Illegal coal mining continues unabated at a number of places around district headquarter of Korea in Chhattisgarh.

BAIKUNTHPUR: A dam on river Jhunka, which had been a lifeline for Baikunthpur and nearby colliery township Churcha, is dying a slow death due to continuous discharge of untreated polluted water.

Fourteen lakh saplings of different species will be planted under Koriya forest division this year.

Chhattisgarh Governor Shekhar Dutt has sought details from the State government on the declining population trends in six Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected districts of Koriya, Dakshin Bastar, Dantewada, Bijapur, Sukma, Jashpur and Kanker as reflected in the Provisional Census 2011 figures.

The State government says while it would wait for a more detailed analysis of the final Census reports when published by the Registrar General of India, it is not averse to an independent population survey in these districts.

Aman Sethi

CHIRMIRI: Plumes of smoke continued to billow from the Anjan Hills coal mine in Chhattisgarh's Chirmiri district on Friday, as hopes faded for the six miners still trapped in the mine, where an explosion killed four workers and injured another 28 on Thursday.

Aman Sethi

CHIRMIRI: While officials have refused to comment on the possible cause of the mine explosion in Chhattisgarh's Koriya district, interviews with miners, rescue workers and doctors on the site of Thursday's blast suggest that it could have been caused by a methane leak in a coal seam more than 200 metres below the surface.

Aman Sethi

RAIPUR: Four miners were killed and 28 injured in a massive blast in the Anjan Hills coalmine in Chhattisgarh's Koriya district on Thursday.

Six members of a technical team were still trapped in the mine, and rescue workers were unable to make contact with them.