ABSTRACT
The mining of coal in Assam was initiated in 18th century and continued till date in different ways. Presently, both underground and opencast mining are in operation. In an opencast mining, waster rocks and mine tailings are dumped as overburden (OB) in the back fills or strips. The site becomes an eyesore desert. The North East coal also bears high sulphur of 2% to 11% and is highly acidic (pH 2.o- 3.0). Acid mine drainage (AMD) formation also causes environmental damage. For primary succession in such an adverse environment, a minimum period of 25 to 30 years is essential, which changes the topography and ecology. Many works at the regional, national and global levels are taken up to restore the environment and mining.
AUTHOR AFFILIATIONS
1 Department of Geology, Gurucharan University, Silchar-788004, Assam
2 Department of Chemistry, Gurucharan University, Silchar-788004, Assam
CITATION
Nath M and Nath S (2025) Tertiary Coal of North Eastern Part of India and Environment – An Overview. Environmental Science Archives 4(2): 961-966.
REFERENCES
Akala B (1995) North Eastern coalfields: Some highlights. Journal of Mines, Metals and Fuels October:303.
Baruah BP (2009) Environmental studies around Makum coalfields. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, India.
Chakraborty M and Singh OP (2016) Coal mining in northeast India: An overview of environmental issues and treatment approaches. International Journal of Coal Science and Technology 3(2):87–96.
Chaoji SV (2002) Environmental challenges and the future of Indian coal. Journal of Mines, Metals and Fuels 50(10):257.
Cherfas J (1992) Trees help nature reclaim the slag heaps. New Scientist 134(1824):14–15.
Deka Boruah HP, Dileep Kumar B, Saikia N and Baruah BP (2004) Cultivation of French bean by co-inoculation of rhizobacteria strains on soil affected by coal mine effluent pollutants. In: International Conference on Soil and Groundwater Contamination: Risk Assessment and Remedial Measures, NGRI, Hyderabad, p.18.
Kumar A, Nath M and Singh AK (2021) Source rock characterization for hydrocarbon generative potential and thermal maturity of Sutunga coals (East Jaintia Hills), Meghalaya, India: Petrographic and geochemical approach. Journal of Geological Society of India 97:643–648.
Nath M (2021) High sulphur Paleogene coals of North East India: Implications for paleoenvironment and paleoclimate. Arabian Journal of Geosciences 14:1393, 1–13.
Nath M (2024) Tertiary coal deposits from north-eastern region of India: A review. Journal of Indian Association of Sedimentologists 41(2):52–62.
Nath M and Kumar A (2022) Geochemical and petrographic characterisation of Eocene coal from Bapung coalfield, East Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya, NE India. Arabian Journal of Geosciences 15:718, 1–11.
Nath M and Sen S (2022) Abundance of sulphur in Paleogene coals of NE India and its paleo-environmental implications. Journal of Indian Association of Sedimentologists 39(1):64–73.
Nath M and Sen S (2022) Petrographic characterization and evolution of Eocene coal from Bapung coalfield, East Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya, NE India. Journal of Indian Association of Sedimentologists 39(1):74–85.
Nath M, Gopinathan P, Santosh MS, Subraman T, Ramakrishna V, Khan AA and Ravikumar CR (2023) Potential of sulphur forms in north-eastern Indian coal: Implications in environmental remediation and heavy metal sensing. Chemosphere 344:140021.
Nath M, Kumar A and Singh AK (2022) Assessment of hydrocarbon generative potential of late Paleocene coals from East Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, NE India. Petroleum Science and Technology 40(15):1–13.
Nath M, Panwar DS, Chaurasia RC and Akanksha (2023) Hydrocarbon generative potential and thermal maturity of newly discovered coal seams from Bapung coalfield, Meghalaya, India: Rock-Eval pyrolysis and organic petrographic analysis. Journal of Sedimentary Environments 8(3):345–364.
Nath M, Panwar DS, Chaurasia RC, Akanksha, Kaur J and Kohli D (2023) Geochemical characterization of Paleogene coals from Jarain coalfield, Meghalaya, NE India: Hydrocarbon potential and organic petrographic analysis. Geoenergy Science and Engineering 2:100044.
Saikia BK, Ward CR, Oliveira MLS, Hower JC, Baruah BP, Braga M and Silva LF (2014) Geochemistry and nano-mineralogy of two medium-sulfur northeast Indian coals. International Journal of Coal Geology 121:26–34. DOI: 10.1016/j.coal.2013.11.010.
Sarma K (2005a) Impact of coal mining on vegetation: A case study in Jaintia Hills District of Meghalaya, India. MSc dissertation, International Institute of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), Enschede, The Netherlands.
Sarma K (2005b) Impact of coal mining on vegetation: A case study in Jaintia Hills District of Meghalaya, India. MSc thesis, International Institute of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation, The Netherlands, and Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, India.
Singh AK and Banerjee PK (2006) Liberation study of mineral matter from the coal: A case study of seam no. VII of West Bokaro coalfield, Jharkhand, India. Mineral Processing Technology 18:573–581.
Singh AK, Singh MP and Singh PK (2013) Petrological investigations of Oligocene coals from foreland basin of northeast India. Energy Exploration and Exploitation 31(6):909–936.
Srivastava MK, Kishore K, Nath M and Singh AK (2024) Inorganic geochemical attributes of Jaintia Hills coals, India: Implications for paleo-depositional conditions. Kuwait Journal of Science 51(2):1–15.
Swer S and Singh OP (2003) Coal mining impacting water quality and aquatic biodiversity in Jaintia Hills District of Meghalaya. ENVIS Bulletin Himalayan Ecology 11:26–33.
Swer S and Singh OP (2004) Status of water quality in coal mining areas of Meghalaya, India. In: National Seminar on Environmental Engineering with Special Emphasis on Mining Environment (NSEEME), 19–20 March, Dhanbad, India, pp.26–33.
License: Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. Visit for more details http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.