Ecological restoration of coal mine degraded lands using a grass -legume mixture a case study from India

In India, coal deposit is locked under forest cover and more than 92% is extracted by surface mining that causes massive destruction of land and vegetation, alterations in landscape and aesthetics. Minesoils act as continuous source of pollution until they are reclaimed. Since last five decades, reclamation by tree plantation was the sole aim by the mining companies. From last decade only, it has been realized that degraded areas have to ecologically restore by developing three-tier canopy cover. In this paper, ecological restoration of coal mine overburden was under taken by using grass -legume seeds as an initial coloniser and observed that after 3 years overall increment of soil organic carbon was 80%. Available N was increased from 70 mg kg -1 to 225 mg kg -1 after 3 years. Available P and potassium also increased substantially. Cost of ecological restoration by using grass -legume mixture an initial coloniser and plantation of tree sapling (2500 nos/ha and maintenance for 3 years) comes to USD 11300 ha