The Neyveli Lignite Deposits (Cauvery Basin), India: Organic Composition, Age and Depositional Pattern

International Journal of Coal Geology, 21 ( 1992 ) 45-97 45
Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam
The Neyveli lignite deposits (Cauvery basin),

India: organic composition, age and depositional
pattern
Alpana Singh, B.K. Misra, B.D. Singh and G.K.B. Navale

Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow, India
(Received November 19, 1990; revised version accepted October 30, 1991 )
ABSTRACT
Singh, A., Misra, B.K., Singh, B.D. and Navale, G.K.B., 1992. The Neyveli lignite deposits (Cauvery
basin ), India: organic composition, age and depositional pattern. Int. J. Coal Geol., 21: 45-97.
The palynological, particulate organic material (palynodebris) and biopetrological aspects of the
main lignite seam encountered in NLE-27, NLE-35 and NLE-36 borehole sections in mine III of the
Neyveli lignite field of the Cauvery basin were investigated. The palynoflora is rich in angiospermic
pollen (79.6%) distributed in 33 genera (and 86 species). Pteridophytic (spores) representation is
only 20.4% with 5 genera (and 9 species). Quantitatively, palynofossil assemblage of the seam from
mine III resembles fairly well with those from the mines I and II. Based on geological, geophysical and
palynological data the lignite seam has been assigned a Miocene age.
The lignite seam has a very high proportion of structured terrestrial organic matter (OM) with a
subordinate amount ofbiodegraded terrestrial, fungal and amorphous materials, in addition to resin.
Petrologically, the seam is rich in the huminite group of macerals, usually dominated by attrinite,
densinite (humodetrinite) macerals. Botryococcus is common, as are framboidal pyrite and concre-
tions. The seam in mine III is lower in rank (Ro max. 0.39%) than its counterpart in mine I (R . . . . .
0.47%).
From a critical assessment of the palynological, palynodebris and biopetrological data, together
with published geological information, it is assumed that the main lignite seam was formed from in
situ mangrove-mixed moist tropical forests vegetation, probably in a lagoon on a prograding delta
with freshwater inlets from the western and restricted seawater channels from the east.
INTRODUCTION
The largest exploitable Tertiary lignite reserve (3300 million t) in India

occurs in the South Arcot basin or Ariyalur-Pondicherry sub-basin of the
Cauvery main basin on the east coast at Neyveli and environs (latitude
1 1 o 15'-11 °40'N; longitude 79°25'-79°40'E; Fig. 1A) in the State of Tamil
Correspondence to: Dr. B.D. Singh, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53, University Road,
G.P.O. Box 106, Lucknow- 226007, India.
0166-5162/92/$05.00 © 1992 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. All rights reserved.

46 a. SINGH ET AL.
Fig. 1. A, Locationof the Neyvelilignite field (Tamil Nadu), Cauverybasin, India. B. geologi-
cal map. (After Balasunder, 1968).
Nadu. The Neyveli lignite field, with an expanse of more than 480 km 2, is
more or less arched, with its apex towards the northeast, and enjoys a pre-
emptive position, with deposits of usually consistent quality, low ash content,
uniform calorific value and an absence of impurities.
Studies on the Neyveli lignite have been of much importance in the inter-
pretation of Tertiary peat-forming plant communities and their depositional
aspects, as manifested here in the single largest lignite field so far known in
India. The discovery of the lignite in the field was made as early as 1930.
From the 1950s onwards, numerous palaeobotanical researches have been
undertaken; analyzing cuticles, pollen-spores and xylotomy. All were aimed
at inferring the peat-forming vegetal source responsible for formation of the
lignite deposit. Since 1970, extensive findings have enhanced our knowledge
of the geology, deposition, nature and especially the composition of the main
lignite seam from two of the mines (I and II) in the area.
However, exact knowledge about the flora, stratigraphic position, genesis
(swamp type ) and palaeodepositional environment of this lignite field is still
lacking. The dating of the deposit is still debatable. Available records have
suggested Eocene as well as Miocene-Pliocene age. Thus, there is no consen-
sus of opinion regarding the age of the Neyveli deposits. This study has been
focused on the palynological, particulate organic material (palynodebris) and
NEYVELILIGNITE DEPOSITS 47
biopetrological compositions of the Neyveli lignites, which account for about

90% of the total lignite output of the country, from a prospective mine (Mine
III). This multidisciplinary approach has led to a more detailed understand-
ing of the genesis and age of the main lignite seam, as well as depositional
conditions.
G E O L O G Y / L I T H O S T R A T I G R A P H Y O F THE CAUVERY BASIN
The geology, basin evolution and stratigraphy of the Cauvery basin are based
on detailed geophysical, subsurface and field studies by Balasunder ( 1968 ),
Datta and Bedi ( 1968 ), Kailasam ( 1968 ), Ramanathan ( 1968, 1979 ), Sastri
and Raiverman (1968), Subramanyam (1969), Banerji ( 1979, 1988 ) and
Gowrisankaran et al. ( 1987 ), among others.
The Cauvery basin owes its origin to NE-SW aligned troughs and ridges
formed by fractures in the Precambrian basement (Fig. 2). The basement,
before the basin formation, was nearly peneplain, some irregularities, how-
ever, still persisted. The troughs or sub-basins experienced one or more cycles
of subsidence after the Jurassic; whereas the basement ridges remained tec-
tonically positive. The NE-SW trend of the basin subsidence during the
Mesozoic gradually changed to N-S, E-W and NW-SE due to the superim-
position of other fracture trends. This resulted in a continuous basinal tilt due
east, which meant that, during the Tertiary, there was a further shift in the
depocentre to the east, due to a series of transgressions and regressions. About
five palaeo-river channels, represented by the present major rivers in the area,
discharging into different sub-basins existed along E-W and NW-SE trend-
ing basement fractures.
The Neyveli lignite deposit is developed in the northernmost Ariyalur-
Pondicherry sub-basin (or South Arcot basin) which is aligned in a NE-SW
direction. Its northern limit is closer to the present shoreline. An almost E-W
trending fracture north of Pondicherry veering northeast-southwest and run-
ning southwards, west of Ariyalur, marks the northern and western bounda-
ries. The Kumbakonam Ridge, running ENE-WSW delimits the South Arcot
basin to the south. The entire western boundary of the basin, along the base-
ment fracture, is fringed by Precambrian rocks. The lithostratigraphic succes-
sion for the Tertiary sediments in the Neyveli lignite field and adjoining areas
is given in Table 1.
The basement Precambrian metamorphics (schists and gneisses), with
pegmatite and dolerite intrusives, in the area are succeeded by fossiliferous
limestone, calcareous sandstone and marlstone of Ariyalur Group (Upper
Cretaceous). The Cuddalore Formation (Miocene-Pliocene) tops the se-
quence. Recent alluvium occupies the maj or part of the basin (Fig. 1B ).
Highly fossiliferous Eocene and Middle Miocene sediments have been en-
countered beneath the Cuddalore Formation in several boreholes drilled in
the South Arcot basin. On the basis of seismic data along Neyveli-Kuranji-
48 A. S I N G H ETAL.
\* + +:..%
. . . . . . ~, - c A t . ~ t r r l ' l
N I'.~OIIA~;
+ + +~ "BAHUR
+ , +~ ~C:';->:.':'... :UDDALORE
1~ :~ 0 10 20kin ~,,
-I- i-
÷
÷ ÷ ' ,.:'.'.
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:;?:;:;?::!iiCI"? ../
~.VR I -U H.ALI g.".-.~.%

H A L A ¢,k~'
M ~ 5; .*J.~. .' ~. •.--~
. . :-'D
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-t- "1"+ ÷ + 4,1 ""
÷{ ~ - - : ' f f , " ~ ~HIDAMBARAM
÷ + ".'.::.'..- .{ *
+ +. + ' ~ ~ l t " .'.'.'.'." ..... ~/ I J
/ ' + "t" "+~~.~-'~.'.'."r / / , 9 , ~ j IVlAI'AVAI~AM I
• +~-~* ~-~-;-, rr, IANJORE NAGAPATNAM
÷ae ~"-I, .~( #""f'~.~':"

.'..'.. :'-'!I MANARGUDI J "
• ~.." . . . . ~ \ O / o
, ~ +~ +;:" ".-.'-, \ /
t, • l ~ + ÷ * ~ ~ +,'::.".'.'": ~ ' , , \ rl RUTTURAIPUNDII
' ~ ' t .~ + ~. + ÷ +.-t +.X:.:.. : :: : ' C ~ O O|[IRUPPUNDI
?' ~+ + + + + "~ :- • "-" "~ ~ "" "J ~=~\ l >"
+ +", %-..~ "''.'. "..'.# "r

+ ~,, . ~ - _ .." . . .... PAIIU K0[[AI ~1 l m
+ , +'p. ~.. ::'::.:...~ /

÷ ~- +-*'":?, \ " - ' ~ ; ('~ I I Alluvium -
+ + +/;; "o Cuddalore F o r m a t i o n

.+ ..... , r ,
G.÷~ **++*+;~.:-::~/ ~ ~ ~ Ariyalur Formation
~. t{-.'.. :.C~ KARA KUD ) ~ "l"ric'hinoPoly F o r m a t , o n
IMI~IlI~ : "/ f" ~ Da I m iapu ram For mation( reefoidal lira

, -./ r ~ - ' • stnne
Im~.':',~. -- / ~ Upper Gondwana(sivaganga Format'~on}
..:::..;/ / ~ p r e c a m b r i a n (Archaean)
Fig. 2. Regionalsetting of the Cauverybasin, India (after Ramanathan, 1968;Banerji, 1979).
paddi-Alapakkam road, Kailasam (1968 ) considered that the sediments of

the Cuddalore Formation have a synclinal base and are unconformable with
the underlying Eocene sediments. Ramanathan ( 1968, 1979 p. 172), while
NEYVELILIGNITEDEPOSITS 49
TABLE 1
General geological succession in and around the Neyveli lignite field, south India (after Subraman-
yan, 1969)
Age Formation Lithology

Recent Soils, alluvium, flow sand, laterite and kankar
T Late Miocene Cuddalore Argillaceous sandstone, lignite, pebble-bearing sandstone,

E
R
T grits, sands, clays and pebble bed
I ....................................................... .probable unconformity ........................................................
A Eocene Black clays, shales, grey coloured sandstones, calcareous
R sandstones and siliceous limestones with fossils
Y
............................................................... unconformity................................................................
Mesozoic Ariyalur Shell limestones, siliceous limestones, marls, etc.
(Cretaceous)
............................................................... unconformity ................................................................
Precambrian Intrusives Dolerites, pegmatites, quartz veins, granitoid gneisses
(Archaean)
correlating surface and subsurface Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary lithounits

