In Jharkhand’s Rajhara village, energy transition begins in the kitchen and the field. A family may cook lunch over coal dust and firewood because an LPG refill costs too much, while a few hundred metres away, a solar pump draws water from an abandoned mine pit to irrigate crops. Coal and clean energy are not opposing chapters here. They occupy the same landscape, often the same household.
For generations, Central Coalfield Limited’s open-cast Rajhara colliery shaped how people worked, earned and lived. Even after parts of the mine fell silent, its presence remained in the pits that filled with water, the coal scavenged for cooking, and in communities whose livelihoods had grown around extraction. As India plans for the gradual phasedown of coal, Rajhara reveals what that transition looks like from the ground: Less a clean break with the past than a daily negotiation between what people can afford, what they have inherited and what new technologies might make possible.
The Rajhara Colliery was flooded by underground seepage in 2010, forcing mining operations to stop. Commercial extraction resumed in parts of the area in February 2024, but mechanisation means that mining no longer offers employment on the scale it once did. Dewatering of deep pits has also affected groundwater levels, leaving some wells dry. The mine may have a fixed lifespan, but as Rupinder Brar, additional secretary, Union Ministry of Coal, pointed out, “the community surrounding it lives on for generations”. The challenge, she said, is to plan for that future before extraction ends, finding new uses for mined land and water that can sustain local livelihoods.
The overburden dump tower over Rajhara stands as a testament to the dramatic nature of fossil extraction and a stark reminder of how profoundly open-cast mining reshapes the landscape. Overburden, the soil and rock layers removed to access coal, is usually left behind as open dumps near mine sites.
The Coal Ministry’s 2025 Mine Closure Guidelines mandate ecological restoration through backfilling and reclamation of mined-out areas, alongside plantation and bioreclamation. These interventions can transform such dumps into living ecosystems to support local communities by creating new livelihood opportunities to make the energy transition more equitable.
Inside Rajhara’s homes, the old economy remains difficult to leave behind. LPG connections have reached many families through the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, but refilling a cylinder can cost Rs 1,000 or more. For households balancing food, farming and other essential expenses, that price is often prohibitive. More than 88 per cent of surveyed families combine LPG with firewood, dung cakes, coal and handmade goliya briquettes made from coal dust, clay and animal dung.
For 19-year-old Rima Kumari, the calculation is simple. “Our gas cylinder has been empty since January,” she said. “We haven’t refilled it for six months because it costs Rs 1,000-1,100, and if we use it every day, it lasts only about 15 days. Where will we get that kind of money? So we cook on the chulha using coal and goliya.”
Lighting the coal-powered chulha takes 15-30 mins, and cooking, two-three hours. An LPG cylinder could mean two hours less spent cooking, and more time to build a future.
Once, her family stocked coal like gold when her grandfather was a Central Coalfields Limited employee. Now retired, he remains sick all the time. Her mother scavenges coal to make ends meet.
A different possibility is taking shape only a short distance away. Water that accumulated in an abandoned mine pit has turned an exhausted extractive landscape into an unlikely resource. Tests show the water is suitable for irrigation. The Ashoka Centre for a People-centric Energy Transition, with support from the Rajhara community and technical partner Greenovera, installed the Solar Lift Irrigation (SLI) system, a 7.5 HP solar pump that lifts this water through a one-kilometre pipeline to roughly 40–50 farm plots.
For cultivator Ranjit Kumar Singh, the effect is immediate. “We farm about three to three-and-a-half bighas, growing paddy, arhar and maize,” he said. “Earlier, crops would die when there was no water. This solar pump has helped us enormously.” Reliable irrigation gives farmers a chance to grow beyond a single rain-fed crop and makes erratic monsoons less devastating.
Farmers have begun organising collectively around this new infrastructure, under the umbrella of an Farmer Producer Organisation (FfaPO) formed in December 2024, which brings together rehabilitated farmers from coal mine-affected areas to collectively pursue sustainable livelihoods. They have formed groups to share water, purchase seeds more cheaply, plan crops and reach larger markets. There is potential to extend the pipeline and bring hundreds more households under year-round cultivation. Vaibhav Chowdhary, Director of the Ashoka Centre for People-Centric Energy Transitions, argues that abandoned mine pits should not automatically be filled in. In drought-prone regions, he says, the water they collect can instead support farming and fisheries.
Rajhara, therefore, offers no neat story of one energy system replacing another. Solar panels stand within sight of coal trucks. Farmers irrigate fields with renewable energy, then return home to kitchens where coal dust and firewood still burn because LPG remains too expensive. The future is already visible here, but so is the past. For Rajhara’s residents, a just transition will ultimately be measured not by policy targets alone, but by whether cleaner energy can make everyday life more secure.
Coal-bearing trains have crisscrossed the Indian landscape for almost two centuries. Today, coal still powers over 74 per cent of total power generation in India. But as India shifts towards renewables to meet its net zero commitment and the death of extraction becomes a tangible reality, the Rajhara open-cast colliery of Central Coalfields Limited in Jharkhand, one of India’s oldest coal mines, finds itself in a state of arrested transition.
Production at Rajhara colliery was suspended in 2010 amid safety concerns and environmental clearance issues, only to restart in 2026. This prolonged uncertainty has reshaped lives and livelihoods in the region. Can decentralised renewable energy interventions offer communities a more resilient pathway beyond coal?
