Effect of Fly Ash on Crop Coverage around coal-fired Thermal Power Plant in Rural India

DOI: 10.22161/ijeab/1.3.34

Abstract:
Fly ash coming out from Kolaghat thermal power plant, West Bengal, India affects the crop coverage in the surrounding area (<4km). The arable areas under different crops, rice ( -4.87%) , wheat ( -67.6%), maize ( -10%), mustard ( -29.1%), sesame ( -8.33%), jute ( -10%), vegetables ( -14.8%), flowers ( -8.06%) and pulses ( -32.4%) have been gradually losing due to fly ash (<4km) except spices ( 4.76%) during last four years (2011-2015) whereas the area beyond 4km has gained the space for more cultivation ( overall 1.7%) except rice( -0.09%) and jute( -1.41%) due to low price and demand. The nearer circles, Kola-I ,Kola-II, Gopalnagar, Pulsita, Sagarbarh and Amalhanda has lost cultivable land by 0.95% to 2.86% recording overall change 67.64% to 65.52% while the rest circles shows the change from 76.27% to 75.12%. The average cropping system (<4km) has dropped down from 181.3% to 166.8% whereas it has shifted from 195.1% to 183.6% in the outer side (>4km). As the consequence of fly ash, agricultural land (<4km) has been converted to non-agricultural one by 1.096% (Sagarbarh) to 5.184% (Kola-II) contrasting the transformation to non-arable in the area (>4km) from 0.537 % (Siddha-I) to 2.383% (Baishnabchak). Site-specific evaluation and recommendation as well as organic farming and precision agriculture should be adopted to abate the impact of coal-burned thermal power plant for agricultural sustainability in rural India.

Keywords:
Fly ash, Crop Coverage, Cropping Intensity, Land use Pattern.

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