sector contribution of about 5 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product.
However, the fact that disasters strike at regular intervals in coal mines and some of the metalliferous mines — iron ore, soapstone and granite mines — is a pointer to the Indian mining industry’s abysmal safety record and the failure of its utilities to learn from the ‘standard operating procedures’ (SoPs) implemented in countries such as Australia, the US and even China.
Plus, the frequency of incidents has increased in the recent years, as flagged by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in its 2014 report titled ‘Views on Mine Safety in India’ and highlighted by the death of 15 miners in Meghalaya on July 6, 2012, after they were trapped in a collapsed mine at Nangalbibra in South Garo Hills for seven days.
When it comes to coal mining accidents, India has a higher proportion of deaths resulting from strata fall (or fall of the roof and sides of underground mines) than from the use of explosives, which account for the bulk of the accidents in countries such as China and the US.
Between 2009 and 2013, there have been 752 documented fatalities in mining operations in India, according to the Office of Directorate General of Mines Safety, Ministry of Labour and Employment. These include accidents at mines run by state-owned CIL, Neyveli Lignite Corporation and Singareni Collieries.
One of the reasons why the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act was enacted in 1973, taking over private sector mines, was their poor safety records. Yet, work at public sector mines remains highly dangerous.
The Directorate General of Mines Safety figures suggest fatality rate of 0.21 in India, down from 0.36 about five years ago. Lack of investment in coal mines is cited as one of the main reasons for the high casualties. Accidents during surface transport by heavy machinery in open-cast mines, apart from the use of explosives, are the other key reasons. Though employees of state-owned coal firms are governed by the same set of rules as, say, those of Air India, payout rates in case of accidents are low. The compensation for injuries or death rarely crosses Rs 10 lakh.
In its July 2014 report, the NHRC mentioned the need for the mining sector to gain exposure to best practices from across the world, including using scientific ‘training need assessment’ for officers and workers, developing effective training delivery mechanisms and working on comprehensive specialised training on accident investigation.
The inherent dangers ensure that deaths in mines are not just a phenomenon in India but can occur in even the safest of working environments. In 2010, explosions in the Pike River Mine in New Zealand and the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, the US, killed a total of 29 men.
In India, though, the problems stem from issues such as the causes of accidents and the contravention of statutory provisions during inspections repeating themselves. Moreover, miners are exposed to a number of hazards that adversely affect their health, including dust, noise, heat and humidity. The problem of inadequate compensation is another debilitating factor, as documented in the report dated April 17, 2013 by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on safety in coal mines.
Oil exploration has similar challenges
In the E&P (Offshore/Onshore) oil establishments, total of 44 accidents or incidents have been reported by Oil Industry Safety Directorate ( OISD) since the year 2014, including a major gas leakage in the Mumbai High fields. There were total 15 fatalities in all these 44 accidents, of which, 10 were in 2016 involving four documented fatalities.
The government claims that the investigation of any incident is undertaken by the concerned operator. Over and above, major incidents are also investigated by the Oil Industry Safety Directorate and also a committee set-up by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for the purpose. Officials said that in all of these cases, a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and lessons learnt from these investigation reports are shared with the oil companies for the prevention of similar such incidents. The action taken report of the major process safety failures are also monitored and that based on major incident investigation, lapses, if any, are dealt by the operators as per the provisions of existing regulations and the accountability is fixed.
(Source: http://indianexpress.com/)