Mining leads to environmental degradation, water contamination, and lowering of the groundwater table. However, the death of a coal mine can create an unexpected ecological resource — water. The deep voids left by extraction accumulate millions of litres of water, naturally filtered through surrounding sandstone strata.
Abandoned open-cast mine pits in Rajhara have transformed into large water bodies, with pit water showing a remarkable purity: A neutral pH value of 7.49, low levels of total dissolved solids, calcium and magnesium, rendering it suitable for irrigation. What was once a scar on the landscape can become a community resource through repurposing mine water.
In Rajhara, a new irrigation model is taking shape around water, solar and collective action. ACPET and Greenovera piloted an SLI system that pumps abandoned mine pit water to irrigate about 40–50 farm plots using a 7.5 horsepower solar pump.
Local cultivators have formed Water User Groups to manage the shared system, with 95.2 per cent of surveyed farmers registered as active members. They coordinate water distribution for kharif paddy nurseries and rabi crops, and plan for maintenance, turning solar irrigation into more than a source of water: A locally owned model for resilient farming.
The solar lift irrigation system sits on the outskirts of the village, operated by a handful of Water User Group members trained to run and maintain it, with the support of field partners VSK and EkGaon, which facilitated FPO formation and strengthening, and WUG operations and facilitation around the SLI system.
Virendra Kumar, the local pump operator, explains that water supplied by Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) enters the pump house through a suction line before being channelled to the fields. The 30ft-deep well can sustain pumping for only about 60-90 minutes, often leaving farmers short of water.
To bridge the gap, the group also draws mine discharge water released into the nearby river. “The 7.5 HP motor has been running for about 18 months,” Birendra says. “The water helps farmers prepare their fields and irrigate the paddy crop.”
One of the biggest beneficiaries of the SLI system is farmer Ranjit Kumar Singh. Each morning, he tends to his fields drawing on the Solar Lift Irrigation pipeline when the rains fail. This year’s delayed monsoon made that support crucial. “Earlier, water did not reach us when we needed it,” he says. “Without enough water, our paddy would dry up and die.” The new irrigation system has given farmers both relief and hope. “Now we expect to grow and harvest almost our entire paddy crop. The solar system has made a real difference.”
A woman farmer in nearby Chechanha village surveys her bhindi crop. Solar Lift Irrigation has been shown to improve farm productivity by providing a more reliable water supply and reducing crop stress, reporting yield increases of 10-40 per cent, depending on the crop and location.
By replacing diesel-powered pumps, solar lift irrigation can also substantially lower farmers’ input costs. In Rajasthan, switching to solar pumps saved each farmer approximately Rs 36,600 annually while reducing diesel consumption by about 446 litres per farm every year. Beyond improving access to irrigation, the technology can strengthen farm incomes while reducing dependence on fossil fuels.
The water in the abandoned mine pit has become part of the everyday lives of coal-dependent communities and a resource for the future. For those already living with the legacy of mining and mine closure, it not only supports their daily needs, from bathing and washing clothes to watering their livestock, but also offers up moments of lightness and relief.
Downstream serves as a gathering space for people to linger and discuss their daily challenges as they navigate an uncertain future.
Every morning, an alarm from the coal mine echoes across the village. Groups of people, mostly women, gather around dump trucks to scavenge discarded coal, a daily ritual suspended between legality and survival. Coal has powered India’s growth story, but its benefits haven’t been shared equally.
When mining operations close, livelihoods disappear, creating informal dependence for communities living around mines, especially women and marginalised groups with limited access to reskilling and alternative livelihood opportunities. Scavenged coal becomes a livelihood source and household energy supply in the absence of more affordable alternatives. The challenge of a just transition is ensuring those who powered growth aren’t left behind by it.
For low-income families in Rajhara, scavenging coal from mine dumps or surface pits provides the money needed for food, weddings, and schooling. A resident describes coal gathering as not a choice but a necessity. “Everything we do is for the stomach,” she said. “A poor family sells coal to buy rice, dal and vegetables, or to educate its children. This is our livelihood.” Coal scavenged from the mines can fetch around Rs 500 a sack.
It is also used at home. “Cooking gas is expensive. You can refill a cylinder only if you have money. So we work hard, collect this coal and cook with it instead.”
Medical records from Rajhara Colliery Hospital point to the health costs of prolonged exposure to coal dust and smoke from household chulhas.
Examining a patient at her clinic, Dr Neha Rani, Deputy Medical Superintendent of General Medicine, describes respiratory problems, chronic obstructive pulmonary conditions and eye irritation as frequent among residents who continually inhale these pollutants. “Long-term exposure to coal dust and indoor chulha smoke takes a toll,” she said, outlining illnesses that have become familiar in the colliery’s surrounding communities.
In Rajhara Kothi, fossil fuel dependence exists alongside the arrival of clean energy technologies. While national policies increasingly emphasise socially responsible mine closure and repurposing of mining assets, household energy choices remain dictated by immediate economic realities.
Scavenged coal dust and solid biomass cost little or nothing, making them indispensable for many families despite the health risks of prolonged exposure. The contradiction captures a central tension in India’s energy transition: Cleaner alternatives may be expanding, but their adoption is shaped by affordability, access and livelihoods. In settlements such as Rajhara, the old and the new do not simply replace one another; for now, they continue to coexist.
(With text input from Piya Srinivasan, researcher and communications lead, Ashoka Centre for a People-centric Energy Transition (ACPET), Ashoka University)
This story was produced with the support of Internews' Earth Journalism Network.