Ipsa Tripathy
Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s power stations burn coal around the clock, leaving behind millions of tonnes of fine grey ash every year. The state produces an estimated 45 million tonnes of fly ash annually. On paper, almost all of it is being put to use. Officials reported an ash utilisation rate of 98.63 per cent in 2025–26. Yet in parts of Jharsuguda and Talcher, the concerns of farmers and nearby residents tell a more complicated story.
Fly ash does not simply disappear when it is counted as utilised. It has to go somewhere, whether into cement, roads, mine pits or ash ponds. If it is poorly stored or dumped in the wrong place, it can spread across farmland, enter water bodies and create persistent dust pollution. The question is not just how much ash Odisha uses, but where it goes and what happens when it escapes containment.
Fly ash is the fine residue left after coal is burned to generate electricity. The amount produced depends on the type of coal and how it is burned. Coal used in the Talcher region has a relatively high ash content, which contributes to the large volumes generated by power plants in the area.
At many plants, the ash is mixed with water and pumped as slurry into large storage areas known as ash ponds. These ponds are usually enclosed by embankments called dykes. When the structures are properly designed, maintained and monitored, they can contain the waste. But a breach can release large quantities of ash slurry into surrounding land and waterways, turning an industrial waste problem into a local disaster.
Odisha has experienced the consequences of such failures before. On the night of December 31, 2000, an ash pond at NALCO in Angul reportedly gave way, causing damage across 26 villages in the Angul and Talcher areas. Ash entered the Nandira, a tributary of the Brahmani, with impacts reported as far as 50 kilometres downstream. Houses, crops and livestock were affected, while communities dependent on the river faced concerns about their water supply.
More than two decades later, ash pond failures remained a concern. On the morning of December 9, 2023, a dyke at an Odisha Power Generation Corporation ash pond near Banharpali in Jharsuguda district collapsed. The released slurry spread over farmland and reportedly affected the Hirakud reservoir. Villagers said that around 20 feet of the embankment had given way following three days of heavy rain, sending ash across their fields.
For farmers, the damage meant more than a layer of grey material on the ground. Kanduru Dhurua, a farmer from Sardhapali, described the loss in stark terms: “We lost everything.” A subsequent report said more than 400 acres of farmland had been affected. Some of the land belonged to families who had already been displaced once by the Hirakud Dam project.
The cause of the breach became a point of disagreement. OPGC attributed the failure to heavy rainfall, while environmentalist Satyanarayan Rao argued that the pond had been overfilled. He also cited an earlier breach at Vedanta’s ash pond in Katikela in 2017, which he said had damaged crops across more than 200 acres. These differing accounts underline the importance of independent investigations into ash pond failures, including whether rainfall, structural weaknesses, operating practices or a combination of factors contributed to each incident.
A breach is the most visible kind of failure, but fly ash can also affect communities without any wall collapsing. Wind can lift dry ash from exposed storage areas and carry it into nearby settlements, fields and roads. In March 2023, around 200 villages, hamlets and urban areas in the Angul–Talcher–Meramundali belt reportedly experienced severe pollution from ash blowing off industrial ponds. Residents in areas including Kaniha, Angul, Banarpal and Meramundali faced clouds of dust during strong winds.
Another concern is the dumping of ash outside designated storage and reuse sites. Jharsuguda district has about 15 ash ponds associated with different industries, according to the figures cited in reports. A separate report identified more than 100 suspected illegal ash dumps, some described as low-lying land filling. The distinction matters: filling land may be presented as beneficial reuse, but the activity needs to be assessed on its actual purpose, location and environmental safeguards.
In Sundargarh district, a petition before the National Green Tribunal raised concerns about a proposal to dump fly ash into a water-filled stone quarry within Perubhadi Reserve Forest. The petition argued that nearby tribal villages depend on the water and also alleged that ash had been deposited along public roads and on farmland around Subdega. These are allegations that require proper examination, but they point to a wider question: whether every site described as an ash disposal or filling project is suitable for the purpose.
