In which of the following states of India has major reserves of coal ?
All the above
All three states hold major coal reserves — option 4. Together with West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh they account for the overwhelming bulk of India’s coal.
| State | Principal coalfields |
|---|---|
| Jharkhand | Jharia — India’s only significant source of coking coal — along with Bokaro, Giridih, Karanpura and Rajmahal |
| Odisha | Talcher and Ib Valley, both very large |
| Chhattisgarh | Korba, Raigarh, Chirimiri |
| West Bengal | Raniganj, where Indian coal mining began in 1774 |
| Madhya Pradesh | Singrauli, Sohagpur |
Why they cluster there. Almost all of India’s coal is of Gondwana age, roughly 250 million years old, laid down in a series of rift basins along the valleys of the Damodar, Son, Mahanadi and Godavari. Those basins run across exactly this belt of eastern and central India, which is why the coalfields and the states that hold them are so tightly grouped. The much younger Tertiary coals of Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland are small in quantity and high in sulphur.
Why the question is easy once the geology is known. Any option naming a state of the Gondwana belt will be correct, so when three such states are listed separately the answer is necessarily “all the above”.
A note on quality. India has abundant coal but most of it is high in ash and low in calorific value, and coking coal in particular is scarce — which is why India remains a large importer of coking coal for steelmaking even while producing over a billion tonnes of coal a year.
Hence, the answer is All the above.
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