Our fields have gone, our lifestyle has changed

Interviewed in 2001, some 15 years after Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) began to take over the agricultural land used by his community, Sadhan Prajapati described the enormous changes that mining had brought to the villagers of Benti, where he grew up, and the surrounding areas. The Damodar Valley, where Benti lies, is in Jharkhand state and contains huge reserves of coal, and the land and homes of many communities have been lost to the vast open-pit mines and heavy infrastructure of CCL.