Impact of Coal Mining on Soil Characteristics of Simsang River, Meghalaya, India

This paper deals with the studies on soil quality parameters of Simsang River, Meghalaya affected by acid mine drainage of coal mines from January 2014 to December 2015. It has been observed that the soil quality in mostly affected areas of the River have relatively low pH (4.6 ± 2.91), low nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) content, organic carbon (0.77 ± 2.86) and which has decreased gradually from coalmine unaffected and affected areas of the river. Certain heavy metals in high concentration (Fe, Zn, Pb, Ni and Mn) were also detected from soil of the River.