In India the mining operations have degraded significant area of land and have replaced the ecosystem of the mined out areas with the undesirable waste materials in form of overburden dumps. The process of coal extraction drastically alters the physical and biological nature of the mined out areas, so the land
protection becomes an inevitable aspect and should be given the prime importance right from the initial
stage of mining operation. However in most of the mining areas in India, large scale exploitation of
mineral resources has been carried out since early days of mining without taking due care of the land
protection and also without any proper plan for the future use of degraded land. Due to these unscientific mining techniques used earlier large scale degradation of land, subsidence of strata, disturbance of water table, pressure on the nearby forest areas, threat to flora and fauna and many other hazards have taken place. (MoEF-IIFM Internship Programme 2010)