India, March 23 -- Members of the Santhal tribe in Muhammad Bazar, West Bengal's Birbhum district, called off their agitation on Sunday after the state government assured them that their villages would not be evacuated for Deocha Pachami coal block project, the world's second-largest, as it will be an underground mining operation.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced at the Bengal Global Business Summit on February 6 that initial work at the country's biggest coal mine would start immediately.

"An agitation started after that announcement because a section of the local media reported that tribal people would be evicted and some forest areas cleared. The government assured us at a meeting on Saturday that there would be no eviction s...