The dark heart of India’s economic rise

Richard Orange investigates endemic corruption, from pilfering and kickbacks to mafia rackets, in the state-owned coal mines that provide almost half of India’s energy needs

The first sign of illicit industry in the West Bengal district of Raniganj is the number of bicycles wobbling precariously down its village tracks, their panniers piled to an improbable height with coal. Then there are bullock carts and the occasional truck, all carrying the same cargo.

At New Kenda Colliery, one of the underground mines owned by Coal India, the state coal monopoly, it becomes obvious where it’s all coming from. A couple of dozen blackened villagers squat over a coal stockpile the size of a football pitch, filling sack after sack by hand as a guard gazes on, his belly poking from his shabby uniform. When the coal thieves see a visitor they scatter, their faces peering out from behind a rusting, broken conveyor belt.