The regions where India's coal is mined, dominated by the Gondwana coalfields of eastern and central India, which supply the bulk of the country's energy and steel industry.
- About 95 to 98 per cent of India's coal is Gondwana coal (around 250 million years old), found in the river valleys of the Peninsular plateau; the rest is younger Tertiary coal.
- Major Gondwana coalfields: Jharia, Bokaro, and Raniganj (Jharkhand-West Bengal, Damodar valley), Singrauli (Madhya Pradesh-Uttar Pradesh), Korba (Chhattisgarh), Talcher (Odisha), and Singareni (Telangana).
- The Damodar valley is the most important coal belt; Jharia is the largest coalfield and a major source of coking coal used in steel making.
- Tertiary coal (younger, around 15 to 60 million years old) occurs in the north-east (Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal, Nagaland) and in Jammu and Kashmir; it has higher sulphur content.
- Most Indian coal is non-coking (used for power and other industries); good coking coal is relatively scarce, so India imports coking coal.
The Gondwana-versus-Tertiary distinction, the Damodar valley and Jharia, the coking-versus-non-coking issue, and the major States are recurring minerals and energy facts.
Most Indian coal is Gondwana (older, Peninsular river valleys, low sulphur); Tertiary coal is younger, north-eastern, and high in sulphur. India is rich in non-coking coal but short of coking coal.
Mostly Gondwana coal of the Damodar valley (Jharia, Raniganj, Bokaro); plus younger high-sulphur Tertiary coal in the north-east.