Environmental Pollution from Coal Mining Activities in Damodar River Basin, India

Damodar river basin is a repository of 46% of Indian coal reserve. Exploitation of coal and related industries in this area have exerted a great impact on the environment of the basin. Hydrogeochemical analyses of mine water were carried out for all the major coalfields. The analysis revealed that total dissolved solids, sulphate, hardness and iron content are high. Acid mine drainage problem is not observed in all the coalfields of the basin except in one or two mines. Biological contamination are also observed in terms of MPN in the mine water. As a consequence of underground mining, huge volume of polluted water, flooded in the mines, are channeled into the stream or river which in turn gets chemically polluted. Activities other than mining like coal beneficiation and preparation plant also generate huge amount of water effluent which affects the aquatic ecosystem and reduces biodiversity