LIVES ON FIRE | Jharkhand State’s Underground Fire

December 08, 2021
By Tej Bahadur Singh

A seven-year-old girl witnesses her mother’s death after a portion of land caves in, burying her under debris in Jharia coalfields in India's Jharkhand state, where an underground fire has been raging for over 100 years due to unscientific mining. The girl's father, Dilip Bauri, recalls the incident, which, a local environmentalist warns, may repeat itself several times if the community there is not relocated to a safer place.