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