MINES.

113

outlying fields being of much less importance. The Ranigan], Jharia wad
Bokaro fields, which together produce nearly 90%, of the present total coa
output, lie in a narrow strip running roughly from Raniganj in Bengal
(about 160 miles north-west of Calcutta) westwards for about a hundred
miles. Adjoining them still further to the west is the less important but
expanding Karanpura field, while about 50 miles to the north of the
Jharia field is the Giridih field. The greater part of the Ranigan] field
lies in Bengal ; the remainder of it and all the other fields mentioned are in
the Chota Nagpur division of Bihar and Orissa. The figures of output,
in tons, for these fields and for the remainder of British India in 1929
are given below :——

Jharia 10,786,000 Giridih 771,000

Raniganj 6,828,000 Karanpura 467,000

Bokaro 2,119,000 Rest of India 1,337,000
The last item includes 680,000 tons from the Pench Valley field in the
Central Provinces. The industry meets the present internal demands
of India, and both the export and import of coal are on a small scale at the
present time. The efforts which have been made in recent years to recover
the export trade have been materially assisted by the co-operation
of Government with the industry in the work of the Coal Grading
Committee.
Production in Recent Years.
The figures of coal production, of the number of mines and
of miners employed in British India are given by the Mines Depart-
ment as follows ~—

Years.

¥1896-1900 (Annual Average)
1901-1905 Annual Average
1906-1910 Annual Average;
1911-1915 Annual Average)
1916-1920 ‘Annual Average!
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
[928
1 09G

.
.
-

Produc-
tion
(tons).

3,975,475

7,037,312
10,894,019
4,731,904
8,486,988
8,358,034
8,168,988
8,763,967
20,256,034
19,969,041
20,093,024
21,108,976
21,515,796
99. 308.174

Number
of
Mines.

191
297
437
554
700
R84
953
242
346
810
722
844
556
34R

Average daily
number
smploved.

61,367

83,186
105,506
128.884
167,881
190,647
184,356
182,601
187,088
173,140
170,628
165,213
164,139
165.658

Average for 4 years, figures for 1898 not being available.

The industry is largely the creation of a single generation.
Although organised coal mining began in the Raniganj field
arly in the nineteenth century, in no year prior to 1895 did
production reach three million tons, whereas since 1906 it has