The state of West Bengal is located in the east region of India and it
is very rich in natural and mineral resources. Apart from natural
resources West Bengal also has appropriate agro-climatic conditions apt
for agriculture, fisheries and horticulture. West Bengal also has
backwoods of certain Indian states that are rich minerals such as Bihar,
Orrisa and Jharkhand. The forest region in this state has a lot of
medicinal plants and herbs. This Indian state has plentiful mineral
resources as well and it stands on third position when it comes to
mineral production of India and it extends one-fifth out of the entire
mineral production of India.
The Ganges is the only perennial river in West Bengal that divides in to two – one branch enters Bangladesh in the name of Padma and the other branch flows in the state in the name of river Bhagirathi and river Hooghly. The northern hilly region has rivers like Teesta, Torsa, Jaldhaka, Mahananda, while the western plateau region has rivers like Damodar, Ajay, and Kansai etc. The Ganges delta including the Sundarbans area is full of rivers; creeks cover the region like a web.
The mineral that is extracted in the highest quantity happens to be coal and it constitutes around 99 percent of the entire lot of minerals extracted from West Bengal. Some of the other minerals that are drew out but only in little quantities are limestone, china clay, iron, copper, wolfram, road metal, quartz, dolomite, rock phosphate, manganese and granite. There are optimum chances of getting natural gas plus mineral oil in the portions near to the Bay of Bengal specifically in Sundarbans, East Midnapore, South 24 Paraganas and the north Bengal plains.
Of the total coal production in India the half of it comes from West Bengal and it is the 3rd biggest Indian state for production of coal. Coal is drawn out from a total of 228 mines in Asnanol and Raniganj areas falling in the Bardhaman district. The coal belt in Raniganj alone scores for more than 30, 147 million metric tones of high quality coal. West Bengal is also rich in basaltic rocks which are encountered in Birbhum district and they are utilized in making road metals. West Bengal is a rich Indian state in every sense and it is also growing at a very rapid pace.