(Fig. 3 ) thought that the
"predominantly marine Aquitanian sequence becomes paralic during the transition period be-
tween Aquitanian and Burdigalian as seen from the study of subcrops. It is, therefore, probable
that the Cuddalore sandstones may represent only the continental equivalents of these subcrops".
Banerji ( 1988, fig. 4 ) also agrees with the presence of Eocene-Oligocene sed-
iments below the Miocene Cuddalore Formation in the subcrop section of
Ariyalur-Pondicherry sub-basin.
Cuddalore Formation (lignite-bearing lithounit)
The Cuddalore Formation, comprising alternate beds of sandstone, clayey

sandstone, sandy clay, clay and carbonaceous clay, in addition to the lignite
seam, unconformably overlies Eocene sediments in the area (Subramanyam,
1969; Gowrisankaran et al., 1987). The sediments of the Cuddalore Forma-
tion show frequent pinchouts (Banerji, 1979; Ramanathan, 1979). The sand-
stones above the seam are frequently current-bedded, poorly sorted, fine to
coarse grained or even gritty, mottled and argillaceous in nature, with spo-
radic ferruginous concretions. They are chiefly made up of angular to suban-
gular grains of quartz ( _+38%) and feldspar (6%) with an argillaceous and/
50 A. SINGH ETAL
z i0
,~,~ ::':::: ....... , .~
I 1
g ~
~- .
~, ~~ = ,, ,I ~ ,.9
~ ~ ._ .~ ~ ,~ .~ ,_,
~ z
~o
'.-m
~
~. ~ _'2 ~ . ~ ~:
~ ~ ~N3~O
3~3~0~ ~3~0~0 3~UO~ -3V7Va
1:
©
"~_.,
.%
....4"-,-:
~
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..
,
-
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~'~,..,, , ~, 2~
~ E o ~ ~
. . . . . . . .
~__
NEYVELI LIGNITE DEPOSITS 51
or ferruginous cementing m e d i u m (55%). The sandstone below the lignite

seam is loose and ranges from very fine sand to gravel, where a high pressure,
confined artesian aquifer zone ( m a x i m u m thickness 350 m) has been en-
countered. The heavy minerals recovered (1%) from sandstones of the Cud-
dalore Formation are considered to be sourced from Precambrian rocks
exposed in the western part of the area (Rajamanickam, 1968 ).
LIGNITE SEAM ( D E P O S I T S )
The lignite in the upper part of the Cuddalore Formation occurs as one
major seam in the Neyveli field. The seam is encountered only subsurface, at
depths varying between 45 and 150 m below ground level and varies between
less than 6 and 27.3 m within the field. It splits into 2 or 3 (or more) seams
towards southern and western periphery. The splits also tend to coalesce with
the main seam. A few local seams overlying the main seam have also been
encountered in some places.
There is no structural disturbance either in the seam or in associated sedi-
ments. Because of"wash outs" of the top surface and synsedimentary erosion
of the seam floor, top and bottom surfaces of the main seam have been ren-
dered uneven, causing a variation in thickness of between 2 and 3 m (Subra-
manyam, 1969), which is reflected in the overall thickness variation within
the lignite boundary (Fig. 4). The central part, which strikes roughly N-S,
has a series of patches, which are the thickest lignite development; whereas,
areas to the east, west and south have a reduced seam thickness. The lignite
seam is, in fact, sparingly banded (as is clear from the colour variation of air
dried samples) rather than, as was earlier reported, of a uniform, non-banded
nature (Balasunder, 1968; Subramanyam, 1969). It is massive and compact
when fresh, with dark brown to black lignites of granular to fibrous texture.
On drying, the colour becomes lighter and the lignite chunks break into smaller
pieces or crumble under slight pressure. Navale ( 1971, 1973 ) recognize three
types of lignite bands merging with each other:
( 1 ) "woody" (xyloid)--hard and compact consisting of lignified wood;
(2) "peaty" ( h u m i n o i d ) - - l i g h t to dark brown, soft, friable, amorphous or
fine-textured and containing resins;
(3) "coaly"--black-brown in colour, more or less compact and granular in
texture.
At intervals, brown to dark brown lignite bands (in mine I) contain horizon-
tal as well as vertical and slanting vitrinized twigs and root-like structures
( < 1- > 2 cm in diameter) surrounded by voids (representing shrinkage from
the original diameter), which possibly indicate "root zones". These vitrin-
ized twigs and roots were erroneously referred to by Balasunder (1968, p.
261 ) as "burnt logs of firewood". Within this lignite band, there are a few
zones where well preserved fossil woods, shoots, twigs, etc., are also found.
52 A. SINGH ET AL.
Kat tugudalur
I
=vatlam
=Atadl
: : ; " =====================
township ~.~ "~:::::::::::::::
:urinj[padi
Miralur
srimushnam=
::;~:.~::: t~
Neduncheri
} ili??i!i) o m
m
Andimadam
/
i!iiiiiii!L*a
"f..::;'.'.:::: ....:...
...-:iiii~::i!iiii~::?!
INDEX .... /~.~;~ii-;:~
~ < ~ mete r
SCALE
>16meter
0 2-5 5kin
I I I
Fig, 4. Particulars of thickness of lignite seams in the Neyveli lignite field, south India (source:
Neyveli Lignite Corporation).
3s'
25'I SCALE
0 2.5 5km.
I I
Fig. 5. Demarcation of mining blocks in the Neyveli lignite field, south India (source: Neyveli
Lignite Corporation, Ltd. ) and location of NLE-27, 35 and 36 boreholes drilled in mine III.
Late diagenetic marcasite (or pyrite) veins and irregular concretions, densely
studded with quartz clastics, are c o m m o n , especially in the middle and upper
parts of the lignite seam.
The total lignite-bearing area is divided into mining blocks (Fig. 5 ). Mine
I covers an area of 15 k m 2 with 240 Mt as reserve in the northern part of the
field. Mine II, south of Mine I, with an area of 27 k m 2 has 390 Mt of lignite.
Mine III has been proposed to the south of Mine II, with an estimated reserve
of 390 Mt in an area of 29 k m 2.
SAMPLE COLLECTION
A total of 41 core samples (37 lignite, 2 lignitic clay, 2 clay) from three
boreholes of the Geological Survey of India (NLE-27, NLE-35 and NLE-36 )
54 A. SINGH ET AL.
from the prospective mine III area of the Neyveli lignite field (Fig. 5 ) were
used for the present study. Lignite samples collected vertically (approxi-
mately meter by meter) represent the main lignite seam in different sections.
The lithological log and the distribution of lignite, lignitic clay and clay
samples encountered in the boreholes are shown in Fig. 6. Borehole NLE-27,
187.50 m deep, contains a 25 m thick lignite seam (23 samples) at a depth of
93.50-118.50 m. A 0.90 m thick clay horizon ( 172.50-173.40 m, 2 samples)
is met 54 m below the seam. Borehole NLE-35 is 121 m deep and has a 5.85
m thick seam (6 samples) between the depths of 50.90 and 57.50 m. A 7.50
m thick lignite seam (8 samples) is encountered in borehole NLE-36 ( ! 30 m
deep) at a depth of 61.30-68.80 m. A 6.20 m thick lignitic clay bed (68.80-
75.00 m, 2 samples) is merged with the bottom part of the seam.
NLE - 27 N L E - 35 NLE -36

(meter) (meter) (meter)
93.50 67.30 i i i i
• 1-'4 1.,
95.50 62.30
96.50
2~
97.50
9B.50 • 2+ 63.30
3~
99.50 64.05
100.50 4
102.50 • 3-Y 65.05,
103.50
104.50 I+ 66.05
Z+ 6~
105.50 9 ,L-~ 66.80
106.50 ;~ 7~
108.50 67.80
109.50
110.50 • 5"~ 68.80
I l l .50
l
6a.9o jjiiiiji 9-
I12.50 3 69.80 Ili,,tll lO,,
) 69.90
173.50
]
114.50
1+ ,6~
115.5 0 2
116.25
117.00 3
II~.50
Closed Closed Closed

at at at
187.50 m 121.00 m 130.00 m
INDEX
~Ciayey sandstone ~ S a n d ~] Sandy clay []]]]] Clay
[ ] ~ ] L i 3 n i t i c clay I L i g n i t e t2 Sample position
Fig. 6. Core log showing sample distribution of the boreholes studied, from the Neyveli lignite
field. • = good yield ofpalynofossils, + = poor yield, not suitable for quantitative estimation.
MACROFLORAL COMPOSITION
The sediments of the Cuddalore Formation, which contain the Neyveli lig-
nite deposit, are almost devoid of faunal remains. The plant megafossil rec-
ords are represented by silicified as well as carbonized woods (Ramanujam,
1968; Awasthi, 1974, 1984; Lakhanpal, 1974; Navale, 1974; Awasthi and
Agarwal, 1986; Agarwal, 1988, 1990; N. Awasthi, M.B. Bande and A. Agar-
wal, B.S.I.P., Lucknow, 1991, personal communication). The flora, on the
whole, is predominantly angiospermous (mostly dicotyledenous) taxa, such
as Altingia, Azadirachta, Bouea, Barringtonia, Calophyllum, Carallia, Dios-
pyros, Dalbergia, Garcinia, Gluta, Hopea, Litsea, Mesua, Perinari, Sonnera-
tia, Shorea, Terminalia, etc. The monocotyledenous fossils are known by a
few occasionally recorded species of Palm woods (Phoenix, etc., of the family
Arecaceae). In addition, coniferous fossils are represented by woods belong-
ing to four species of Mesembrioxylon, a podocarpaceous form of the gym-
nospermous genus.
A cursory perusal of the fossil wood record indicates that Fabaceae (Leg-
uminosae ). Dipterocarpaceae and Combretaceae are the families represented
most: in both variety and quantity. Next in the order of abundance are Ana-
cardiaceae and Clusiaceae.
Taxa, such as Carallia, Sonneratia, Phoenix, Barringtonia, Gluta, Termin-
alia, Diospyros, Dalbergia, Altingia and Calophyllum, clearly establish the ex-
istence of luxuriant coastal/beach/littoral swamp, including back mangrove
and mangrove vegetation, which was responsible for the formation of the
Neyveli main lignite seam. Coniferous representatives clearly confirm deci-
duous (arborescent) forest vegetation from tropical climates, with a high
rainfall (Awasthi, 1974, 1984).
PALYNOFLORAL COMPOSITION
Jacob and Jacob (1950) were the first to report oleaceous leaf cuticle and
the fruiting bodies of microthyriaceous fungi from the lignite seam of the
Neyveli field. Later, Navale (1962) and Thiergart and Frantz (1963) pro-
vided a brief account of pollen spores recovered from the lignite seam. A de-
tailed systematic palynological data has been published by Ramanujam ( 1966,
1967) on the main seam from mine I. Deb (1972), Deb et al. (1973), Ven-
katachala (1973), Navale and Misra (1979), Ramanujam (1982), Rama-
nujam and Reddy (1984), Ramanujam et al. (1984, 1985) and Siddhanta
(1986) provided further information on the lignite seam, as well as on the
Cuddalore Formation as a whole.
For our palynological study, samples were prepared by the standard macer-
ation technique. The organic residue thus obtained was used for slide prepa-
56 a. SINGHETAL.
14
10 15
11
12 17
18
PLATEI
1 Dandotiaspora sp. ( X 400).

