Mahanadi Coalfields Research Articles

Case Comment: Yagnaseni Patel v. The General Manager, Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. & Ors. 2023 LiveLaw (Ori) 76

This case commentary analyses the legal issue involved in the case of Yagnaseni Patel v. The General Manager, Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. According to the Orissa High Court, the daughter has a claim to the father's property, the right is conferred at birth and the provisions respecting the rights apply on and from the date of the Amendment Act, 2005. The High Court stated that even though her father died before the 2005 Amendment, the daughter had a right. The Bench cited the case of Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma and Others 2020 (II) OLR (SC) 569: (2020) 9 SCC 1 in which the Apex Court held that a daughter shall remain as coparcener throughout life, regardless of whether her father was alive when the law was amended in 2005 or not, emphasizing that the law is retrospective.
 Keywords: “Hindu Succession Act”, “Property Right”, “Coparcenary Right”, “Retrospective Effect”
 

An investigation into the effect of various parameters on oil agglomeration process of coal fines

ABSTRACT In the present study, the authors have performed oil agglomeration of coal fines using castor oil and combination of castor oil and turpentine oil in various proportions. The coal samples were collected from three different mines of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited having high ash content (27–39%). From the post proximate analysis it was revealed that in case of Mine 1 coal, the moisture content reduced by 83%, for Mine 2 it was 94% and for Mine 3 the moisture reduced by 90% from the initial values. Grade achieved after oil agglomeration process was G5 grade for Mine 2 coal and G3 grade for Mine 1 & 2 coal. The effect of various parameters such as oil dosage, pulp density, pH, on yield, ash rejection and organic matter recovery were studied. The parameter with the highest relative importance was found to be oil dosage (normalized importance of 100%) whereas agitation time and pulp density were found to have normalized relative importance of 74% and 70%, respectively. A non-linear regression model in the form of quadratic equation has also been proposed for ash rejection (%) based on the independent variables such as pulp density, oil dosage and agitation time.

Coal Mining and Local Environment: A Study in Talcher Coalfield of India

Despite government’s repeated assertions for the sustainable mining extraction and development of rural and tribal communities living near the vicinity of mining areas, these have not been converted into implementable solutions. The natural resources from rural and tribal areas are being exploited to meet the ever-increasing requirements and aspirations of the affluent groups. With the above background, this article, taking both experimental and control villages into account, tried to explore the impact of coal mining on local environment. Although dealing with local environment, it has mostly focused on sociological impact of mining in air, water, and noise pollution. The data collected show that the suspended particulate matter concentration is alarmingly high in few sampling locations, whereas respirable suspended particulate matter concentration which once used to be within acceptable limits is now gradually approaching its standard acceptable value of 300 µg/m3. Along with uncovered coal transportation, lack of water spraying system and movement of heavy vehicles have brought an addition to air pollution to the locality. The extraction of mining has influenced the water table. The data collected from State Pollution Control Board, Bhubaneswar, show that suspended sediments and chemical oxygen demand in most of the mining areas and biological oxygen demand in few cases have crossed the specific standard. Along with this, household survey was conducted by covering 6 villages and 600 households. The study was undertaken by following experimental design where 450 households were taken from experimental, ie, mining villages, and 150 households have been selected from nonmining areas. Of the 450 households, around 96.44% villagers responded that Mahanadi Coalfields Limited is not taking any mitigation measures to apprehend the pollution caused by mining operations.

Dump Slope Stability Analysis – A Case Study

Abstract: In opencast mining operation, the stability of waste materials stands at high priority from the safety and economic perspective. Poor management of overburden (OB) dump results the instability of slope in an opencast mine. The present paper deals with the stability analysis of dump material of an opencast coal mine at Talcher coal field, Angul district, Odisha, by means of different geotechnical parameters and mineralogical composition affecting the dump slope. The prolonged rainfall in the mining area causes dump failure and loss of valuable life and property. A recent dump failure that occurred in 2013 at Basundhara mines of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), Odisha, took 14 lives, and created problems for the mining industry. Most of the dump failure that occurs in the study area are mainly due to increase in pore water pressure as a result of rainfall infiltration. The stability of the waste dump was investigated using the limit equilibrium analysis to suggest an economical, sustainable and safe disposal of the dump in the study area.

