Scarcity of land and water resources has compelled the policy makers to search waste lands and mined areas to augment/improve these resources for use in agriculture and allied sectors while maintaining the local ecology and hydrology. Most of the coal production (81%) in India comes from open cast mines. Opencast mining in huge forest areas results into loss of biodiversity, nutrient qualities and microbial activities of the soil system. It releases huge amount of mining wastes as overburden dump materials that are prone to soil erosion and create problems of sedimentation and water quality,...