2 Todisporites sp. ( X 250).
3 Neyvelisporites cooksonii R a m a n u j a m 1972 ( X 500 ).
4 Polypodiisporites sp. ( X 400).
5 Schizaeoisporites grandiformis R a m a n u j a m 1972 ( X 250).
6 Matanomadhiasulcites kutchensis Kar 1985 ( X 400 ).
7 Spinomonosulcites varispinosus Singh and Misra 1991c ( X 400).
8 Acanthotricolpites bulbospinosus (Kar 1985 ) Singh and Misra 1991 c X 250).
9 Trilatiporites erdtmani R a m a n u j a m 1966 ( X 400).
10 Jacobipollenites distinctus Singh and Misra 1991 b ( X 400 ).
11 Vellaripollisfoveolatus Singh and Misra 1991 b ( X 400).
12 LakiapoUis sp. ( X 400 ).
13 Cruciferoipollenites elongatus Navale and Misra 1979 ( X 400).
14 Retitrescolpites sp. ( X 400).
15 Mefiapollis sp. ( X 250).
16 Scrobiculatricolporites undulatus Singh and Misra 1991 a ( X 400 ).
17 Polybreuicolporites sp. ( X 400 ).
18 Tamilipollenites robustus Singh and Misra 1991 a ( X 150 ).
10
-.~,~ .....
la
6.
i .6 O 8 • 19
PLATE II
1 Dakshinipollenites tripakshi (Navale and Misra 1979) Singh and Misra 199 l b ( X 400).
2 Alangiopollis ( = Lanagiopollis) arcotense Navale and Misra 1979 ( X 250 ).
3 Margocolporites sp. ( × 400).
4 Grevilloideaepites eocenicus (Biswas 1962 ) Singh and Misra 1991 b ( × 400).
5 Plumbaginacipites neyvelei Navale and Misra 1979 ( X 400).
6 Bombacacidites sp. ( × 400 ).
7 Po[ycolpites sp. ( × 500 ).
8 Type 1 (? Tiliaepollenites) ( X 400).
9 Ctenolophonidites cf. stellatus Navale and Misra 1979 ( X 400 ).
10 Zonocostites sp. ( × 500).
11 Bacuspinulopollenites baculatus Singh and Misra 1991 a ( X 500 ).
12 Thymelaepollis sp. ( × 200 ).
13 Retistephanocolpites sp. ( X 500 ).
14 Bacustephanocolpites sp. ( × 500).
15 Droseridites sp. ( × 400 ).
16 Tricolporopilites differentiallis Singh and Misra 1991a ( X 250 ).
17 Cuddaloripollis complexa Singh and Misra 1991 a ( X 250 ).
18 Transdanubiaepollenites indicus Singh 1991 a ( × 400).
19 Clavaperiporites clavatus Navale and Misra 1979 ( X 250).
58 A. SINGH ET AL.
TABLE2
List of form genera found in in the Neyveli deposits, south India
Borehole Cummulative No. of

total species
NLE-27 NEE-35 NLE-36 (Mine III) recovered
(%) (%) (%) (%)
PTERIDOPHYTA (Monolete spores)
Polypodiisporites (Potoni6 ) Khan and - - 0.3 0.14
Martin 1972
2Schizaeoisporites (Potoni6) ex. Delcourt 3.5 8.0 0.3 3.25
and Sprumont 1955
2Neyvelisporites Ramanujam, 1972 8.2 4.1 0.3 2.45
Trilete spores
~Todisporites Couper 1958 2.9 - - -
Dandotiaspora (Sah, Kar and Singh) - - 26.3 14.58
Singh, Singh and Sah 1977
Total pteridophytic spores 11.7 12.1 27.2 20.42
ANGIOSPERMAE (Monocotyledoneae)
Monocolpate pollen
2Matanomadhiasulcites Kar 1985 4.6 4.3 0.6 2.32
Spinomonosulcites Singh and Misra, 1991 c - - 7.0 3.88
Monoporate pollen
2Jacobipollenites Ramanujam 1966 em. 11.6 6.47
Singh and Misra 1991b
Triporate pollen
~Acanthotricolpites Kar 1985 em. Singh and 95.9
Misra 1991c
Latiporate pollen
2Trilatiporites Ramanujam 1966 10.0 9.4 6.5 7.83 9
Total angiospermic monocotyledonous 14.6 13.7 25.7 20.50
Dicotyledoneae (Tricolpate pollen )
2PlumbaginacipitesNavale and Misra 1979 0.6 2.9 0.1 1.09 1
Icacinoipollenites Navale and Misra 1979 - 0.1 0.07 1
Cruc(feroipollenites Navale and Misra 1979 1.2 0.4 - 0.27 1
Dakshinipollenites Navale and Misra 1979 - 0.4 2.7 1.63 1
era. Singh and Misra 1991b

2Transdanubiaepollenites Kedves and 25.8 2.9 13.4 11.38 1
Pardutz 1973
2Retitrescolpites Sah 1967 7.6 0.8 0.1 1.23 2
Tricolporate pollen
Lakiapollis Venkatachala and Kar 1969 - 3.5 1.91 2
l@llaripollisSingh and Misra 1991 b 0.8 2.8 1.84 2
2Lanagiopollis Morley 1982 1.8 7.4 0.1 2.73 2
Bombacacidites Couper 1960 - 0.4 0.20 1
Zonocostites Germeraad, Hopping and - 0.3 0.14 2
Muller 1968
2Bacuspinulopollenites Singh and Misra 20.0 2.9 1.9 4.29 2
1991a
Scrobiculatricolporites Singh and Misra 1.2 - 0.41 1
1991a
2TricolporopilitesKar 1985 em. Singh and 4.7 4.7 3.3 3.88 3
Misra 1991a
2Cuddaloripollis Singh and Misra 1991 a 0.6 4.9 0.5 1.97 2
2Margocolporites Ramanujam 1966 1.2 1.0 7.3 4.37 14
TABLE 2 (continued)
Borehole C u m m u l a t i v e No. of
total species
NLE-27 NLE-35 NLE-36 (Mine III) recovered
(%) (%) (%) (%)
Polycolpate pollen
Polvcolpites (Couper 1953 ) Saxena 1982 3.0 0.3 0.54 3
Bacustephanocolpites G u z m ~ n 1967 - 0.2 - 0.07 1
Retistephanocolpites ( Leidelmeyer 1966 ) - - 0.1 0.07 1
Saxena 1982
Polycolporate pollen
2Meliapollis Sah and Kar 1970 1.8 38.1 6.4 16.22 13
Tamilipollenites Singh and Misra 1991 a - 1.6 1.6 1.43 2
Polybrevicolporites Venkatachala and Kar 1.8 - 0.1 0.27 1
1969
2Ctenolophonidites Klinkenberg 1966 em. 3.0 1.0 0.5 0.96 4
Salard-Cheboldaeff 1975
Triporate pollen
Grevilloideaepites Biswas 1962 em. Singh - 0.2 1.4 0.82 1
and Misra 1991b
Type 1 (?Tiliaepollenites Potoni6 and - 0.8 0.1 0.34 1
Venitz 1934)
Polyporate pollen
Clavaperiporites R a m a n u j a m 1966 0.6 - 0.07 1
"Thymelaepollis Sah and Kar 1970 1.2 - - - 1
Tetrad pollen
2Droseridites Cookson 1947 - 1.4 - 0.48 1
Total angiospermic dicotyledonous 73.7 74.2 47.1 59.08
~Genera exclusively been recorded from the clay bed of borehole NLE-27.
2Genera distributed throughout the main lignite seam of the Neyveli mine III area.
ration (in glycerine jelly). Pollen and spores encountered in the lignite seam
from mine III of the Neyveli field are shown in Plates I and II.
The palynomorphs are referable to 38 genera and 95 species. The angio-
spermous pollen comprise 86 species of 33 genera (28 dicot, 5 monocot) and
various forms of mono- to polycolpate, tri- to polycolporate and mono- and
polyporate pollen, including dyads and tetrads. The pteridophytes (monolete
and trilete spores) are distributed between 9 species belonging to 5 genera.
The frequency of the pollen-spores assemblage for individual borehole has
been categorized as: rare < 1%, common 1-4%, sub-dominant > 4-15% and
dominant > 15-54%. The palynofloral assemblages recorded from the seam
sections of borehole NLE-27 ( 19 genera, distributed in 36 species), NLE-35
(23 genera, represented by 46 species) and NLE-36 (30 genera with 69 spe-
cies, including 18 genera and their species (32) from the underlying lignitic
clay bed) are given in Table 2 and illustrated in Fig. 7.
The pollen of Ctenolophonidites and Clavaperiporiteshave been exclusively
recorded in the NLE-27 section. Neyvelisporites, Retitrescolpites, Trilatipor-
60 A. SINGH ET AL.
NLE-27 NLE-35 NLE-3& Mine III(cummuIative)

