Clean Coal Initiatives in India

Availability of, and access to, coal is a crucial element of modern economies and it helps pave the way for human development. Accordingly, the thermal power sector and steel industries have been given a high priority in the national planning processes in India and a concerted focus on enhancing these sectors have resulted in significant gain in generation and availability of electricity and steel in the years since independence. To meet the need of huge demand of power coal is excavated. The process of excavation to the use of coal is potential enough to degrade the environment. Coal Mining is a development activity, which is bound to damage the natural ecosystem by all its activities directly and ancillary, starting from land acquisition to coal beneficiation and use of the products. Huge areas in the Raniganj and Jharia coal field in India have become derelict due to abandoned and active opencast and underground mines. The study is pursued to illustrate the facts which show the urgent need to clean coal mining in India.