Uranium from ores mined at the three mines - Jaduguda, Bhatin and Narwapahar (Jharkhand) - is processed in the mill and the waste emerges as tailings. The recorded radioactivity level in these tailings is very low, but to avoid any long-term effect of these tailings on the atmosphere, humans, cattle as well as native flora and fauna, the tailings are covered with 30 cm layer of soil.
Mining and processing of uranium ore was started in several parts of eastern Singhbhum, viz. Jaduguda, Bhatin and Narwapahar (Jharkhand) in 1968. Radioactivity in the mine tailings has to be consolidated so that it does not emanate in the atmosphere or enter the food chain.
In the hill areas, the traditional systems of dependence on forest products like fuel for their households and fodder for their livestock has an important bearing on the status of Himalayan watersheds. The population of livestock is therefore also significant. The fuel and fodder requirements of the hill people are important routine activities for which women/children spend long hours of their day-to-day life.