POLYPODIISPORITES 4- +
SCHIZAEOISPORITES I I + I
NEYVELIS PORI1"ES I I + •
DANDOTIASPORA I I
MATANOMADHIASULCITES I I + •
SPINOMONOSULCITES I I
JACOBIPOLLENITES I I
TRELATIPORITES I I I I
PLUMBA GIN A C[ PI T ES + I + I
ICACINOIPOLLENITES + x
CRU CI FEROI POL LEi'Ill'ES I + +
DAKSHINIPOLLENIIE5 + • I
TRANSDANUBIAEPOLLENI TE S • I I
RETITRESCOLPITES I + + I
LAKIAPOLLIS I •
VELLARIPOLLI5 + • •
LANAGIOPOLLIS • I + •
80MBACACIDITES + +
ZONOCOSTITES + +
FIACUSPINULOPOLLENIT ES I • I
SCROBI CUL ATRICOLPORI TES I +
TRICOLPOROPILI TES I I I I
CUDDALORIPOLLIS + I ÷ •
MARGOCOLPORITES I I I I
PO LYC 0 L PI IES I ÷ +
BACUSTEPHANOCOLPI fES + ×
RETI ST EPHANOCOLPI T ES + X
MELIAPOLLIS • I I
TAMILIPGLLENITES I I I
POLYBREVICOLPORITES • + +
CTENOLSPHONIDITES I I ÷ +
GREVfLLOIDEAEPI TES + I
TyPe-1 + + +
CLAVAP E!RIPCRITES + [ pa[ynornorphs % ] x
THYMELAEPOLLIS x I0 5 10 x
DROSER[DITES I [i,L i , -}- ( 1 . 0 , X ( CI.I -I-
Fig. 7. Composite frequencyof form genera found in the Neyveli lignite deposits (of mine IIl ),
south India.
ites and Polycolpites forms are in abundance, besides Transdanubiaepollen-

ires and Bacuspinulopollenites. The genus Thymelaepollis has been recorded
from the sample, but with a poor yield. Palynofossils recorded from the clay
bed are entirely different from the overlying lignite seam. Out of 21 genera
recorded from borehole NLE-27, only 3: Acanthotricolpites (95.9%), Thy-
melaepollis (1.2%) and Todisporites (2.9%) are present in the clay bed (Ta-
ble 2 ).
The dominant genus of the borehole NLE-35 palynoassemblage is Melia-
pollis. Schizaeoisporites, Neyvelisporites, Matanomadhiasulcites, Tricolporo-
pilites, Cuddaloripollis, Lanagiopollis and Trilatiporites are the sub-dominant
forms. However, Scrobiculatricolporites, Bacustephanocolpites and Droseri-
dites pollen genera have exclusively been recorded in this seam section.
The palynofossils from the seam of NLE-36 encompass 25 pollen-spore
genera. However, the lignitic clay bed contains only 18 genera. Polypodiispor-
TABLE 3
Common palynomorphs recovered from the NLE-36 borehole of the Neyveli lignite field, south India
Lignitic Lignite
clay bed seam
(%) (%)
Dandotiaspora 52.32 -
Spinomonosulcites 12.71 1.24
Jacobipollenites 10.76 12.62
Margocolporites 9, 54 4.45
Lakiapollis 3,42 3.46
Tricolporopilites 2,94 3.46
Dakshinipollenites 1,96 3.46
Transdanubiaepollenites 1,22 25.75
Grevilloideaepites 1.22
Vellaripollis 0.98 4.70
Bombacacidites O.73
Trilatiporites O,50 13.12
Zonocostites O.50 -
Polypodiisporites 0.24 0.49
Plumbaginacipites 0.24 0.25
Meliapollis 0.24 11.40
Polycolpites 0.24 0.49
Lanagiopollis 0.24
ites, Spinomonosulcites, Icacinoipollenites, Lakiapollis, Jacobipollenites and

Retistephanocolpites have been exclusively observed in this seam section;
whereas, Dandotiaspora, Zonocostites and Bombacacidites form genera have
only been obtained from the lignitic clay bed.
Comparison of the palynoassemblages of the lignite seam and underlying
lignitic clay bed reveals that, palynologically, these are more or less similar
(Table 3 ). Most of the palynotaxa of the lignitic clay bed have also been re-
corded from bottom part of the seam. The assemblage of the lignitic clay bed
is dominated by Dandotiaspora followed by Spinomonosulcites, Jacobipollen-
ites and Margocolporites; whereas the seam is dominated by Transdanubiae-
pollenites. Subdominant elements of the seam are Trilatiporites, Jacobipollen-
ites, Meliapollis, Margocolporites and Vellaripollis. In addition, the seam is
also characterized by the presence of genera (not recorded from lignitic clay )
such as Schizaeoisporites, Neyvelisporites, Matanomadhiasulcites, Retitrescol-
pites, Bacuspinulopollenites, Cuddaloripollis and Tamilipollenites.
Quantitative palynofloral assessment of the Neyveli lignite deposits reveals
that, besides some important pollen-spore genera (Fig. 8 ), the palynoassem-
blage of NLE-27 (excluding the clay bed) is dominated by Transdanubiae-
pollenites (25.8% ) and Bacuspinulopollenites ( 20% ) and that of the NLE-35
by Meliapollis (38.1%). The assemblage ofNLE-36 borehole is dominated by
Dandotiaspora (26.3%). However, if the pollen-spores of lignitic clay are ex-
62 n. SINGH ET AL.
Borehole ~,-NLE-27---* * - ~ - N L E - 3 5 - - - - - ~ < ---MLE-36 )

Lignite Lignitic clay
Sample Nos~ 5 10 lZ, 1 3 4 5 5 1 ; 3 5 7 ~ 9 ;(;
DANDOTIASPORA
POLYPODIISPORIT ES
S C HI'ZAEOISPORITES
N E Y VELISPORITES I~'
MATA NOMADHIASULCITES
S P I NO M O N O S U L C IT ES
PLUMBAGINACIPITES
DAKSHtNIPOLLENITES
TRAN SDA N'JBIAEPOL LE NITES I ~
LAKIAPOLLIS
4
VELLARIPOLLI S 4)---
LANAGIOPOLLI S -- 91 II JP--
BACU SPINULOPOLLENITES
TRICOLPOROPILITE5
CUDDALOR IPOLLI S
MARGOCOLPORITES
~ELIAPOLLIS
/AMILIPOLLENITES
CTENOLOPHONIDITES
JACOBIPOLLENITES b
CREVILLOIDEAE PITES
TYP~- 1 i
TRILATIPORI TES
Fig. 8. Distribution of some important pollen and spore genera found in mine III of the Neyveli
lignite field, south India.
TABLE 4
Significant palynomorphs found in the Neyveli lignite field, south India
Mine I Mine II Mine Ill

(%) (%) (%)
Neyvelisporites 12.5 6.7 2.4
Trilatiporites 6.5 6.0 7.8
Schizaeoisporites 5.5 7.6 3.2
Zonocostites 5.5 14.0 O. 14
Meliapollis 5.3 3.9 16.6
Warkallipollenites 3.5 2.4
S a p o t a c e o i d a e p o l l e n i tes 3.0 2.0
Palmaepollenites 2.7 2.2
Retitricolporites 2.4 3.5 -
Retistephanocolpites 2.4 2.9 0.07
Margocolporites 2.1 1.8 4.4
Ctenolophonidites 1.2 1.5 1.0
Dandotiaspora - - 14.6
Transdanubiaepollenites + - 11.4
Acanthotricolpites - - 9.9
~J a c o b i p o l l e n i t e s + - 6.5
2S p i n o m o n o s u l c i t e s + - 3.9
( = Neocouperipollis)
2B a c u s p i n u l o p o l l e n i t e s + - 4.3
2 Tricolporopilites + - 3.9
2M a t a n o m a d h i a s u l c i tes + - 2.3
lL a n a g i o p o l l i s + + 2.0
Cuddaloripollis + + 2.0
Lakiapollis + - 1.9
Vellaripollis - - 1.8
Dakshinipollenites + - 1.6
2T a m i l i p o l l e n i t e s + - 1.4
~P l u m b a g i n a c i p i t e s + - 1.1
Dicotyledoneae 70.0 61.0 59.1
Monocotyledoneae 10.0 14.0 20.5
Pteridophyta 20.0 17.0 20.4
Angiospermae 80.0 75.0 79.6
~Genera also recorded from the mine I area.

2Presence based on the observation made on the original slides of Navale and Misra ( 1979 ).
cluded, the assemblage of NLE-36 is dominated by Transdanubiaepollenites

( 13.4% ). The distribution pattern of pollen-spores shows that 15 genera are
prevalent throughout the main lignite seam of the mine III area.
Table 4 shows that the palynoassemblages recovered from three mines of
Neyveli are more-or-less similar, except for minor qualitative and quantita-
tive differences. Apart from the twelve most significant palynotaxa (Rama-
64 A. SINGH ET AL.
nujam et al., 1984) another six forms have also been recovered from mine I;
whereas, out of these six taxa only two---Cuddaloripollis (= Clavatricolpor-
ites) and Lanagiopollis ( =Alangiopollis)--have been recorded from mine II.
These six palynotaxa were not considered to be significant (frequency wise)
by Ramanujam et al. (1984). In addition to this, a study of the original slides
of Navale and Misra (1979) indicate the presence of another six palynotaxa
in the assemblage of mine I. Meliapollis (mainly of pentacolporate forms;
Misra and Singh, 1991b) and Transdanubiaepollenites (treated under var-
ious tricolpate reticulate genera; Singh, 1991 a) have also been recorded from
the assemblage of the main lignite seam in mine I. Thus, qualitatively, the
seam has more or less similar palynoassemblages in mine I and III and that
in mine II also shows a resemblance. Out of the 23 palynotaxa of mine III, 21
and 10 are common in the mines I and II, respectively. Quantitative differ-
ences among the palynomorphs of the three mines are evident. This appears
to be a common phenomenon and has been experienced elsewhere frequently.
Absence or rare occurrences of some of the palynofossils: Zonocostites
( Rhizophora ), Retitricolpites (Avicennia ), Florschuetzia ( Sonneratia ) and
Marginipollis (Barringtonia) in mine III may, apparently, be due to facies
variation and changes in local vegetation. This might have resulted in minor
differences in the palynoassemblages of the three mines. Such floral varia-
tions are possible in a long, extended basin.
According to Ramanujam and Reddy (1984), the clay bed in mine I, con-
taining a high frequency of pollen referable to Rhizophora, Avicennia and Bar-
ringtonia, and the presence of Lumnitzera and Crenea, was deposited under
mangrove swamp conditions. Whereas the bulk of the seam (including the
lignitic clay) has fresh water taxa, such as Retipilonapites (Potamogetona-
ceae), Haloragacidites (Haloragaceae) and Neyvelipollenites (Lentibulari-
aceae), and a number of swamp and water edge flora, laid down under back
mangrove conditions, with more fresh water influence than brackish. The
prevalence of diverse ecological groups (with some influence of brackish
water) and back mangrove conditions during lignite/lignitic clay deposition,
has been ascertained, no tangible evidence has been found to support man-
grove condition at the time of clay bed formation.
PALYNODEBRIS COMPOSITION
The total organic matter (OM) of the sedimentary sequences has been
termed "Palynodebris" by Manum ( 1979, at the AASP organic matter sym-
posium, see Frederiksen et al., 1982) and the same terminology is followed
here.
Slides prepared (from productive and non-productive samples ) for the pa-
lynological study have been used for the assessment of palynodebris entities.
Categorization of palynodebris has been made following the classification of
NEYVELLIGNITE
I DEPOSITS 65
Masran and Pocock ( 1981 ). This classification was further modified by Po-
cock et al. ( 1987, Fig. 9 ). Recovered palynodebris from the Neyveli deposits
are shown in Plates III and IV and have been categorized as follows:
CATEGORY SUB- CATEGORY

STRUCTURED / Leaf
TERRESTRIAL /-'~-~ , Root
(Telinite) Stem
SPORES and Monolete and trilete spores

POLLEN ~ ~ Gymnospermous pollen
(Sporinite) Angiospermous pollen
BIODEGRADED medium stem and root

TERRESTRIAL Sheets of cells with walls
Sheets of cells lacking walls ( T e l o c o l l i n i t e )
Semifusinite
organic pyrite
INERTINITE high
Fusinite ~ Degradofu~inite
Eh
pyrofusinite
FUNGI I Mycelia (plectenchymite)

(Sclerotin/te) ~ / - Single celled spores ( c o r r u s c l e r o t i n i t e )
~ - - - - ~ Multi-celled spores(pseudocorpusclerotinite)
medium
/Eh - - yellow- amber Granular- bacterial(Micrinite)
AMORPHOUS ~ ~ structureles~
~.low ~ Grey Spherulitic (corpocollinite)
Eh
BIODEGRADED
AQUEOUS
colonial
.... J Algal (Alginite)/-,unicellul~r
STRUCTURED
AQUEOUS Acritarchs
Others
Note: Terms between brackets are the equivalent coal maceral categories.
Fig. 9. Classification of palynodebris (after Pocock et al., 1987).

