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On a warm Tuesday in October, about a four-hour drive from Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana,
十月一个温暖的周二，距泰伦加纳邦首府海德拉巴约4小时车程的地方，
an army of men in indigo shorts went underground to dig it out.
一群穿着靛蓝色短裤的人正要到地下挖煤。
A simple pulley drew them in, a bit like a ski lift, except here, it took them deeper and deeper down a shaft.
一个简单的滑轮车，有点像滑雪场的缆车，把他们载了进去，只不过这里的滑轮是将他们送往越下越深的竖井里。
The creak of the pulley was all you could hear, and water, drip-dripping inside the earth.
你只能听到辘轳的吱吱声，还有水在地底滴哒流动的声音。
Here and there, off to the side, stood miners, their forms barely visible in the darkness,
滑轮两边不时会看到站着的矿工，除了缠绕在他们身上的手电筒发出的光，
except for the belted flashlights that snaked across their bodies.
他们的身影在黑暗中几乎完全看不见。
At about 900 feet below the surface, where the air was black and cool and the coal under our feet was squishy,
在地下大约900英尺（270多米）的地方，环境又黑又凉，我们脚下的煤块很软，
a burst of explosives broke down a wall of coal.
用炸药一炸，就炸开了一堵煤墙。
Small, sooty chunks were piled into tubs and wheeled out,
又小又黑的煤块被装进桶里，用滑轮运出去，
then loaded onto coal trucks that hurtled down the country roads, sprinkling a layer of ash everywhere.
然后装上运煤的卡车，卡车奔驰在乡间的道路上，所到之处，无不给周围蒙上一层煤灰。
So deeply is India invested in coal, this, like other mines, is state owned.
印度十分器重对煤炭的投资，所以，这座矿厂，和其他矿厂一样，都是国营的。
So are most power plants.
大部分发电厂也不例外。
Coal subsidizes the country's vast rail network.
煤炭支撑着印度庞大的铁路网。
That person at the top of that system, India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, has sought to cast himself as a champion of clean energy.
位于这一网络顶端的是印度的总理纳伦德拉·莫迪，而他一直试图把自己塑造成清洁能源至上的形象。
But Mr. Modi has been inaugurating new coal mines, too.
但莫迪也一直在不断开辟新的煤矿。
His government has made it faster for industry, including mining, to get environmental clearances, rankling environmentalists.
他的政府还加快了包括采矿业在内的工业获得环境许可的速度，惹得环保主义者们愤恨不已。
India's state-owned companies are building new coal-fired plants across the country,
印度的国有企业正在全国各地兴建新的燃煤电厂，
almost all of them financed by public sector banks.
几乎所有这些电厂都是由国营银行提供资金的。
In an interview in the capital, New Delhi,
在首都新德里举行的一次采访中，
India's energy secretary, Ajay Bhalla, said some 50 gigawatts of additional coal capacity were under construction.
印度能源部长阿贾伊·巴拉表示，有一个煤炭产能约为500亿瓦的项目已经在建设中了。
That's a fraction of what was under development even a decade ago, when India's energy demand was projected to soar.
就是跟十年前，印度的能源需求预计将大幅增长的时候相比也只是九牛一毛。
Many of those plants are meant to replace older, more polluting ones.
这些工厂有许多都是为了取代旧的、污染严重的工厂而建的。
But coal would not sunset anytime soon, he predicted,
但他预测，短时间内，煤炭并不会从印度消失，
not until there's a cheap and efficient way to store energy from solar and wind energy.
除非有廉价且有效的储存太阳能和风能的办法。
Analysts say India must retool its electricity grid for the post-coal era.
分析人士称，印度必须革新其现有电网，迎接后煤炭时代的到来。
Battery technology is fast advancing.
电池技术发展迅速。
Microgrids can replace traditional electricity systems.
微型电网可以取代传统的电力系统。
Many existing coal plants are now running below capacity, several are idle,
许多现有燃煤电厂目前都是在低负荷运转，还有几家已经闲置，
and new energy efficiency standards could slow down demand to the point where there may be a glut of costly coal-fired plants.
新的能效标准可能会将需求放缓到成本高昂的燃煤电厂供过于求的地步。
Left holding this bundle of stranded assets: The public sector banks that financed them.
这些搁浅的资产就会落到为它们提供融资的国营银行手里。
For now, though, coal accounts for 58 percent of India's energy mix.
不过，目前煤炭在印度的能源结构中还是占到了58%的比例。
It's not that I'm using the coal very willingly,” Mr. Bhalla said. But I have to."
“并不是我乐意使用煤炭的，”巴拉说。“我也是迫不得已啊。”
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
