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Are the households in coal mining regions more vulnerable? A study in Talcher Coalfield of India

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Abstract

Undoubtedly, coal is playing an important role in shaping today’s world. But, excessive extraction of coal has created several adverse effects on the local economy as well as on the global economy. In this study, the households’ vulnerability to coal mining operations is assessed by taking two indicators, i.e., the livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) and livelihood effect index (LEI) in active coal mining and non-mining villages of Talcher Coalfields region of Angul district of Odisha, India. The mining village has shown more vulnerability than the non-mining village in both indices. In LVI, natural disaster, climate variation, and environmental quality (NDCVEQ) indicator is the dominant factor that greatly impacted the overall vulnerability level of the households followed by water (W), health (H), and finance (FIN). Out of the five capitals of LEI, natural capital and financial capital have been affected more due to coal mining activities in the mining village, than the non-mining village. This reflects that households in the mining village are more susceptible to various environmental related issues, and hence, they need to adopt adequate measures to cope up with the issues created from mining operations. Additionally, the mining companies are needed to undertake effective steps to curtail the negative externalities and protect the interests of the local inhabitants.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, Odisha, 753003, India

    Gayatree Sahoo & Asis Kumar Senapati

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  1. Gayatree Sahoo
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  2. Asis Kumar Senapati
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Appendix

Appendix

Table 10 Formulas for specific sub-component indices
Full size table

  • Step 1 Repeat for all sub-component indicators: IndexHealth Danara = \( \frac{32.37-10\ }{90-10} \)= 0.28

  • Step 2 Repeat for all major components: FoodHealth= ∑ i=1n Index health Danara

  • = \( \frac{\ \mathrm{H}1+\mathrm{H}2+\mathrm{H}3+\mathrm{H}4}{4} \) = \( \frac{\ 0.28+0.92+0.30+0.46}{4} \) = 0.49

  • Step 3 Repeat for both villages = LVIDanara = \( \frac{\sum 9\mathrm{i}=1\ \mathrm{WMiMcomi}}{\sum 9\mathrm{i}=1\mathrm{WMi}} \)

Table 11 Calculating the health major component for the LVI for Danara village
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Sahoo, G., Senapati, A.K. Are the households in coal mining regions more vulnerable? A study in Talcher Coalfield of India. Miner Econ 34, 455–475 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13563-021-00266-3

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