66 A. SINGH ETAL.
i]
J
't
?
Ib
n d
PLATE III
1-6 Structured terrestrial: non-woody (epidermal) cellular tissue (1-2, ca. X 250). Epidermal
cellular tissue showing leaf stomata (4, ca. × 400; 6, ca. × 450 tissue showing initial degrada-
tion). Woody cellular tissue showing vesicular structure (3, ca. × 400). Leaf tracheids pre-
served, remainder of the leaf structure is biodegraded (5, ca. x 400).
7 Fungal hyphae invading non-woody cellular tissue (ca. X 500).
8-9 Fungal spore (8, ca. × 400; 9, ca. X 200).
10 Group of spherical fungal spores (ca. X 750).
• ¢
PLATE IV
1 Sclerotia-fruiting body (ca. × 200).

2 Two resin droplets with partially biodegraded cellular structure in the centre (ca. × 400).
3 Resin duct, b iodegraded in part-fight (ca. × 350).
4 Resin rodlet with vesicles formed from escaping of the gases (ca. ×400).
5-7 Biodegraded terrestrial: partially biodegraded (5, ca. × 300; 7, ca. × 200) and completely
biodegraded material (6, ca. X 250). Traces of cell walls faintly visible suggesting non-woody
structure.
8 Amporphous material which cannot be identified (ca. x 250).
68 A. SINGH ETAL.
TABLE 5
Frequency distribution (mean and range ) of palynodebris in the Neyveli lignite deposits, south India
Borehole Sample Structured terrestrial Resin Fungal Amorphous Biode- Pollen

graded spores
Woody Non-woody
NLE-27 Top 24.5 43.5 6.2 6.6 11.8 7.1 0.3
(1-8) 9.8-54.8 20.8-83.2 0.4-12.4 0.0-10.8 0.0-32.8 2.0-13.4 0.0-2.6
Middle 33.7 42.1 4.2 5.4 3.0 10.6 1.0
(9-16) 17.0-54.4 17.6-66.4 0.4-6.0 1.4-10.2 1.0-5.6 5.4-18.6 0.0-2.6
Bottom 29.5 37.0 6.8 7.0 9.8 9.8 0.1
(17-23) 19.0-46.8 16.8-70.0 2.8-13.6 1.2-13.6 0.4-29.0 5.2-14.4 0.0-0.4
Seam average 29.2 41.0 5.6 6.3 8.2 9.2 0.5
Clay 34.7 52.8 3.9 - 0.3 4.5 3.8
(24-25) 7.2-62.2 23.6-82.0 2.8-5.0 0.0-0.6 0.4-8.6 0.0-7.6
NLE-35 Top 48.5 33.1 3.5 5.0 3.6 4.8 1.5
(1-2) 42.8-54.2 29.2-37.0 3.4-3.6 3.6-6.4 1.6-5.6 0.0-9.6 1.0-2.0
Middle 43.9 37.6 4.8 5.0 6.1 2.6
(3-4) 41.4-46.4 32.0-43.2 4.6-5.0 3.2-6.8 5.0-7.2 2.2-3.0
Bottom 26.4 51.7 6.3 6.6 3.6 3.4 2.0
(5-6) 9.0-43.8 25.6-77.8 4.8-7.8 4.4-8.8 3.2-4.0 0.4-6.4 0.4-3.6
Seam average 39.6 40.8 4.9 5.5 4.5 2.7 2.0
NLE-36 Top 49.7 20.1 8.3 11.7 2.5 5.4 2.3
(1-3) 45.0-58.0 16.0-26.6 5.2-12.0 9.8-13.8 1.8-3.6 3.0-9.4 0.6-4.2
Middle 39.0 25.7 5.9 14.9 7.6 6.2 0.7
(4-6) 29.8-52.2 15.6-33.6 3.8-8.4 t0.2-17.8 4.2-15.8 3.4-7.8 0.0-1.6
Bottom 23.0 23.5 7.2 24.6 3.5 13.2 5.0
(7-8) 19.8-26.2 7.0-40.0 5.4-9.0 14.0-35.2 1.0-6.0 11.0-15.4 2.4-7.6
Seam average 39.0 23.0 7.1 16.1 4.6 7.8 2.4
Lignitic 17.3 59.4 9.6 3.5 0.7 6.6 2.9
Clay (9-10) 16.8-17.8 58.4-60.4 5.2-14.0 2.0-5.0 0.4-1.0 4.4-8.8 2.4-3.4
Composite average 34.7 30.2 7.6 13.7 3.9 7.4 2.5
( 1 ) Structured terrestrial
(a) woody cellular tissue,
(b) non-woody cellular tissue;
( 2 ) resin (droplets, cell filling, ducts );
( 3 ) fungi (fungal spores and hyphae including fruiting bodies );
(4) biodegraded terrestrial;
( 5 ) amorphous materials;
( 6 ) pollen and spores.
The lignite (including lignitic clay) core samples have yielded all the six
broad groups of palynodebris; whereas clay samples are found to be conspic-
uously lacking in fungal remains. The distribution pattern of the palynodebris
(Table 5 ) in the main lignite seam reveals that there is no definite trend in
the frequencies of OM type, except that the woody and non-woody fractions
show an inverse relationship (Singh and Singh, 1991a). Apart from this, the
NEYVELI
LIGNITE
DEPOSITS 69
90% : : ~ Structured
~errestrial [
87.5%
76.7%
8~71.0 % ~ Fungat
70- F--I Amorphous

' //~ Biodegr aded 'rerreS.
~r~x/.r~
60- ~ polten-SpOr~,
50-
/'0--
30-
LIGNITE ll~ll LIGNITIC CLAY CLAY
20-
10- 5~, 9.3%

~ 5.8*/,6.5% Ill 9.6%
3.5%
6.6%
* 3.9% /''5% 3.8%
0 i i l !
'COMPOSITION OF PALYNODEBRIS
Fig. 10. Palynodebris composition of the Neyveli deposits, south India.
woody fraction generally increases towards top of the seam in boreholes NLE-
35 and NLE-36, whereas the non-woody constituent shows a reverse trend.
The lignite seam, being formed from vegetal accumulation, is characterized
by a high incidence (48.8-93.0%, average 71% ) of structured terrestrial OM
(both woody and non-woody fractions, Fig. 10). An increase in the non-woody
fraction is marked by the decrease in woody entity. Overall frequencies of
resin and amorphous OM, although having wide variations, are identical
(5.8%). Fungal remains ( 1.2-35.2%, average 9.3%) and biodegraded terres-
trial OM (0.0-18.6%, average 6.5%) are relatively common, whereas spore-
pollen content (0.0-7.6%) is consistently less throughout the seam.
Lignitic clay and clay horizons show an overall predominance of the non-
woody fraction and a subordinate amount of woody tissues, such as that of
the lignite seam sections (Table 5 ). However in NLE-27 the clay contains
comparatively lower fractions of amorphous (0.3%), biodegraded terrestrial
(4.5%) materials and a higher frequency of spore-pollen (3.8%) than the
seam. In NLE-36 biodegraded terrestrial and pollen-spore OM in the lignitic
clay bed show more-or-less similar frequencies (low to moderate) to that of
the seam, whereas fungal remains (3.5%) and amorphous OM (0.7%) are
proportionately low.
Marked fluctuations in the composite frequencies of palynodebris in bore-
70 A. SINGH ET AL.
holes NLE-27 and NLE-36 suggest that the variation in frequency corre-
sponds with the lithological variation (lignite-lignitic clay-clay) in the cores.
Although the lignitic clay and clay beds also have abundant structured terres-
trial OM, the amorphous matter content is almost neglegible here (Fig. 10).
Pollen-spore and resin contents are slightly higher and that of the fungal re-
mains and biodegraded terrestrial OM are lower than that of the lignite seam.
PETROGRAPHIC COMPOSITION
Significant petrological contributions to the characterization of the Neyveli

lignite deposit were made by Navale ( 1971, 1973, 1974). The investigations
revealed that the lignite comprises an intimate mixture of woody, non-woody
and coaly (exinitic) materials and was formed from angiospermic vegetation.
It comprises mostly disintegrated and decomposed plant tissues besides fun-
gal remains. Navale and Misra (1980) have also made a detailed evaluation
of the main lignite seam from mine I.
The lignites have consistently high proportions of huminite macerals (78.4-
86.7%) and low to moderate amounts of liptinite (5.3-12.4%) and inertinite
(5.5-16.3% ) macerals. The typical maceral compositions for lignites are listed
in Table 6. The relative contents of individual macerals vary considerably
within a seam. Photomicrographs of representative lignite macerals of the
Neyveli field are shown in Plate V, displaying the general types, morphology
and common associations. Associated mineral matter in the lignite is mainly
comprises quartz and clay in addition to early diagenetic pyrite specks, gran-
ules and framboids.
The amount of the maceral sub-groups of huminite present depends upon
the state of vegetal matter preservation: humotelinite (consisting of intact
cell walls of tissues or isolated individual cells in humic state of preservation)
constitutes 10.5-31.5%, humodetrinite (fine humic detritus intimately mixed
with humic gel) forms 45.0-70.7% and humocollinite (comprised of amor-
phous humic gel or of intensely gelified plant tissues and humic detritus)
ranges between 4.2 and 11.5%. The macerals (essentially from humic mate-
rials) originate primarily from similar vegetal source material and under more-
or-less identical environmental conditions.
Ulminite, the main humotelinite present, usually appears fairly uniform in
structure and reflectance, and is medium to light grey in colour, sometimes
with desiccation cracks. It often occurs partially gelified (texto-ulminite) or,
more rarely, completely gelified (eu-ulminite). Textinite occurs as ungelified
isolated cells and cellular tissues as well. The corpohuminite occurs both as
discrete or in situ primary phlobaphinitic excretions and secondary cell fill-
ings. The concentration of gelinite is poor. The humodetrinite is usually re-
corded as attrinite but sometimes as densinite.
The macerals of the liptinite group are sporinite, cutinite, suberinite, resin-
TABLE 6
Maceral content of the main lignite seam of Neyveli field, south India
Top Middle Bottom Seam

