1Research scholar, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Indain School of Mines, Dhanbad, Jharkhand, India
2Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Indain School of Mines, Dhanbad, Jharkhand, India
3Professor& HOD, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Indain School of Mines, Dhanbad, Jharkhand, India.
Most of the coal production in India comes from open cast mines contributing over 81% of the total production. A large number of open cast mines of over 10 million tons per annum capacity are in operation. Mining activities particularly opencast mining in huge forest areas results into loss of biodiversity, loss of nutrient qualities and microbial activities of the soil system. Opencastminingreleaseshuge amount of miningwastesto theupperpart of the land surface as overburden dump materials. In this study, the site selected for the experiment was overburden dump at different mining areas under Jharia coalfields (JCF). The overburden (OB) samples were collected during the months of April, 2008. Physico chemical characteristics such as Bulk density, Grain size distribution, pH, Electrical conductivity, Organic carbon, Organic matter, Available nitrogen, and Available phosphorus were determined in the Soil Mechanics Lab, ISM, Dhanbad. The objective of the present investigation was to characterization of overburden materials for revegetation or plantation purposes on the top surface of the overburden dump materials. This base line data can be used for reclamation of degraded opencast mines in Jharia coalfield, Dhanbad, Jharkhand.
Coal, Opencast mines, Overburden materials, Bulk density, Organic carbon
