COAL 



Indian Mines 



THE INDIAN COAL INDUSTRY 



Bikanir. 



Labour. 



Output per 

 Person. 



Death-rate. 



Expressed to 

 Tonnage. 



plateau of the Salt Range. The only valuable seam varies in thickness 

 from 18 to 39 inches and forms a basin under the nummulitic limestone. 

 The mines have been worked by the North-Western Railway since 1884. 

 [Of. N.W.R., Ann Rept. Working Mines, 1896-1903.] 



12. Bhaganwala. At the eastern end of the Salt Range a seam of 

 variable thickness also worked by the N.W.R. [Cf. Baden-Powell, Pb. 

 Prod., 1868, i., 27-34 ; Morris, Hazard Coal, 1889 ; La Touche, Bhagan- 

 wala Coal Fields, Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind., 1894, xxvii.] 



13. Mianwali District, about two miles north of Kalabagh. This is 

 classed as Jurassic coal, but so far regular mining has not been started. 

 More promising Tertiary coal occurs at Maidan, 24 miles further west. 

 [Cf. Simpson, Rept. on Coal, Is Khel, in Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind., 1904, xxxi.] 



14. Kashmir. The Jammu Coalfields Tertiary ; commenced to be 

 worked in 1903. Washed and briquetted Ladda coal would be nearly as 

 valuable as Bengal coal, but could not compete in price. [Cf. La Touche, 

 I.e. xxi., 188 ; Simpson, Mem. Geol. Surv. Ind., 1904. xxxii.] 



15. Bikanir in Rajputana. A lignite of dark-brown colour, with 

 included lumps of fossil resin, occurs in association with nummulitic 

 rocks at Palana in the Bikanir State. In 1898 mining operations were 

 commenced at a point where the seam was found to be 20 feet thick. 

 " The physical characters of the natural fuel form a drawback to its use 

 in locomotives, but experiments recently made are said to show that 

 satisfactory briquettes can be made in which the proportion of moisture is 

 reduced, and the fuel made less vulnerable to atmospheric action." The 

 proximity to railway demands seems likely to counterbalance the inferi- 

 ority of this coal, of which the output in 1906 amounted to 32,372 tons. 



WORKING OF MINES: Labour, etc.^ Holland may be still further 

 placed under contribution : " Coal-mining in India, from the point 

 of view of labour, is quite ahead of all other forms of mining. The 

 number of persons employed daily has averaged 84,805 for the years 

 1898 to 1903." During 1904 the number rose to 92,740, of which 75,749 

 were employed at the Bengal mines. The Bengal coal-mines thus took 

 81 '7 per cent, of the total labour supply. " It will not be surprising to 

 those who know the habits of the Indian coal-miner to learn that the 

 output per person employed is lower than in any other part of the British 

 Empire except in Cape Colony, where cheap Native labour is largely 

 employed. During the years 1901 and 1902 the outputs of coal per person 

 employed in Indian mines were respectively 70 and 75 tons, whilst for 

 the rest of the British Empire the corresponding figures were 281 and 285 

 tons." " An important consideration, naturally, in every mining com- 

 munity is the risk of life involved in the occupation. As far as coal-mining 

 is concerned in India, the industry, so far as it has progressed, has shown 

 not only a very low death-rate from isolated accidents, but also a note- 

 worthy freedom from disasters, which in European countries have done 

 more perhaps than statistics to force special legislation for the protection 

 of workers in ' dangerous ' occupations." " The average death-rate from 

 such accidents has been 0'88 per thousand employed, while the average 

 for the rest of the British Empire comes to 1 '54 per thousand in the U.K. 

 1'24." But if the death-rate be expressed to the tonnage of coal raised, 

 India is shown up in a much less favourable light. New Zealand heads 

 the list of successful mining from this standpoint with T47 persons killed 

 per one million tons of coal raised in 1902 ; Queensland 1'99 ; Nova 



338 