(average)
HUMINITE 81.2 83.5 83.0 82.6

78.4-83.0 79.9-86.7 80.3-85.4
Humotelinite 25.0 13.4 27.0 21.8
(Textinite + Ulminite) 21.2-27.5 10.5 - 16.5 20.1-31.5
Humodetrinite 46.1 63.6 48.2 52.6
( Attrinite + Densinite ) 45.0-48.0 55.0-70.7 45.0-50.3
Humocollinite 10.1 6.5 7.8 8.2
(Gelinite + Corpohuminite/ 7.5-11.5 4.2-8.5 6.3-9.9
Phlobaphinite)
LIPTINITE 7.3 8.7 8.5 8.2
5.3-8.5 6.1-10.5 6.5-12.4
Resinite 2.3 3.1 3.1 2.8
0.9-4.1 1.3-5.7 1.3-4.5
Sporinite 1.8 2.1 1.9 2.0
0.9-2.8 1.0-3.0 1.0-3.4
Cutinite + 3.2 3.5 3.5 3.4
Suberinite 1.1-5.5 1.1-6.5 2.0-6.3
INERTINITE 11.5 7.7 8.5 9.2
9.3-16.3 5.5-10.3 7.1-10.0
Fusinite 2.1 1.2 1.4 1.6
1.2-3.6 1.0-1.5 1.0-2.0
Semifusinite 2.9 1.7 2.0 2.2
1.8-4.3 1.0-2.0 1.6-2.5
Inertodetrinite 2.3 1.6 1.7 1.9
2.0-3.0 1.0-2.5 1.0-2.2
Sclerotinite 4.2 3.2 3.4 3.6
3.5-5.4 2.5-4.8 3.0-3.7
Values are given for mean and range, vol. %, mineral matter free.
ire and alginite (Botryococcus). Quantitatively, resinite (0.9-5.7%) is the

main maceral followed by suberinite plus cutinite (1.1-6.5%) and sporinite
(0.9-3.4%). Assessment of alginite content was not possible under normal
white light.
Macerals of the inertinite group are constituted by fusinite, semifusinite,
inertodetrinite and sclerotinite (fungal spores, sclerotia and plectenchyme).
The latter two macerals ( 3.5-8.4% ), together, are always higher than the for-
mer two (2.6-7.9%). The content of semifusinite is higher than fusinite and
both appear to have formed mainly from degradation and oxidation of geli-
fled humic material. Rank inertinites are also common but distinct pyroiner-
tinites have not been observed in the lignite.
In general, macerals of humodetrinite (attrinite and densinite) predomi-
Hurninite HUmodet rinit~

~00% 100"/*
• Top
+ Middte
o Bottom /i ,
/ \
\
+ V\
/ \
6~v / o ; \
o \
\
Inertini~e 40 30 A 2D I~0 Liptin~te H t~mo'~Itin ~t~ LO 30
B
20 10 Hur~ocolIi r~.te
Fig. 11. Ternary diagrams for (A) maceral groups and (B) the huminite group compositions of
Neyveli field main lignite seam samples.
nate (45.0-70.7%) over the combined contents of the textinite corpohumin-

ite and gelinite macerals (16.0-38.5%) in various sections of the seam (Fig.
11A). However, there is a definite decrease in the humodetrinite contents in
the top (45.0-48.0%) and bottom (45.0-50.3%) sections of the seam, with a
corresponding increase in the humotelinite and humocollinite macerals (top
25.0-36.0%, bottom 30.0-38.5%) (Table 6, Fig. l i B ) . In contrast, in the
middle section of the seam, humotelinite and humocollinite have reduced
percentages (16.0-30.0%) and the humodetrinite fraction is predominant
(55.0-70.7%).
Thus, to generalize, petrographically the top and the bottom sections of the
Neyveli main seam are of a similar nature and contain relatively higher
amounts of woody lignite, while the middle section is distinctly more detrital
in nature. The seam is divisible into three petrographic facies in descending
order:
PLATE V
(All photomicrographs were taken on polished surface under incident light, enlarged ca. X250. )
1 Textinite showing well preserved cellular structure (thin walled cells) with mineral flled
cavities.
2 Texto-ulminite having partly gelified structure.
3 Texto-ulminite showing partial gelification.
4 Humodetrinite (attrinite) as groundmass with fungal sclerotia, phlobaphinite (corpohumin-
ire) and suberinite (right margin).
5 Resin bodies, corpohuminite and fungal spores in attrinite groundmass.
6 A band ofattrinite (centre) bound by texto-ulminite bands.
7 Densinite with fungal spores.
8 Porous densinite with sclerotinites and phlobaphinite.
9 Fusinite with mineral filled cell cavities.
74 a. SINGH ET AL.
( 1 ) huminite dominant (humotelinite/collinite-rich),

( 2 ) detrinite dominant (humodetrinite-rich),
(3) huminite dominant (humotelinite/collinite-rich).
These three facies appear to be genetically interrelated and are differentiated
on the basis of the dominance of the humotelinite/collinite and detrinite (hu-
modetrinite) maceral fractions of the huminite group. Demarcation of facies
in the seam has made it possible to differentiate two lignite types:
( 1 ) peaty consisting ofhumic detritus and humic groundmass;
(2) the woody (coaly) types of Navale ( 1971, 1973 ).
Huminite reflectance
The huminite reflectance measurements were carried out individually on

each lignite and lignitic clay pellet following the International Committee for
Coal Petrology ( 1971 ) procedure. Data obtained from the study are summa-
rized in Table 7 (Singh and Singh, 199 l b). The calculated mean maximum
huminite reflectance (Ro max.) increase from 0.34 to 0.42%. The average re-
flectance for the lignite seam is 0.39% whereas lignitic clay samples show a
comparatively lower value (0.36%). The Romax" percentage values indicate
that the lignites have attained an intermediate stage between "soft and hard
brown coal" or "sub-bituminous C" stage.
Figure 12 illustrates the variation in huminite reflectance with depth in the
study area. The rank of the seam, in general, exhibits slightly increasing ten-
dency towards depth in boreholes NLE-27 and 35; whereas the seam section
encountered in NLE-36 exhibits a reverse trend contrary to the normal rank
TABLE7
Results of reflectance measurements on huminite macerals of the Neyveli lignite deposit, south India
Sample Range of Highest 1/ Number Reflectance Rank ASTM/

reflectance 2 V Step of in oil (%) German (Din)
measurements frequency samples maximum
in oil (%) (%) mean and
range
NLE-27 0.28-0.49 0.30-0.35 3 0.39 Sub-bituminous

0.35-0.40 13 0.34-0.42 C or between
0.40-0.45 7 soft and hard
brown coal
(lignite)
NLE-35 0.30-0.48 0.35-0.40 2 0.39
0.40-0.45 4 0.36-0.41
NLE-36 0.30-0.50 0.35-0.40 5 0.39
0.40-0.45 3 0.35-0.41
Lignitic clay 0.30-0.42 0.35-0.40 2 0.36
51 +
+ +
53
+
55 4-
4-
57
61 II
63
65-
67
69
71
73
77
I O N L E - 27-"
+ NLE 35
• N L E " 36
f2
:z: B5
o_
o B9.
93.
O
95- O 0 0
97- 0
0
0
99-
0
101
103
105
O
107
O
~09 O
O
111
O
O
O
O
O
117 O
0 34 0.35 0.36 0.37 0.3B 0.39 0 . 4 1 ) 0.41 0.42
REFLECTANCE ( Ro max- in oil )
Fig. 12. Relationships between depth and rank (R . . . . . in oil) for main lignite seam (in mine
Ill ) of the Neyveli lignite field, south India.
76 A. SINGH ET AL.
trend. This may be attributable to greater amount of clay, forming lignitic (or
carbonaceous) clay lithotype, towards the bottom section in relation to the
clean lignite in the top part of the seam. However, the trend is rather fluctuat-
ing for individual samples. Gradual changes in reflectance of the huminite
maceral indicate that the seam is tectonically undisturbed and almost free
from intrusives.
The lignite seam of mine I (towards the north of the field) has attained the
"hard brown coal" or "sub-bituminous B" stage (Ro max. 0.47%; Navale and
Misra, 1980) which indicates better quality lignite than that of the mine III
area (towards south of the deposit). It is, thus, apparent that the quality of
the lignite deposits deteriorates towards southern region of the field.
CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS
The results of chemical analyses of the Neyveli lignite from various sources
average:
Proximate analysis
Moisture (%) 53.0 (44.0-60.0)
Ash (%) 3.0 (1.76-4.58)
Volatile matter (%) 24.0 (51.23-57.94 d.a.f.)
Fixed carbon (%) 20.0 (42.56-48.77 d.a.f.)
Calorific value (k cal/kg) 2500 (2222-3356)
Bulk density (gm/cc) 1.161
Ultimate analysis
Carbon 69.30%
Hydrogen 5.65%
Oxygen 23.45%
Nitrogen 0.40%
Sulphur 1.20%
The moisture content can be reduced to 15% by air drying. It is reported

