Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
18% of the explored mineral and ore of country (Sene-Johansen, 1995). The
coal belts of Orissa are situated on the bank of the rivers Mahanadi and
Brahmani. Availability of water and minerals have led to setting up of thermal
power plants and coal-based industries like aluminum, steel, fertilizer, cement
plants, etc. In Orissa, ~22 × 10
6
tonnes of coal is consumed annually for
power generation to meet the domestic and industrial energy requirements.
The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), National Aluminum
Company (NALCO), and Talcher Thermal Power Station (TTPS) are the
largest consumers of coal in the state with requirements of 36,000, 14,000 and
7000 tonnes of coal per day, respectively. A direct correlation between coal
consumption and the regions having high greenhouse gas built-up has been
established (Garg et al., 2001). Further, biomass burning, and construction
activities are also the sources of atmospheric perturbation. In Orissa, more
than 80% of the population (36 million in 2001) live in rural area, where the
biofuels meet the major chunk of domestic energy requirement. The Cuttack
district is the hotspot district for biofuel use in India (Garg et al., 2001).
Large-scale deforestation for industrialization, reservoirs construction and
agriculture are also the sources of CH
4
emission in the study region (Rao,
1993).
Industrial and mining operations like drilling, blasting, loading, hauling,
dumping, crushing, transportation, and processing of ore and mine products
emit radiatively active air pollutants such as carbon monoxide (CO), sulphur
dioxide (SO
2
), oxides of nitrogen (NO
x
), suspended particulate material (SPM)
and unburned hydrocarbons (SER, 2006; OSPCB, 2007). Around 10 ×10
6
tonnes (NTPC 4.62 ×10
6
tonnes; NALCO 2.14 ×10
6
tonnes) of fly ash and 1.4
×10
6
tonnes of blast furnace slag are generated every year in the state. Total
solid waste from the major industrial sectors has been estimated to be 25×10
6
tonnes. The aluminium production process (production capacity 0.58×10
6
tonnes yr
-1
) emits SO
2
, per flouro carbon, and hexa flouro ethane, which
contribute to global warming having high residence period (CSE, 2006). The
chromium mines in the Sukinda Valley is the largest open cast ore mines in
the world, and the mining is associated with the pollution due to the hexavalent
chromium, overburden dump, and mine water discharge. One tonne of
chro-mium mining generates around 10 tonnes of overburden, which contains
hexavalent chromium in the overburden with a concentration range 12-311
mg kg
-1
(OSPCB, 2004). Recently, the Blacksmith Institute (2007) has
designated the Sukinda Valley region as one of the highly polluted places of
the world. All these anthropogenic activities are likely to perturb the atmosphere,
resulting in global warming with consequent changes in the climate. Therefore,
it is imperative to explore the long-term climatological trends of the study
area.
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