Coal Resources in India

November 3, 2015 November 9, 2023

Most of the coal mined in India comes from the rock formations of two geological ages viz. Lower Gondwana and Tertiary. About 80 per cent of the coal deposits in India is of bituminous type and is of non-coking grade. This is one of the reasons that India has to rely upon imports of coking coal.

Gondwana Coal

Gondwana coal has overwhelmingly higher share (99%) in India’s coal resources and the entire coal mined in the peninsular plateau part belongs to this category. This coal was formed in carboniferous period between 600 to 300 million years ago. The coal obtained from the Gondwana formations is mainly bituminous and needs to be converted into Coke before it can be used in the iron and steel industry.

Distribution of Gondwana Coal

The Gondwana coal mines are located in river valleys of Damodar, Mahanadi, Godavari, Son and Narmada. Damodar valley is home to largest coal mines in Jharkhand-West Bengal coal belt located in Jharia (largest coal field of India), Raniganhj (second largest coal field of India), Bokaro, Giridih, Karanpura , Chandrapur, Tatapani, Talcher, Himgiri, Korba, Singrauli etc.

On the basis of geological units, there are three different Gondwana formations viz. Raniganj Formation, Barkar Formation and Karharbari Formation. Karharbari Formation is the oldest coal formation in India.

The states in which Gondwana coal fields are found include Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, Assam, with the quantity of reserves in the same order.

Tertiary coals

Tertiary coal fields share only 1% of coal production of India. Such fields occur in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Nagaland and also in small quantities in Jammu & Kashmir. It is extracted from Darangiri, Cherrapunji, Mewlong and Langrin (Meghalaya); Makum, Jaipur and Nazira in upper Assam, Namchik – Namphuk (Arunachal Pradesh) and Kalakot (Jammu and Kashmir).

Tertiary coal is the lignite coal . Lignite also occurs in the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir. The coal is of inferior quality with around 30 to 50% carbon. India’s largest ignite deposits are at Neyveli in Tamil Nadu.