According to a study, there are 13 major dumps on the surface, occupying about 15 percent of the total land area of about 58.12 square kilometres. The effluents are dumped in mounds, which comprise cyanide and silica. Over the years, the mines have generated about 35 million tonnes of residue from ore processing. The mine was closed without any prior intimation and left environmental waste near the BGML site. Land and water contamination in the Kolar Gold Fields When the toilets weren’t cleaned for over a year, the residents started cleaning them because they feared a disease outbreak,” Kalai told Mongabay-India.Īlso read: During a Lockdown, Why Is the Mining Industry Considered ‘Essential’? “The local municipality didn’t pay heed to the several complaints made by the residents demanding proper toilet facilities, she mentioned.

She claimed that all the men and more than half of the women defecate in the open. Kalai Arasan, a resident of the KGF’S Mill Colony, informed that there are only five public toilets and nearly 2,500 inhabitants rely on them. About 260,000 people still live in the Kolar Gold Fields. The living conditions in those colonies are very poor as well as people don’t have access to proper toilet facilities and there are open drains in the colonies for wastewater which ends up triggering a host of communicable diseases. Residents live in shanties smaller than 100 square feet in over 400 colonies. The labourers who used to work in these mines live in poverty without any financial and health aid from the government. But now, after the gold has finished the area has lost its glitter too as there is neither proper electricity supply nor drinking water,” Esavel told Mongabay India. When the mine was operational, the area didn’t experience any power cuts and water shortage. The British government had also built a lake to meet the water demands of the area. “It was once called mini England and the KGF was the first Indian city to be electrified in 1902. The mines were closed owing to high operational costs and low revenues. The mines remained active for 121 years before it experienced an unsystematic closure on February 28, 2001. Operated by the Bharat Gold Mines Limited (BGML), a public sector undertaking, the KGF was the world’s second deepest gold mine at a depth of 3,000 metres. The Kolar Gold fields are about 100 kilometres from Bangalore. Esavel, a resident of Karnataka’s Kolar Gold Fields (KGF). “The government has taken 40 precious years of my life, used me and left me to die when their work was completed,” rued 79-year-old K.

Featured image: Mine tailings at Kolar Gold Fields.

Kolar gold fields