Geography · Ch 13 — Mineral and Energy Resources
Energy Resources
Energy Resources
India’s geological structure is varied, and this is the reason the country is rich in mineral resources. Most of the valuable minerals found here date from the pre-Palaeozoic era — a point you can connect to the Class XI Fundamentals of Physical Geography textbook. These minerals are mainly associated with metamorphic and igneous rocks, and they are concentrated in the Peninsular India region.
The vast alluvial plains of north India, by contrast, are almost entirely devoid of minerals of economic use. This is a key geographical fact: the fertile soil of the northern plains comes at the cost of mineral wealth.
Mineral resources form the necessary base for industrial development. A mineral itself is defined as a natural substance — it can be of organic or inorganic origin — and it has definite chemical and physical properties. This definition is the foundation for everything that follows in the chapter. …
Map 5.4 is a political outline map of India showing the distribution of conventional energy resources — coal, oil, natural gas, and the HVJ pipeline. The map includes the graticule (latitude-longitude lines), the Tropic of Cancer, and labels for neighbouring countries and surrounding seas. A scale bar of 0–600 km is provided at the bottom.
The legend uses four symbols: hatched patches for coal fields, filled triangles for coal mines, filled squares for oil fields, stippled patches for major natural gas reserves, and a solid line for the HVJ Natural Gas Pipeline.
Coal fields and mines are concentrated in two main belts. The eastern belt runs from Jharia, Bokaro, and Raniganj in Jharkhand/West Bengal, through Korba in Chhattisgarh, to Talcher in Odisha. The southern belt includes Singareni in Telangana and Neyveli in Tamil Nadu. Singrauli (on the Madhya Pradesh–Uttar Pradesh border) is also marked. These are the major coalfields that power thermal power plants across the country.
Oil fields are shown in two regions. The western offshore fields include Mumbai High (off the coast of Maharashtra), Bassien, and the onshore fields of Kalol, Vadodara, Ankaleshwar, and Hajira in Gujarat. The northeastern fields are concentrated in Assam: Digboi, Naharkatia, Moran, Sibsagar, Makum, Janji, and Nazira. Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh is also marked as an oil field.
Natural gas reserves are shown as stippled patches in the same western region (Gujarat offshore and onshore) and in the Assam valley. The HVJ pipeline is drawn as a solid line connecting Hajira (Gujarat) to Vijaipur (Madhya Pradesh) and then to Jagdishpur (Uttar Pradesh). Along this route, intermediate stations are labelled: Auraiya, Anta, Babrala, Aonla, Shahjahanpur, and further north-west, Sonipat, Delhi, Gurgaon, and Sahibabad. This pipeline transports natural gas from the western fields to industrial and urban centres in northern India. …