India plans to double its coal production by 2020. Already, India is the world's third-largest producer of greenhouse gases.
Mr Rudka is an engineer and coal is his livelihood. This has been the case for several decades. Dhanbad is known for its coal industry and the city is surrounded by 112 mines with an official total production of 27.5 million tonnes annually. India has the fifth largest coal reserve in the world and is globally the fourth largest coal producer.
To meet its growing energy needs, the Indian government plans to double its coal production by 2020. Already, India is the world's third-largest producer of greenhouse gases.
"If India wants cheap electricity for those who are still off the grid, then coal is the only solution," Mr Rudka while chewing thoughtfully on a piece of guava.
About 400 million Indians still live outside the electricity grid. It has been part of India's energy policy to expand the electricity grid and supply cheap electricity to those without. Globally, India uses only one-third of electricity per capita compared to electricity consumption in the West.
Making a report on coal is sensitive in India. Behind the coal industry is all that dirty and ugly, such as child labour, poor working conditions, extremely low wages and corruption. The list just goes on. Some villages have been forced to relocate due to the progress of the mines.
The villagers who actively tried to resist the expansion of the mines in their immediate area have usually been silenced in one way or another. Many mining companies are privately owned, but the land from which they extract coal belongs to the state, and the state has at its disposal the entire long arm.
Greenpeace got a taste of this when all their Indian bank accounts were frozen in 2015 after the government accused the international environmental campaign group of encouraging protests against "development" in the economically growing India.
