The coal ministry’s provisional statistics of 2020-21 showed that India's total coal production registered a marginal decline of 2.02 per cent to 716.084 million tonnes during the last fiscal year, as compared to 730.874 million tonnes (MT) of coal in FY20. Of the total production of 716.084 MT, 671.297 MT was non-coking coal and the remaining 44.787 MT was coking coal. Of the total output of the nation, a chunk of 685.951 MT was produced by the public sector, and the remaining production of 30.133 MT was from the private sector.
In FY 2020-21, Chhattisgarh registered highest coal production of 158.409 MT, followed by Odisha 154.150 MT, Madhya Pradesh 132.531 MT, and Jharkhand 119.296 MT. Like previous years, in FY'21, Jharkhand was the top producer of coking coal with an output of 44.387 MT, which was 99.11 per cent of total coking coal production of 44.787 MT.
Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said even though the effect of the pandemic has been everywhere, coal sector has shown its resilience reflecting the criticality of its contribution to the steady development of India's economy. Coal India alone accounts for 83.26 per cent of coal production in the country.