1387 TOWARDS CLIMATE-RESILIENT SAFETY FRAMEWORKS IN INDIAN OPENCAST COAL MINING:A CASE STUDY OF NCL Naveen Rai1*, Nandan Kumar Choudhury2, Pradeep Kumar3 1 General Manager (Mining), Northern Coalfields Limited, Singrauli, 486889, India. (*Corresponding author E-mail: tscmd.ncl@coalindia.in) 2 Dy. Manager (Geology), Northern Coalfields Limited, Singrauli, 486889, India. 3 Dy. Manager (IE), Northern Coalfields Limited, Singrauli, 486889, India. ABSTRACT The challenges posed by climate change require careful consideration and targeted responses within specific industries. In the coal mining sector, climate change has emerged as a critical external factor influencing the safety and operational continuity of opencast mining operations as well as potential constraints on the sustainable sourcing of coal. While numerous studies address the broader impacts of climate change, most fail to adequately assess its localized effects, despite significant climatic variations occurring at relatively small spatial scales. This paper examines the climate-driven safety challenges faced by Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL) during the unprecedented monsoon of 2024. The study analyses ten years of historical monsoon data traditionally used for operational planning and contrasts it with the anomalous rainfall patterns observed in 2024. Despite meticulous monsoon preparedness measures, extreme and erratic rainfall events resulted in heightened safety concerns and operational disruptions across mining areas. August 2024 alone recorded rainfall exceeding 1000 mm, resulting in a decline of approximately 2.4 Mt in coal dispatch to the power sector compared with the corresponding period of the previous year. The case study highlights the limitations of conventional planning based primarily on historical averages and underscores the need for climate-resilient, data-driven mine safety frameworks. KEYWORDS Climate change; Extreme rainfall; Opencast mining; Mine safety; Monsoon variability; Climate resilience 1. INTRODUCTION Climate change is increasingly recognized as a major global challenge with profound implications for environmental stability, industrial operations, and infrastructure resilience. Among the most climatesensitive sectors is the monsoon-dependent coal mining industry, particularly opencast mining, where operations are directly exposed to atmospheric and hydrological extremes. The rising frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events, prolonged dry spells, and heatwaves have substantially altered conventional risk profiles in surface mining, affecting both operational continuity and safety performance (Menéndez & Muñoz, 2021). Recent scientific literature provides compelling evidence of rapidly shifting climate patterns across the Indian subcontinent. India has experienced a marked increase in the frequency and duration of heatwaves, with 554 heatwave days recorded nationwide in 2024, more than double the number observed in 2023 (Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, 2024), underscoring the intensifying influence of climate change. Even modest increases in mean temperature have been shown to disproportionately amplify extreme heat events, shifting temperature probability distributions toward more frequent and severe extremes, while reducing the occurrence of cooler conditions (IPCC, 2022; Figure 1).
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