New Bamboo Plantations Are Healing Villages Choked by Toxic Ash from Coal Plants in India

New Bamboo Plantations Are Healing Villages Choked by Toxic Ash from Coal Plants in India

New Bamboo Plantations Are Healing Villages Choked by Toxic Ash from Coal Plants in India A before and after of the Suradevi Road site, Koradi – credit Dr. Lal Singh, supplied In Western India, bamboo is being used to rejuvenate lands choked with ash from thermal power plants. One of the largest coal-burning nations owing to its large population and drive for economic development, India has nevertheless likely contaminated thousands of acres of marginal and arable land with “fly ash.” Fly ash is the heavy particulate matter ejected during coal and wood burning, and in the case of coal, the presence of heavier minerals like silica make farming under its influence all but impossible. In the Indian state of Maharashtra, Dr. Lal Singh from the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR) has spent 12 years pioneering a 5-step program to restoring fly ash-degraded lands using bamboo and soil amendments. Working in the Vidarbha region, three thermal power plants had significantly …