Assessment and Modelling of Dust Concentration in an Opencast Coal mine in India.

<div> <p>Dust pollution is a major problem in opencast mines. Many activities are associated with generation of dust that makes a cloud of pollutant at the work environment and the surrounding areas. Activities as drilling, blasting, transportation, surface miner etc. are the principle sources of generation of dust in mines. This paper focuses on the monitoring of dust level at different operational areas of the mine, characterization of dust collected from different sources, personal exposure of dust and finally prediction of dust concentration at different locations of the mine and nearby areas using AERMOD software. The study was conducted at Lakhanpur opencast mine of MCL (Mahanadi Coalfields Limited), a subsidiary body of CIL (Coal India Limited) the largest coal producing company of the world. The study was done in the month of December 2013, using DustTrakII at nine different locations in the mine. The quartz content of dust was determined using FTIR analysis. Personal Dust Sampler (PDS) was used to determine the personal dust exposure value for different workers. Dust dispersion modelling was done by using AERMOD and isopleths were plotted.</p> </div> <p> </p>

Bioaccumulation of metals in timber and edible fruit trees growing on reclaimed coal mine overburden dumps

A field study was carried out (IB-valley areas, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited) to assess the bioaccumulation of heavy metals in the tree species, changes in physicochemical and nutritional properties of mine soils, and bioavailability of metals. Only limited amount of topsoil was added in the plantation pits in the ratio of 1:4 (topsoil: weathered mine spoils), which significantly improved pH and fertility. Out of the six analysed metals, the highest concentration was found for Fe followed by Mn > Zn > Cu > Cd > Ni in mine soils. Metal accumulation and bioconcentration factor (BCF) for each metal were calculated for edible fruit (Mangifera indica, Anacardium occidentale, Psidium guajava, Artocarpus heterophyllus and Syzygium cumini) and timber trees (Acacia mangium, Eucalyptus spp., Techtona grandis and Gravellia robusta). Higher metal accumulations were observed in edible fruit trees than control plants growing in garden soil. Significant variations of metal accumulations were observed amongst timber tree species with higher BCF values. Present study suggested that in spite of addition of topsoil, no significant improvement was observed for the bioavailable metal concentration in the mine soils. Additional care should be undertaken, if edible fruit trees are considered for afforestation of coal mine spoils.

2D Resistivity Imaging for Delineation of Waterlogged Coal Workings in Unapproachable Underground Coal Mines to Check Inundation Hazard

Abstract: 2D Resistivity Imaging survey is a relatively a new technique used for detecting old, abandoned & unapproachable waterlogged areas in underground mines in recent years. Hingir Rampur Colliery of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) was facing problem due to presence of unapproachable underground waterlogged coal workings. Mine management was extracting coal in Seam I of Hingir Rampur seam (HR Seam) at the depth of 100 m. As they had planned to progress the workings of Seam I towards waterlogged goaves of 9 & 11 pits, they proposed to explore the status of waterlogged workings between Seam I of Hingir Rampur colliery and waterlogged goaves of 9 & 11 pits so that they could leave at least 60 m coal barrier from the waterlogged area to check inundation hazard. For this purpose, Resistivity Imaging (RI) survey were conducted along the six profiles A, B, C, D, E and F in Hingir Rampur colliery in the proposed area for exploration of the waterlogged workings between Seam I and waterlogged goaves of 9 & 11 pits. Pole-pole array of RI survey was used in this study. Considering the indirect approach of geophysical methods, two boreholes (CMRI-31&CMRI-32) were being drilled along the profiles D and F to confirm the RI data, which were nearer to the coal extraction site. After correlating and corroborating of borehole data with RI data, it was confirmed that strata were hard, compact and dry at 60 m from the surface and continued up to 146 m depth. Hence, it was concluded that mining can be done safely at the depths varying from 100 m to 146 m.

