Published Paper Details:

Abstract Coal is one of the important mineral resources that mankind has been able to use to uplift the economy and sustain the community. In the Khasi-Jaintia hills, coal was reported to the Governor-General-in-Council about the presence of coal seams by Mr. James Stark in 1815. In the beginning, the demand for Khasi-Jaintia coal was less. But after experimenting with the coal at the foundry in Calcutta, it was found out that the Cherrapoonjee coal produces less ash than the coal used by the boat steamers in the Ganga-Doab region. This compels the British to send a surveyor to trace the presence of coal seams in the entire Khasi-Jaintia hills. Thus, later on coal seam was discovered beyond Cherrapoonjee. Later on, good and better quality of coal were found in the Jaintia hills, especially in the Lakadong village and its adjoining villages. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the government realized the high value of the coal from the Jaintia hills, opening a tender for any merchants to invest in coal mining, which accelerated the development of unscientific mining of coal in the post-independence era.