INDIA. India Coal Fire- The fire that has been raging for 75 years. For the past 75 years intense fires have been raging beneath the town of Jharia in India's Bihar state. Out of control, the fires leap from one coal seam to another, gradually destroying the land above. Almost one million people live the affected region- one of the poorest in India- and most people are too poor to move until the raging fires threaten to engulf their homes. Subsidence has caused walls to collapse, knocked roofs askew and opened up deep craters within the earth. The villagers suffer badly from the filthy air, especially during Bihar's murky summer. All around the village, the gorund is riddled with smoldering sinkholes, some large enough to swallow the occasional unwary goat or calf. The first attempts to quell the fires bgan more than 20 years ago, but barely half a dozen have been extinguished. The fires are costing India a fortune in lost valuable coke reserves.