Coal by accident
A worker at Rajhara found coal lying around a jogi's well, and it burned with a fine flame.
Your base for Palamu Tiger Reserve & BetlaPalamu · Jharkhand · in sight of the Daltonganj hillsThe Palash Edition · Feb–Apr
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Ladigarh / iii · Birds, trees & hills
iii · Birds, trees & hills
What lives here, and what it stands on.
Kingfishers on the pool, a coucal in the hedge, palms and kans grass, and behind it all a ridge of rock 1.6 billion years old that nobody ever named.
Fig. 1. A white-throated kingfisher, photographed on the estate by Saurav Singh.
Over 140 bird species were recorded in Palamau by 1898In 1898 kingfisher skins went to Paris for hatsPalamau has two kinds of palashThe North Koel is older than the shape of the hillsThe hills here have no names
The register · birdsPhotographed at Ladigarh.
Every bird here was photographed on the estate, by Saurav Singh. The tiger reserve beyond counts some 170–180 species; we have started our own count.
1898 · kingfishers netted here by the hundred, skins sent to Paris for hats
No. 009
Not yet recorded here.
Photograph one and it goes in under your name.
Not yet recorded here.
Photograph one and it goes in under your name.
In September 2024 a Spot-bellied Eagle Owl was photographed in Palamau Tiger Reserve for the first time. The register keeps growing.
Under this tree
Palash
Palamau has two: the flame-of-the-forest you know, and a rarer climbing palash, Butea superba. Both flower scarlet in the hot weather.
Sal honoured at Sarhul, the Adivasi new year, when its flowers are offered in sacred grovesKendu its leaves, rolled into bidis, had "a very good reputation in Calcutta market"Date palm lit gold over the pool at nightKans grass white plumes along the paths after the rains
The register · treesWhen to come, by the trees.
Palamau's forests are a meeting point: Himalayan-foothill trees grow here beside Central Indian species that never cross the Gangetic plain.
Tree
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Palash
Semal
Mahua
Sal
Kusum
Kans grass
Scarlet flowersBlossom / plumesRed new leaf
Plate VII · The hills and the river plain.
The hillsMost of the ridges have no names.
The 1961 gazetteer says most ridges around Daltonganj "bear no definite names": each is called after the village beneath it. They are the stepped edge of the Chota Nagpur plateau, where it falls to the Koel valley.
The rockgneiss, c. 1.6–1.7 billion years
Beneath itGondwana coal, c. 290 million
The riverthe North Koel
Highest point in PalamauNetarhat, 3,696 ft
Namesmostly none
Below the lawn
1,600,000,000
years: the age of the gneiss dated near Daltonganj. More than a third of the age of the Earth.
Ladigarh · canopy · today0
Topsoil · the lawna few metres
Gondwana coalc. 290 million years
Chota Nagpur gneissc. 1.6 billion years
The Koel
A river older than the hills' shape
The North Koel held its course while the land around it wore away, then turned north through the Kutku gorge.
Kalapahar
An old volcano
Near Japla in Palamau's north, the Kalapahar domes are rhyolite: the remains of an ancient volcano.
Agates
Polished stones in the Son
Below the Koel's mouth, the Son river yields agates of red and dark-green silica.
From the gazetteer · the coal under Palamu
Stories the hills keep.
The fire that wouldn't go out
In 1833 a maund of Amanat-valley coal was lit as a test. It smouldered for 38 days and nights.
The grandfather's mine
The Rajhara colliery was run by the firm of Dwarkanath Tagore, Rabindranath's grandfather.
The railway arrives
A 78-mile branch from the Son reached Daltonganj in 1901–02, and at last made Rajhara's coal worth mining.
The coal works attacked
The rebel Nilambar was charged with destroying the Bengal Coal Company's works near Daltonganj.
The Koel in flood
The Koel has been seen nearly dry at dawn and roaring ten feet deep three hours later, after rain in the hills.
Come and name a hill.
Ladigarh EstateRamanuj Ganj Road, Post: Raj Chainpur, Palamu, Jharkhand
PlatesEngravings from the Palamu series
SourcesPalamau District Gazetteer, 1961 · Photo credits