The state government has also raised concerns about ash transported in uncovered or inadequately covered trucks. During a review meeting, officials warned that ash escaping from vehicles can pollute the air, contaminate soil and water, and damage farmland. Transport is an important part of the problem because even ash intended for legitimate use can create pollution if it spills along roads or is unloaded without proper controls.
So where does Odisha’s fly ash go when it is put to use? Power plants and government agencies point to roads, bricks, cement production and the filling of old mine voids. These uses can reduce the amount that must be stored in ash ponds, provided they meet appropriate engineering and environmental standards.
NTPC Talcher Kaniha, one of Odisha’s largest power stations, reported ash utilisation above 100 per cent in 2024–25. The plant said it supplied a record 50.50 lakh tonnes of fly ash for government road projects, including sections of the Cuttack–Angul, Duburi–Chandikhol–Balasore and Khordha bypass routes.
An utilisation figure above 100 per cent can occur when a plant uses ash accumulated in earlier years as well as the ash generated during the current reporting period. But the overall figure does not, by itself, explain how much ash went into each type of use or whether every destination was environmentally appropriate.
The category of utilisation also matters. Talcher Kaniha reported that 45 per cent of its ash went towards non-dyke uses. The remaining share included other reported uses, potentially including the raising of ash dyke embankments. Raising a dyke may be recorded as utilisation, but it does not remove the need for long-term storage or eliminate the risks associated with maintaining the structure.
Mine voids have become another major outlet in coal-producing areas. NTPC’s Talcher plant has used slurry pipelines to transport ash into the South Balanda mine void, while NALCO has laid a pipeline to carry ash slurry to the Bharatpur mine. Studies cited by the state pollution board reportedly found that the ash was not hazardous under the conditions assessed and had no significant effect on groundwater. However, the same material acknowledged that lining these mine voids was not feasible because of their depth, steep sides and standing water.
That leaves questions about how such sites should be monitored over time. Residents and some experts remain concerned about placing large quantities of ash in unlined mine pits, particularly where rivers and village wells are nearby. The safety of any particular site depends on its geology, groundwater movement, the properties of the ash and the controls in place. Findings from one location should not automatically be treated as proof that every mine void is suitable for disposal.
The pressure to find destinations for ash is unlikely to disappear soon. In July 2026, Mahanadi Coalfields signed an agreement with Talcher Fertilisers concerning fly ash disposal, adding to the network of arrangements intended to manage the growing volume of waste generated by coal-based power.
The Odisha government says it wants to treat fly ash as a resource rather than simply as waste. Its plans include expanding the use of ash in cement, ready-mix concrete, geopolymer materials and road embankments, alongside establishing cement grinding units near power stations. Officials have also called for stronger district-level monitoring and a dedicated fly ash management cell within the state pollution control system.
These measures could help reduce the burden on ash ponds, but they will only work if the entire chain is properly managed. That means checking the quality of proposed reuse projects, inspecting storage structures before and during the monsoon, covering transport vehicles, tracking where ash is delivered and investigating reports of illegal dumping. Where contamination occurs, affected communities also need transparent assessments, timely compensation and a credible plan for restoring damaged land.
For people living beside ash ponds, the issue is much more immediate than a state-level utilisation percentage. They want to know who checks the embankments before heavy rain, who verifies the destination of each truckload and who is responsible when a breach sends slurry across their fields.
Odisha’s reported utilisation rate of 98.63 per cent may indicate progress in finding uses for fly ash. But the figure alone cannot show whether the ash is being handled safely at every stage. The real measure of success is whether it reaches suitable destinations without contaminating rivers, farmland or village water sources.
In Banharpali, Sardhapali and the villages along the Nandira, that is the question that matters most: not simply whether the ash has been counted as used, but whether it has been kept where it belongs.
