TL;DR: India’s coal mines recorded hundreds of fatal and serious accidents between 2020 and 2025, with coal mines consistently reporting far more serious accidents than non-coal mines. Between 2020 and 2025, coal mine accidents resulted in 226 deaths and 770 serious injuries. Telangana recorded the highest number of serious coal-mine accidents every year from 2020 to 2025. The government has introduced inspections, risk-based safety management, new technologies and emergency plans to strengthen mine safety.

Context

India is planning to significantly expand domestic coal production over the coming years. Coal production, excluding lignite, is projected to increase from around 1,080 million tonnes in 2025-26 to approximately 1,533 million tonnes by 2030-31. This expansion comes alongside continued concerns over the safety of workers in India’s mines.

Mine accidents can result in fatalities, serious injuries and long-term consequences for workers and their families. Data from parliamentary responses provide a picture of the scale of fatal and serious accidents across coal and non-coal mines, as well as the states where these accidents are concentrated.

Who Compiles This Data?
The data is based on parliamentary questions and responses from the Ministry of Mines, covering fatal accidents, fatalities, serious accidents and serious injuries across coal and non-coal mines. The dataset is updated annually and provides information at the state, year and mine-type level.

Where can I download Clean & Structured Data on Mine Accidents?

Clean, structured data on mine accidents, fatalities and injuries across states and mine types can be downloaded from Dataful.

Key Insights

Coal Mines Account for the Majority of Serious Mine Accidents

Coal mines consistently recorded substantially more serious accidents than non-coal mines between 2020 and 2025. In 2020, coal mines recorded 117 serious accidents compared to 24 in non-coal mines. The gap widened in 2021, when coal mines recorded 186 serious accidents against 45 in non-coal mines. In 2022, coal mines recorded 181 serious accidents, while non-coal mines recorded 48.

The number of serious accidents subsequently declined in coal mines, reaching 117 in 2023 and 119 in both 2024 and 2025. Non-coal mines recorded 35, 31 and 30 serious accidents respectively during the same years.

Fatal accidents were also generally higher in coal mines. Coal mines recorded 48 fatal accidents in 2020, 43 in 2021, 24 in 2022, 38 in 2023, 38 in 2024 and 41 in 2025.

The difference is particularly pronounced for serious accidents, suggesting that the safety challenge in coal mining extends beyond incidents resulting in fatalities to a much larger number of serious injuries.

Mine Accidents Have Resulted in Hundreds of Deaths and Serious Injuries

The scale of mine accidents becomes clearer when looking beyond the number of accidents to their human impact. Between 2020 and 2024, coal mines recorded 195 fatal accidents and 726 serious accidents, resulting in 226 deaths and 770 serious injuries.

The number of serious injuries is substantially higher than the number of deaths, highlighting that the impact of mine accidents extends well beyond fatalities. Workers who survive serious accidents may face permanent injuries and loss of working capacity.

The parliamentary data defines a serious injury as an injury involving permanent loss or incapacity of a body part, or fractures involving bones or joints, among other serious outcomes.

Telangana Stands Out for Serious Coal-Mine Accidents

State-level data reveals considerable differences in the number of accidents reported across coal-producing states. Telangana recorded the highest number of serious coal-mine accidents in every year from 2020 to 2025. The state reported 79 serious accidents in 2020, rising to 126 in 2021 and 102 in 2022. Although the number fell to 67 in 2023, it increased again to 86 in 2024 and stood at 80 in 2025.

The pattern for fatal accidents is different. Chhattisgarh recorded the highest number of fatal accidents in 2020, West Bengal in 2021, and Jharkhand in both 2022 and 2023. Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number in 2024.

The divergence from the serious-accident pattern, where Telangana consistently recorded the highest numbers, suggests that the states experiencing more serious accidents are not necessarily those experiencing the most fatal incidents. However, the available data does not provide enough detail on the causes or severity of individual accidents to explain this difference.

How Is the Government Addressing Mine Safety?

The Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS) conducts regular mine inspections and accident enquiries, while the government has cited measures including risk-based safety management plans, scientific mine planning, new technologies and safety equipment, emergency response plans, and safety protocols. Action is taken against mine operators found responsible for accidents under the OSH&WC Code, 2020.

Why Does It Matter?
Coal remains central to India’s energy supply, and the government plans to substantially expand domestic production in the coming years. As mining activity grows, ensuring that workers are protected from preventable accidents will remain an important safety challenge.

The data shows that the problem is not uniform across mines or states. Coal mines consistently record more serious accidents than non-coal mines, while Telangana accounts for a particularly large share of serious coal-mine accidents. Strengthening inspections, risk management, emergency preparedness and enforcement will be important in reducing the risks faced by mine workers.

Key Numbers (from 2020 to 2025)

• Fatal accidents:
   Peak: 48 (2020) → 41 (2025)

• Fatalities:
   Peak: 53 (2020) → 51 (2025)

• Serious accidents:
   Peak: 186 (2021) → 119 (2025)

• Serious injuries:
   Peak: 193 (2021) → 128 (2025)