On January 20, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) passed an order signalling its intention to scrutinise allegations that Fairmine Carbons Pvt. Ltd., a mining firm, had polluted the Sadabah River in Jharkhand by discharging untreated wastewater from a coal mine. The firm was also accused of violating environmental clearance conditions by mining in the river instead of maintaining a 15-metre safety barrier on its banks.

“Prima facie, the averments regarding violation of the Environmental Clearance (EC) conditions and discharge of untreated industrial effluent in River Sadabah by respondent no. 1 raise substantial questions relating to environment,” observed a two-member bench led by Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi.

The allegations were made by Gaurav Singh, an activist and resident of Palamu district, through an application this reporter has reviewed. The “untreated industrial effluent” that the tribunal referred to was wastewater allegedly discharged by Fairmine (Respondent 1) from the Rajhara North (Central & Eastern) coal mine, which the firm won after a national auction in late 2020.

The tribunal’s order and the allegations against Fairmine Carbons appear to have escaped national media attention entirely. But a closer look at the case shows that several of its aspects are far from ordinary: the relatively unknown firm facing the allegations; the chequered history of the coal mine it won; the involvement of at least one other prominent company interested in the same mine; and the alleged pollution of the Sadabah River, a lifeline for local residents who depend on it for irrigation and domestic use.

At this point, the green tribunal has confined its scrutiny to “substantial questions relating to the environment”. What is at stake for the Sadabah and the residents who depend on it is the immediate concern. The mine’s larger backstory only adds weight to the environmental questions now before the tribunal.

A coal mine with a controversial past

In November 2020, Fairmine Carbons grabbed headlines when it won the Rajhara North (Central and Eastern) coal mine in Jharkhand during a national auction for commercial coal mining. The company outbid other firms, including an Adani group company, to secure the mine. News reports at the time noted the Adani group’s interest prominently.

The interest from multiple companies was driven by the mine’s reserves. According to a social impact assessment report prepared by Fairmine Carbons, Rajhara North (Central and Eastern) has “mineable reserves” of 15.609 million tonnes (MT) of coal. It is spread over 116 hectares with an estimated lifespan of 22 years. The report noted that the coal was suitable for thermal power plants, sponge iron plants, cement plants, and brick kilns.

At an event in February 2025 to celebrate the start of mining operations, the Managing Director of Fairmine Carbons, Sameer Lohia, said his firm had beaten the Adani group in an extremely competitive auction, according to a report in the Times of India.

State Finance Minister Radha Krishna Kishore, who inaugurated the project, called it “a major milestone in Jharkhand’s economic progress”. The project, he said, according to an Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) report, would increase State revenue and create employment for local youth.

The mine’s revival stood in sharp contrast to its troubled past. Operated by other companies earlier, the mine had been shut for years without its reserves being fully extracted. The Sadabah River had flooded the mining area in 2010, making operations impossible, and locals had long protested against the environmental damage caused by mining in the region.

The mine’s most notorious episode involved former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda. A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in December 2017 convicted Koda for his role in the improper allocation of this mine to a Kolkata-based firm, Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Ltd., while he was in office. Koda was sentenced to three years in prison. The controversy placed the coal mine at the centre of the coal allocation scam for several years as the trial progressed.

Koda’s was one of a handful of convictions of prominent politicians in the coal scam. In a separate case, former Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Vijay Darda was also convicted in July 2023 by a special court in a coal block allocation case and sentenced to four years in prison. The Delhi High Court subsequently suspended his sentence pending appeal.

Why local residents turned against the firm

Within months of the mine’s revival, the enthusiasm of State policymakers and company executives gave way to complaints from residents of Palamu district. They said the environment as well as their own well-being were being harmed by the manner in which Fairmine Carbons was conducting its operations.

On June 2, 2025, more than 40 residents of Pandwa village wrote to the Regional Office of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) in Ranchi about air and river pollution caused by the mining firm. “The company is not taking any measures to stop the air pollution caused by its mining activities even though we have repeatedly requested company executives to install Water/Mist Sprinkling/Rain Gun so that we get some relief from the coal dust that is spread during mining,” they wrote.

The residents also alleged that the company was discharging untreated water from the coal mine into the Sadabah River. “The water from this river was used by us for agricultural and other purposes. It can no longer be used for those purposes,” the letter said. The villagers also claimed that groundwater levels had fallen drastically. Over four pages, the residents outlined a series of adverse environmental impacts they attributed to the firm’s operations.

The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority took note of the complaint and wrote to the Deputy Commissioner of Palamu district in July 2025, requesting an investigation and appropriate action. Several of the concerns raised by the residents of Pandwa had also been documented in a ground report published by Mongabay India in March 2025.

Palamu is rich not only in coal but also in forest cover. According to the District Environment Plan, the district’s physiography includes waterfalls, hills, rivers, and green forest.

Besides the Pandwa residents, Singh, the activist who filed the application in the NGT, also wrote three complaints to the MoEF&CC in 2025, accusing Fairmine Carbons and Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), a public sector mining firm, of violating environment clearance conditions and harming the environment. He attached photographs and shared videos on a pen drive as supporting evidence, and also blamed some brick kilns for damaging the riverbed.

Unlike the response to the villagers’ complaint, Singh’s complaints received no response. The problems that both the residents and Singh complained about last year, said Singh, remain unresolved to this day.

Three alleged culprits and Fairmine’s response

According to Singh’s application filed with the NGT in late 2025, the failure of local and national authorities to take concrete action in response to his and the villagers’ complaints forced him to approach the green court. The NGT is a quasi-judicial body with the authority to direct companies to stop activities found to be polluting the environment.

Singh’s application described how the Sadabah River and its surrounding ecology were being harmed. “The continuous discharge of untreated mine water, unchecked excavation adjacent to and into the Sadabah River, and unabated functioning of illegal brick kilns have aggravated the degradation of the river ecosystem,” it stated.

The application described visible impacts: the riverbed had deepened due to extraction, trees had been uprooted without permission from the District Forest Office and buried under overburden dumps, and natural vegetation had been destroyed. Singh attached photographs which, his application asserted, confirmed the damage.

His application blamed three sources: separate coal mines operated by Fairmine Carbons and CCL in the vicinity, and several brick kilns operating in the riverbed without any environment clearance. Singh sought directions against all three.

While hearing the application, the NGT cited Rule 14 of the National Green Tribunal (Practices and Procedures) Rules, 2011, on “plural remedies”, which requires that an application be based upon a single cause of action. Singh then confined his application to the role allegedly played by Fairmine Carbons alone.

The firm seized on this to argue that the application be dismissed. In an application filed in March 2026, Fairmine termed Singh’s application “misconceived”, and one which had not been “framed in accordance with the provisions of law and the rules made thereunder”. The company did not respond to the specific allegations Singh had made, citing the latter’s alleged procedural violation as its reason. At the time of writing, the NGT had not passed any further order.

Akshay Deshmane is an independent journalist based in New Delhi.

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