- Title: Open-cast pit to eco park: India reinvents old mines
- Date: 18th March 2026
- Summary: BISHRAMPUR, CHHATTISGARH, INDIA (NOVEMBER 16, 2025) (REUTERS) CATTLE WALKING ON SIDE OF LAKE VARIOUS OF FLOATING DOCKS AND STORE ROOMS PINK WATER LILIES IN LAKE OWNER OF FLOATING RESTAURANT ON LAKE, SAVITA GUPTA, PULLING ROPE VARIOUS OF BOAT CARRYING PASSENGERS ARRIVING AT FLOATING DOCK STATION, GUPTA STANDING ON FLOATING DOCK VARIOUS OF GUPTA CUTTING ONIONS GUPTA COOKING
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: Bishrampur Chhatisgarh Pooja SECL Savita South Eastern Coalfields Ltd boating coal mine floating restaurant lake quarry regeneration security guard water body
- Location: BISHRAMPUR, CHHATTISGARH, INDIA
- City: BISHRAMPUR, CHHATTISGARH, INDIA
- Country: India
- Topics: Asia / Pacific,Human-Led Feature,Human-Led Stories
- Reuters ID: LVA001469817032026RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Bishrampur in India’s central state of Chhattisgarh stands as a model for India's attempts to give its exhausted mines a second life.
The world's second-largest coal producer and consumer after China is accelerating regeneration programs across hundreds of mines as their coal runs out, aiming to create sustainable livelihoods for the communities who live there, mostly from tourism.
Spread across 1,472 hectares (5.68 square miles), the Bishrampur mine's 10 pits yielded more than 38.7 million tons of coal between 1961 and 2018 when the coal finally ran out.
Over time, some of the pits had gradually filled with water, creating a deep, bottle-green lake.
The district administration, with some funding from South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL), transformed it into a small tourist hub with rafts, a park and a few cottages. SECL is a unit of Coal India Ltd, the world's largest coal miner.
The site, which began to be repurposed for tourism in 2018, is managed by a women's community group and a fishery cooperative, and attracts as many as 150 people at the weekend.
For the women, the gains have gone beyond income.
"In the village, most women are only housewives. Our movements were restricted," says 30-year-old boat operator Anjani Singh.
"Working here, meeting officials and people gave us confidence."
The group's leader, Pooja Sahu, agrees.
"Nobody knew us before but boating has given us an identity now," she says.
Around Kenapara, the nearest village, locals now recognize them as the women who "run the boats."
But the revival is fragile. The women say they pay 2,000 rupees a month each to rent the boats and cover most of the maintenance costs themselves.
Savita Gupta, 28, who runs the lake's floating restaurant, said her association with the women's group had transformed her from housewife to entrepreneur.
"We were restricted when we were just inside our homes…we did not know anything of the outside world," Gupta said. “When I moved outside, not only did I find ways to earn money but also got the opportunity to meet a lot of new people. It feels nice to run the restaurant.”
(Production: Avijit Ghosh, Tarun Kumar, Sunil Kataria) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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