Measuring success of e-procurement: a case discussion of MCL using fuzzy approach

Organisations are always in the process of procurement of goods and services for their operation. In this process they are investing significant amount of resources in terms of money, time, effort, etc., towards traditional method of procurement having several limitations. On the other hand e-procurement has an advantage over the traditional method in several aspects, which has resulted in transition from the traditional environment to e-procurement. In this paper, an attempt has been made to evaluate the effectiveness of e-procurement system with a case analysis of Mahanadi Coal Fields, Ltd., where recently e-procurement system has been installed, using fuzzy multi criteria decision making (MCDM) approach.

Socio-Economic Profile and Quality of Life Index of Sample Households of Mining Areas in Talcher and Ib Valley Coal Mines in Orissa

The paper presents the socioeconomic profile of the people around proposed mining areas of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited at Talcher and Ib valley coal mine areas to generate base line data for future intervention. The Quality Of Life (QOL) has also been indexed in a 0-10 point scale based on some important value function like occupation , caste and land ownership. The over all quality of life index based on the value functions ranged from 2.93 (very poor ) to 4.12 (poor) with overall average score of 3.27. Thus these localities are infrastructurally backward and people's access to economic resources and modern amenities has been very low. Therefore, while making an Environmental Management Plan, the authority of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited should also lay emphasis on providing infrastructure facilities to the locality and to enhance the quality of life of the people.

Source rock potentiality of Ib-Valley Coals, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited, Orissa, India

Rock eval pyrolysis is instrumental in rapid evaluation of maturation and source rock characteristics by providing vital information about the quantity, type and thermal maturity of organic matter. The Ib-Valley coal deposits have been characterized for their source rock potentiality and thus to explore the chances of their involvement in hydrocarbon generation.

Women’s Health after Delivery in Brajrajnagar Mining Area of Orissa

The present study was undertaken to find out the women’s health after delivery in Brajrajnagar mining area of Jharsuguda district, Orissa. A total of 131 samples have been collected among lactating mothers from Mahanadi Coal Fields. The lactating mothers are socio-economically dependent on Mahanadi Coal Fields Ltd. (MCL). It provides all sorts of medical facilities to its employees. In spite of this the lactating mothers after delivery are affected by different types of post partum health problems like post partum haemorrhage (87.79%), prolonged discharge (20.31%), low back pain (66.41%), Recycling starts within 4 months (67.99%) after the birth of the child but the majority of lactating mothers (87.99%) it occurs within 6 months after delivery.

Coal resources of Orissa vis-a-vis the growth of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited

The silica content and ash level of the various fractions of an abrasive coal from the Talcher coalfield, Orissa state, India, are reported. Free silica, to which the abrasion of the coal is attributed, appears to be relatively evenly distributed among the size fractions, occurring at levels of 9.02–10.55 wt%.

Palynology of Kamthi Formation in Godavari Graben

Five palynological assemblages have been recognized in the Kamthi Formation of Godavari Graben. The assemblages are characterized by overall abundance of striate disaccate pollen. The associated palynofossils, however, distinguish the palynoassemblages at various levels of the formation. The Lower Member containing coal seams shows unequivocal resemblance with the Raniganj palynoflora of Damodar Valley and Son Mahanadi coalfields District change in lithology at the beginning of the Middle member is marked by the appearance of Parasaccites rich assemblage simulating a cooling phase akin to that observed during the Talchir period. The younger sediments of the Middle Member contain Corisaccites Guttulapollenites Assemblage and Densipollenites Assemblage in order of succession representing the uppermost Permian palynoflora in Godavari Graben. The youngest assemblage also indicates close proximity to the Permian Triassic, thus making the Kamthi Formation a time transgressive unit.