PRAVIN KUMAR
Ranchi: Despite the complete shutdown of the mica industry by the State government it is still flourishing even today under the guise of scrap where mafia and muscleman have entered in place of traders.
Mica is being mined from the closed mines in the forest area. In which many people are getting rich, from politicians to people related to administration. Under their protection, the mafia is mining mica in Koderma and Giridih districts. From these two districts, more than 100 trucks are sent to Kolkata Port Mica every day.
The mafias of the forest area of Koderma and Giridih districts are also using machines for mining mica from their respective mines. When the forest department and the local administration go for investigation after the accident, the mica mafia along with their equipment like JCB and generator leave the place. Whenever any high officials come to inspect the closed mines, people escape from the mine and as soon as the officer returns, the mining again starts.
In the Koderma district, on January 21, 2021, more than half a dozen people were buried near Phulwaria, adjacent to the district headquarters out of which 4 died. This data shows that there is a big difference between the actions and words of the administration. It is not possible to excavate at a distance of about 2 km from the headquarters and the administration does not know. On the other hand, hundreds of vehicles can be seen in Jhumri Tilaiya, the main city of the Mica district. In such a situation, it is completely visible that in this illegal business, people of administration, muscleman and political parties are actively involved.
The highest production of mica in India is shown on paper in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan whereas that mica is mined and exported illegally from the closed mines of Koderma and Giridih in Jharkhand. The quality of mica found in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan is the worst. The best quality mica is found in Jharkhand which is being sold by illegal mining and being sold abroad on the basis of papers of other states due to which the Jharkhand government is losing crores of revenue.
Data from Trend Ecomomy’s Import and Exports shows that the export of mica from India is more than $ 65 million. There was no significant impact on exports even during the Covid period.
Year Value in USD/Value (US$)
2009 25,557,089.00
2010 38,413,842.00
2011 49,911,106.00
2012 49,210,871.00
2013 52,419,696.00
2014 53,994,187.00
2015 53,234,683.00
2016 53,783,805.00
2017 62,757,871.00
2018 86,805,255.00
2019 57,961,631.00
2020 56,895,910.00