that, with 20% inert matter, the calorific value of the lignite will be 10000
B.t.u./lb (approximately 23260 kcal/kg) as compared to 11300 B.t.u./lb of
grade II Jharia (Indian) coal with 25% inert matter. In spite of the lower
calorific values, the lignite has an advantage in having a low ash content. These
features help in its rapid and complete combustion. Drying to partial drying
of lignite is essential either for briquetting or carbonization.
Briquetting: It was found that the lignite with 15% moisture could be bri-
quetted without the use of any binder.
Carbonization: 45 to 70% dry tar were obtained on carbonization of lignite
at 450°C to 600°C (Fuel Research Institute, 1954). CO2 is present in a con-
siderable amount in the evolved gases but, at higher temperatures, the pro-
portion of the CO2 decreases with increase in CO. It is estimated that 1 t of
lignite (17%) on carbonization will yield 31.3 kg (69 lb) of light oil and 47.6
kg ( 105 lb) of heavy tar with about 7% of recoverable paraffin wax.
AGE OF THE NEYVELI LIGNITE DEPOSITS
Due to the controversy over the age of the deposits an endeavour is made
to evaluate, collate and synthesize briefly all the documented evidence and to
reassess the age of the Neyveli deposits. It must be mentioned here that those
favouring Palaeocene-Eocene (Palaeogene) age have overemphasized the role
of palynology, even to the extent of discrediting the geological, faunal and
megafloral evidence. Even in deducing the age palynologically, no credence is
given to younger elements, an aspect of vital importance in age assessment.
Therefore, for an unbiased and reasonably reliable conclusion, evidence from
interdisciplinary analysis has been used.
The deposit including the lignite-bearing Cuddalore Formation was origi-
nally assigned a Neogene (Miocene to Pliocene) age (Krishnan, 1960; Ra-
manujam, 1966, 1968; Balasunder, 1968; Subramanyam, 1969). This view
was first doubted by Deb et al. (1973) and by Venkatachala (1973). They
assigned a probable Eocene age solely on the palynological data. In 1982,
Talukdar stated that
"Neyvelilignitecontains Eocenepolospores,and it has been suggestedthat the Cuddaloresand-
stone is a stronglydiachronouslithostratigraphicunit"
ranging in age from Eocene to Early Pliocene. Kumar (1983 ) also expressed
a similar opinion on the same ground. Venkatachala (1986), while reviewing
the present status of palaeobotanical studies remarked that
"the lower age limit of the Cuddalore sandstone may extent to Eoceneand the formation may
be time transgressive"
(that is Eocene to Miocene). R a m a n u j a m (1982), Reddy et al. (1982), Ra-
m a n u j a m and Reddy (1984) and Singh ( 1987 ), on the basis of palynological
evidence reaffirmed a Early to Middle Miocene age for the lignite and the
underlying clay bed. Megafossil records from the Cuddalore sandstone and
lignite seam still lend undeterred support to a Neogene (Miocene) age (Lak-
hanpal, 1974; Awasthi, 1974, 1984).
Recently, Siddhanta ( 1986 ) on the basis of "detailed stratigraphic and pa-
lynological analyses" (as he claims) divided the entire Tertiary sedimentary
sequence of the area into two distinct lithostratigraphic units and stated that:
(1) "the Cuddalore Formation overlying the Neyveli Formation is dated as Miocene-
Pliocene" and
(2) "the Neyveli Formation underlying the Cuddalore Formation occurs as a distinct
lithounit and is of Palaeocene-Eoceneage".
78 A. SINGH ET AL.
He specified a "Late Palaeocene to Middle Eocene age for the carbonaceous

clay and lignite". The lignite-beating Neyveli Formation is over 300 m thick
(base not known) and the ovedy!ng Cuddalore Formation is more than 60 m
thick, with an intervening "distinct erosional zone, the magnitude of which is
not meagre".
Since, Siddhanta's paper has introduced further controversies in both
palynological and stratigraphical aspects, it is imperative to analyse his con-
clusions with the background of a detailed geological, palaeobotanical and
palynological evidence.
Siddhanta's ( 1986 ) lithostratigraphic classification, in the absence of a ref-
erence site, type section, lithological details field map, etc., is superfluous
according to the Indian Code of Stratigraphic Nomenclature (1977). The
thickness of entire Tertiary sediments given by him ( + 360 m) is roughly
12% of the known thickness ( _ 3048 m) in the Ariyalur-Pondicherry sub-
basin (Kailasam, 1968; Ramanathan, 1968, 1979). As is obvious from the
geological details given here, only a small upper fraction of the sediments of
the Cuddalore Formation are found exposed in the area, therefore Siddhan-
ta's claim of detailed stratigraphical analysis is false. O.N.G.C., G.S.I. and
N.L.C. Ltd. do not recognize an erosional unconformity between the Cudda-
lore sandstone and lignite seam. Siddhanta (1986) has also overlooked the
fact that the main lignite seam is encountered at depths varying from 45 to
150 m from the surface. This means that his Cuddalore Formation ( + 60 m)
must incorporate up to 15 m of the lignite seam wherever overburden is less
than 60 m.
Siddhanta's ( 1986 ) lithostratigraphic details computed according to IUGS
(Cowie and Bassett, 1989 ) Global Stratigraphic Chart reveals following facts:
Cuddalore Formation (over 60 m Miocene-Pliocene (21.4 Ma)
thick)
Unconformity Late Eocene-Oligocene (19.0 Ma)
Lignite seam plus lignitic clay Late Palaeocene-Middle Eocene
(maximum 28 m thick) ( 17.0 Ma)
Neyveli Formation (remaining be- Early Palaeocene (6.0 Ma)
low seam--> 272 m thick)
Considering peat growth at the rate of 3-4 m m / y r (Stach et al., 1982 ) in
tropical areas to be valid in the present case, the 28 m lignite seam (plus
lignitic/carbonaceous clay) would require only 15000-20000 yr (or a maxi-
mum of 35000), against the 17 Ma given by Siddhanta ( 1986 ). Furthermore,
the deposition of the medium to coarse grained, over 60 m thick sediments of
the Cuddalore Formation and the remaining 272 m (or more) low-energy
sediments of the Neyveli Formation in 21.4 and 6 Ma, respectively, appears
inconceivable. In fact, sediments above the lignite seam represent a rapid ep-
isode of basin-filling, due to the slightly fluctuating but fast subsidence of the
basin and/or western adjacent provenance. Thus, all such inferences by Sid-
dhanta ( 1986 ) appear grossly conjectural and unsupported by factual geolog-
ical evidences and, therefore, are invalid for any further consideration.
Published geological information clearly indicates that:
( 1 ) There was a major regressive phase in the Cauvery basin during the
later part of Eocene (Banerji, 1979) and the shore line lay just east of Vri-
dhachalam and Cuddalore in Eocene and Miocene epochs, respectively (Figs.
2 and 3 ).
(2) The sediments of the Cuddalore Formation (sensu stricto ) blanketing
most of the Tertiary sediments (Kailasam, 1968; Ramanathan, 1968, 1979)
are devoid of any of the features (gradational lithological changes eastwards,
intertonguing, etc. ) characteristic of deposition during the regressive phase,
that is during the Late Eocene to Miocene when the shore-line was adjacent
to Vridhachalam and Cuddalore, respectively (Sastri and Raiverman, 1968 ).
In fact, other argillaceous and calcareous lithounits were deposited during the
Eocene and Middle Miocene (Ramanathan, 1979) (Fig. 3 ).
(3) The Cuddalore Formation overlies a distinct unconformity (Kai-
lasam, 1968; Gowrisankaran et al., 1987 ) (410 to 500 m below the surface in
the lignite field), below which Oligocene and Eocene sediments are present.
This unconformity corresponds to the post-Oligocene unconformity in west-
ern coastal India (Kutch), northeastern India and Burma (Evans, 1932).
(4) In the Cauvery basin lignite occurrences are known to range from the
Eocene to Pliocene; Eocene lignite is found in the southern part (in Karaikal
area ), further northwards (in Mayavaram ) the lignite is of Oligocene age and
in the extreme north, north of Cuddalore and south of Pondicherry, at Bahur
(Fig. 2) the age of the lignite deposit is Pliocene (Venkatachala, 1986). The
younging northward tendency of the deposits also suggests a probable Mio-
cene age for the Neyveli lignite.
Out of about 52 plant families, based on megafossil records, known from
Palaeogene (Palaeocene-Oligocene) and Neogene (Miocene-Pliocene) sed-
iments of India, only two--Dipterocarpaceae and Leguminosae (Faba-
ceae)--are exclusively recorded from Neogene sediments, which includes
those from the northeastern and western Indian, Warkalli beds (Kerala coast)
and the Cuddalore Formation (Ramanujam, 1968; Awasthi, 1974; Lakhan-
pal, 1974; Lakhanpal et al., 1984). Both these families are well represented
by their pollen in the Neyveli lignite (Ramanujam, 1966; Ramanujam and
Reddy, 1984; Singh, 1987).
The palynoassemblages, except those from the marine facies, from the Pa-
laeocene-Eocene sediments of extra-peninsular India (Gujarat, Rajasthan,
Assam and Meghalaya) are, in general, qualitatively and quantitatively (usu-
ally 50-80% or even more) rich in pteridophytic spores. In contrast, that of
80 A. SINGH ET AL.
the Neyveli is poor in pteridophytic spores, both in variety and quantity ( 17-
25%). This difference can be reasonably explained by the differences in eco-
logical and climatic conditions in various regions over the course of time. The
ecological and climatic conditions in the extra-peninsular and peninsular
( south India) parts of India became contrasting or quite different in response
to the rising of the Himalayas during the later part of the Palaeogene and
onwards. Therefore, it is natural to expect certain distinct and different floral
communities in both the regions in the Late Oligocene onwards. This appears
to be a possible explanation for the qualitative and quantitative differences
in the pteridophytic and angiospermic representation in the Neogene sedi-
ments of peninsular India.
The palynoflora from the main lignite seam of the proposed mine III (listed
in Table 2) and mine I (Navale, 1962; Navale and Misra, 1979) conform
very well with those recovered by Ramanujam ( 1966, 1967, 1982 ), Rama-
nujam and Reddy (1984) and Ramanujam et al. ( 1984, 1985) from mines I
and II. The palynoflora of the Neyveli lignite (including associated sedi-
ments) most resembles those of the typical Neogene flora beds (Warkalli and
Quilon ) from Kerala (Ramanujam, 1982, 1987 ). On the other hand, pollen-
spore assemblages reported by Deb ( 1972 ), Deb et al. ( 1973 ), Venkatachala
(1973) and Siddhanta (1986) do not correspond well with the present as-
semblage; only a few genera and species are similar. Only 4 genera (and 6
species) out of 26 genera and 36 species reported by Siddhanta (1986) have
been recorded by us. The variety of angiospermic pollen (22 genera and 30
species) reported by Siddhanta (1986) appears quite poor in comparison to
the 33 genera (and 86 species) alone from mine III (Table 2).
The pollen-spore assemblage recorded here contains certain forms which
are present in the assemblages of Palaeocene-Eocene sediments of India; that
is Schizaeoisporites*, Dandotiaspora*, Todisporites, Lakiapollis, Grevillo-
ideaepites, Margocolporites *+, Meliapollis +, Ctenolophonidites *+, Acantho-
tricolpites *+, Spinomonosulcites, Tricolporopilites *+ and Matanomadhiasul-
cites*. Of these twelve forms, seven of them (marked by *) are represented
up to generic level (with generic emendation--Singh, 1987, 199 lb; Singh and
Misra, 1991 a,b,c) and the rest with only one or two species. Five of these
forms (marked with + ) show highly diversified morphological features not
recorded in the forms of older assemblage (Ramanujam and Rao, 1973; Na-
vale and Misra, 1979; Singh, 1987; Misra and Singh, 1991 b; Singh and Misra,
1991 a,c). Beside this, eleven of the preceeding forms have been commonly
encountered in the assemblages from established Oligocene and Miocene sed-
iments from India (Venkatachala and Rawat, 1973; Misra, 1981; Kar, 1985;
Ramanujam, 1987 ). The so-called Palaeocene-Eocene palynofossils present
in the assemblage may well be regarded as having persisted from the Palaeo-
gene. Their distinct morphological differences from the older stock have been
considered to be due to evolutionary and ecological changes during the course

