Sohagpur Coalfield is located in

Shahdol district Shahdol District is a district of Madhya Pradesh state in east central India. It old name was Matsya raj or Virat kingdom in the name of great king Maharaja Virata. With a total area of and a population of 10,66,063. Shahdol is an important dist ...

in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

in the basin of the

Son River Son River ( hi, सोन नदी, also spelt Sone River) is a perennial river located in central India. It originates near Amarkantak Hill in Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi district of Chhattisgarh and finally merges with the Ganges River near Pa ...

. It is the biggest coalfield in the state of

History

Coal was discovered in this region, first in Sohagpur Coalfield by a British geologist named Franklin in 1830.Sri Kamal Sharma, Resource Development in Tribal India: an Example of the Baghelkhand Plateau, p. 161, 164, Northern Book Center, After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the first attempts at coal mining failed, but around 1926 Burhar and Dhanpuri collieries were started. The Anuppur-Chirimiri line was opened in 1939 and mining operations were extended subsequently. Sohagpur Coalfield is a remnant in the

Son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...

basin of Gondwana deposition.

The coalfield

Sohagpur Coalfield is a part of Central India Coalfields. The latter is spread over the districts of

Surguja Surguja district is a district of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. The district is one of the oldest districts of Chhattisgarh. The headquarters of the district is Ambikapur. The district lies in its eponymous Surguja dialectal region (where ...

Koriya Korea State, currently spelled as Koriya, was a princely state of the British Empire of India. After Indian independence in 1947, the ruler of Koreaccededto the Union of India on 1 January 1948, and Koriya was made part of Surguja District ...

(both in Chhattisgarh),

Shahdol Shahdol is a city in Shahdol district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of Shahdol district, The total geographical area of the district is . Demographics India census A census is the procedure ...

and

Umaria Umaria is a municipality city in the Umaria district of the Shahdol Division of Madhya Pradesh, India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second ...

(both in Madhya Pradesh). There are fourteen coalfields in this group, namely Korar, Umaria, Johilla, Sohagpur, Sonhat, Jhilimili, Chirimiri, Sendurgarh, Koreagarh, Damhamunda, Panchbahini, Hasdeo-Arand, Lakhanpur and Bishrampur. The group covers an area of about with estimated reserves of 15,613.98 million tonnes. The deposits are at a depth of 0–1200 meters. Therefore, extraction is mainly amenable to underground mining except a few blocks in eastern part of these coalfields which have opencast potential. Sohagpur Coalfield is spread over an area of about and has an estimated reserve of 4,064 million tonnes. There are four coal seams, about 1–4 m in thickness spread across three sub-basins: Burhar-Amlai sub-basin located in the western part of the coalfield, Kotma sub-basin, located on the Anuppur-Chirimiri branch line, 40 miles east of Burhar and the Jhagrakhand-Bijuri sub-basin in the easternmost part of the coalfield. In general the coal is of low rank, high moisture, high volatiles and non-coking type. Sohagpur Coalfield is divided in two parts by the east-west running Barmni-Chilpa fault. Coal found on the north of this fault is characteristically different from the coal occurring south of the fault. Coking coal has been found in the north of the fault. Sharda Opencast Mine is being expanded from 0.50 million tonnes per annum to 0.85 million tonnes per annum and the mining area from 242.847 ha to 871.205 ha. Highwall mining has been introduced here. Normal

open cast Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of minin ...

methods cannot be used as it is uneconomical to develop the coal seam by such methods in a small, confined area. By using this successful technology for the first time in India, the abandoned Sharda opencast mine has been a landmark in the Indian mining industry.

Coalbed Methane

Sohagpur Coalfield has ample scope of Coalbed methane exploration.

References

{{Coalfields Coalfields of India Energy in Madhya Pradesh Shahdol district Mining in Madhya Pradesh