MINERAL AND POWER RESOURCES OF CHHOTA NAGPUR REGION

MINERAL AND POWER RESOURCES OF CHHOTA NAGPUR REGION

Chhota Nagpur plateau lies in the eastern India, specifically in the state of Bihar. The plateau is composed of Precambrian rocks (more than 540,000,000 years old). Chute Nāgpur is the collective name for the Rānchi, Hazāribāgh, and Kodarma plateaus, which have an area of 65,509 sq km. Its largest division is the Rānchi Plateau, which has an average elevation of 2,300 ft (700 m). The Chhota Nāgpur plateau in its entirety lies between the basins of the Ganges and Son rivers to the north and the Mahānadi River to the south; through its center, from west to east, runs the coal-bearing, faulted Dāmodar Valley. Numerous streams have dissected the uplands into a peneplain (an area reduced almost to a plain by erosion) with isolated hills.
Centuries of heavy cultivation have depleted the plateau of much of its natural vegetation, though some valuable forests and mineral resources still remains still remains.

Mineral resources of Chhota Nagpur plateau:
The Chhota Nāgpur area has the most valuable concentration of mineral resources in India accounting for 40 to about 100 percent of the national production of various minerals it holds a key position as it produces:
v 100% of India’s copper and apatite.
v 95% of kyanite
v More than 50% of mica, bauxite and china clay;
v About 40% of iron ore.
v Contains 80% of India’s known deposits of coal and nearly 100% of coking coal.
The above-mentioned important minerals occur in well-defined belts. The occurrence of coal coincides with the Gondwana rocks of the Damodar valley. The principal coalfields extend in east-west direction conforming approximately to the alignment of the Aurangabad and Damodar rivers from the Hutar fields in the west to Jharia fields in the east. There are other fields, off this main strike, such as the Daltonganj and Girdih fields. Most of these fields contain good quality bituminous coal suitable for coke. The estimated and inferred reserves total 45,841 million tons or approximately 38% of the total coal reserves of the country.
The ridge forming the western side of the horse-shoe is known as the iron ore range. The iron ore occurring here is hematite having more than 60% of iron content.
Hazāribāgh district is one of the main sources of mica in the world. Other minerals are copper they occur in a 130 long belt in Singhbhum following the line of soda granite outcrop, bauxite occur in the Pat area that is to say on the west side of Ranchi district and adjoining highlands in Palamau district, which constitute at present the most important deposits of India,
Apart from these various other minerals like limestone asbestos, and apatite (useful in the manufacture of phosphate fertilizers) uranium etc are found here.


Power resources of Chhota Nagpur In Chhota Nagpur, there is excellent combination of various minerals discussed above, with adequate power resources of the Damodar valley (as it has large source of good quality coal and is found to be the only source of coking coal of the country) providing unique opportunities for the development of diversified industrial base. A huge thermal plant for generating electricity and a large steel mill are located at Bokāro with another thermal plant located at Chandrapura while one is to come up at Patratu. In addition, hydro electricity is being generated in the valley with the completion of the Damodar Valley Project. The table below gives the power capacity and production of different stations:

Power station Total installed Power generated in
capacity in MW 1966-67 (million KWh)

Thermal:
Chandrapura 420 1,821.77
Bokaro 247 1,270.94
Patratu 250 -
Hydro:
Maithon 60 65.78
Panchet Hill 40 51.39
Tilaiya 4 2.89
The Chhota Nagpur as stated above is very rich in mineral as well as power resources but if the human development index graph of this area is studied then it shows that this area lags far behind the other area like Punjab or Chandigarh. The planning commission and the other government and private institution which framework the development strategies of an area must look in to the fact as to why this naturally rich region is economically backward.