Page 141 - AWSAR 2.0

Biochar: Can black be the new green?
|| 117
Ms. Dipita Ghosh*
Email: ghoshdipita@gmail.com
From where we, Prof Maiti and I, hail, mining activity has always been a necessary evil. Just by merely traversing
along the outskirts of the Dhanbad town you will find derelict open-cast mines, devastated landscapes with uprooted vegetation, and feel blasts of grey air at excavated overburdened dumps, which are often the hotspots for mine fire. The indirect consequences of mining on human population are aplenty: erosion, contamination of essential resources, ill-effects on local climate, changes in precipitation patterns and sedimentation. The Indian Bureau of Mines, Dhanbad, has introduced the concept of mine-closure to remediate the egregious devastation in the post-mining land. Mine-closure embodies activities such as progressive reclamation and rehabilitation to
avert the chances of long-term environmental, socio-economical and physical impacts and development of a landform which can sustain life. This is where the role of eco-restoration lab at the Indian Institute of Technology, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, comes into play. Restoration is a challenging and multi- dimensional approach to raising saplings, transplanting them and then cultivating them in the face of harsh environmental conditions. As researchers, our primary goal is to assist the recovery of the physio-chemical and biological components of an ecosystem that has been degraded in a cost-effective manner. In this quest for a sustainable, ecofriendly and cost- effective means of reclamation, the application of biochar gained importance. An array of questions arose revolving this relatively
* Ms. Dipita Ghosh, PhD Scholar from Indian Institute of Technology, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, is pursuing her research on “Application of Biochar for Ecological Restoration and to Enhance Carbon Sequestration in Coal Mine Degraded Land”. Her popular science story entitled “Biochar: can Black be the New Green?” has been selected for AWSAR Award.