of time.
Records of Trilatiporites sp. (in the Eocene), Jacobipollenites sp. (in the
Middle Eocene ), Ctenolophonidites sp. (from Eocene to Oligocene ) and Lak-
iapollis sp. (from Eocene to Miocene) in higher frequencies more than 20-
35% in the Oligocene by Rao (1990) lends support to our view that these
taxa started migrating southwards from Kutch after the Palaeocene (Gujarat,
Fig. 13) along the western coast and reached Neyveli (almost the middle of
the eastern coast) during the Miocene (Misra and Singh, 1991a), when the
Indian plate was moving northwards. There is no other way for these taxa to
• Lignite occurrences Jj
;;." .. A S S A M ..'"
R A J A S T r l A N ":'.. ......"-............, .... :;....... " ! ~D,.,Es,,~,.., , i... -

dhro'"
'~
{
"......."
ixg,~,~'Ka~6[•
,".,.;;
i',,l A D H Y A
" "
'..";..
/
oV
.' PRADESH
.} "-,..... ....-'?.. ....... .,,. .f
::' ' ~ ORISSA

......" i v I A H A R A S H T R A " B AY
""........ ~' ~:'" :::~':' OF
ARABIAN :'
"
"": ":
BENGAL
SEA ...,; "'"""ii. , A N
i...... PRA
;i{ ~.....
,. A R NA TAK.,~"..........
~"P"~ ........ " l eVVeli
WarkaL~
INDIAN O C E A N
Fig. 13. Tertiary lignite occurrences in India.

82 A. SINGH ET AL.
have reached there. Some of these taxa (Trilatiporites, Ctenolophonidites)

simultaneously became extinct in the northern parts (Gujarat and Maharash-
tra) of western coast.
A number of pollen genera commonly recovered from the Neyveli lignite,
Cuddaloripollis ( = Clavatricolporites of Ramanujam, 1966 ), Dakshinipollen-
ires, Bacuspinulopollenites, Tamilipollenites, Vellaripollis, Scrobiculatricol-
porites, Plumbaginacipites, Tiliaepollenites, Icacinoipollenites, Cruciferoipol-
lenites and Clavaperiporites have neither been recorded in the assemblages of
the Palaeocene-Eocene (the most extensively and intensively investigated se-
quence of India) nor in extra-peninsular Miocene sediments of India. Some
of them are, however, recorded from the Miocene-Quilon and Warkalli beds
of Kerala (western coast of peninsular India; Ramanujam, 1982, 1987). Their
absence in the Palaeocene-Eocene assemblage sediments reflects their younger
age. Whereas the absence from Miocene sediments of extra-peninsular parts
of India can be explained by their endemic nature, which has restricted them
to the coastal areas of peninsular India since the Late Oligocene. In addition
to this, a wide range of morphological and taxonomic diversification in the
pollen of Trilatiporites (Misra and Singh, 199 l a, microreticulate to psilate ),
Ctenolophonidites (Ramanujam and Rao, 1973; Navale and Misra, 1979),
fabaceous--Margocolporites--and meliaceous--Meliapollis (and/or clu-
siaceous, Misra and Singh, 1991b; Singh, 1987) representatives are in con-
trast with those from the Palaeocene-Eocene sediments. In addition, typical
Neogene genera of Venkatachala ( 1973)--Cauveripollis, Tiliaepollenites
( = Intratriporopollenites), Maculoporites, Tricollaraeporites and Crassoreti-
triletes, Pteridacidites, Polynonacidites and Quilonipollenites--have also been
recorded fromthe lignite by Ramanujam ( 1982):
"even fungal remains, support the Mioceneage. For instance, fructificationssuch as Plochmo-
peltinites, Euthyrites, Trichopeltinites,Haplopeltis, etc., are known in India, as of today only
from the Neogenestrata. Manyof these are characteristicof the LowerMioceneof Australia"
(Reddy et al., 1982; C.G.K. Ramanujam, personal communication, 1991 ).

The lignitic clay or carbonaceous clay bed occurring gradationally below
the main lignite seam is not a persistent bed as considered by Siddhanta
(1986). In the sections we studied it was encountered only in one borehole
(NLE-36) out of the three. Its spore-pollen content (Table 3), except for
reflecting different ecological conditions to that of the lignite seam, are qual-
itatively similar.
Synthesizing all the preceding geological, geophysical, megafloral and pa-
lynological evidence it has been concluded that the main lignite seam (de-
posit) in the Neyveli lignite field is of Miocene age (possibly Middle to Late
Miocene).
TABLE 8
Angiospermous fossil floral records with their known extant affinities from the Neyveli lignite field,
south India
Family Fossil wood Fossil pollen genera (botanical affinity )

Agavaceae Oracaena 4
Alangiaceae (=Alangiopollis) Lanagiopollis 3
(Alangium )
Anacardiaceae Bouea, Gluta 3 Rhoipites ~'2"3(Anacardium, Spondius )
Apiaceae Umbelliferoipollenites
Apocynaceae Melodinus
Araliaceae Araliaceoipollenites 3
Arecaceae Phoenix 1,3,4 Trilatiporites ( Sclerosperma ),
Spinomonosulcites, Acanthotricolpites,
Palmaepollenites (Cocus), Longapertites,
Quilonipollenites ( Eugeissonia ), Arecipites
( Syagrus ), Dicolpopollis ( Calam us,
Metroxylon ) 1,2,3,4
Avicenniaceae Retitricolporites ~ (Avicennia)
Bombacaceae Lakiapollis, Bombacacidites,
Tricolporopilites 4
Boraginaceae Cordia
Brassicaceae Cruciferoipollenites
Caprifoliaceae Caprifoliipites ( Viburnum ),
Retibrevicolporites
Clusiaceae Calophyllum 3,4 Pentadesmapites ( Pentadesma ),
Pachydermites
Garcinia, Mesua (Symphonia)
Combretaceae Terminalia3' 4 Heterocolpites ~'3 ( Lumnitzera )
Ctenolophonaceae Ctenolophonidites ( Ctenolophon )
Dipterocarpaceae Hopea, Shorea Retitricolpites ( Dipterocarpus,
Drybalanops )
Droseraceae Droseridites
Ebenaceae Diospyros 3
Euphorbiaceae Excoecaria 1, Crotonipollis ( Jatropha ),
Phyllanthus Crotonoidaepollenites ( Jatropha ) t
Ericaceae Ericipites
Haloragaceae Haloragacidites ( Myriophyllum )
Hamamelidaceae Altingia 4
Hippocrateaceae Dakshinipollenites, Hippocrateaceaedites
Icacinaceae lcacinoipollenites
Juglandaceae Pterocaryapollenites ( Pterocarya ),
Engelhardtioidites ( Engelhardtia )
Lamiaceae Polycolpites
Lauraceae Machilus, Litsea
Lecythidaceae Barringtonia z,3 Marginipollis 2'3 ( Barringtonia )
Leguminosae (Fabaceae) Cassia-Acacia, Margocolporites ( Caesalpinia,
Erythrina, Bauhinia, Mazoneuron, Peltrophrum ),
Euginia, Dalbergia 3 Psilatricolporites (Cassia),
Cupuliferoipollenites,
Palaeocaesalpiniaceaepites, Trisyncolpites
(Poinciana), Polyadopollenites (Acacia,
A lbizzia ) 3
84 A. SINGHETAL.
TABLE 8 (continued)
Family Fossil wood Fossil pollen genera (botanical affinity)

Liliaceae Liliacidites
Lentibulariaceae Utricularia Neyvelipollenites (Utricularia)
Lythraceae Verrutricolporites ~,3 (Crenea)
Loranthaceae Gothanipollis ( Loranthus, Taxillus )
Meliaceae Azadirachta Meliapollis L2,3 ( Melia, Azadirachta )
Moraceae Triporopollenites ( Ficus, Artocarpus )
Myrsinaceae Stephanocolpites 4 ( Myrsine )
Menispermaceae Assamialetes
Nymphaeaceae Monosulcites ( Nymphaea )
Nyssaceae Nyssapollenites
Oleaceae Retitricolporites ( Ligustrum )
Onagraceae Triorites
Olacaceae Anacolosidites ( Anacolosa )
Plumbaginaceae Plumbaginacipites ~, Warkallipollenites
( Aegialitis )
Poaceae Cuticle Graminidites
Polygalaceae Polygalacidites ( Polygala )
Polygonaceae Polygonacidites ( Polygonum )
Potamogetonaceae Retipilonapites ( Potamogeton )
Proteaceae Proteacidites ( Isopogon )
Rhizophoraceae Carallia l Zonocostites ~ ( Rhizophora, Bruguiera )
Rosaceae Perinari
Rubiaceae Randia Retistephanocolpites 3 ( Calermania ),
Palaeocoprosmadites (Coprosma)
Sapindaceae Talisipites (Talisia), Cupanieidites
( Cupania )
Sapotaceae Bassia, Mimusops Sapotaceoidaepollenites
Sonneratiaceae Sonneratia ~
Sterculiaceae Cuddaloripollis, Tricollaraeporites
( Pterospermum )
Symplocaceae Symplocoipollenites ( Symplocus )
Thymeliaceae Thymelaepollis, Clavaperiporites
(Wilkstroemia)
Tiliaceae Intratriporopollenites t,3 ( Brownlowia )
Typhaceae Jacobipollenites
Ulmaceae Tetrapollis
Mangrove plants.
ZMangrove associates.
3Back mangrove plants.
4Trees/herbs/shrubs of coastal or near-shore (littoral/swampy) habitat.
Data compiled from: Ramanujam (1966, 1982, 1990); Awasthi (1974, 1984); Navale (1974); Na-
vale and Misra (1979); Ramanujam and Reddy (1984); Awasthi and Agarwal ( 1986 ); Agarwal ( 1988,
1990 ); and personal communications from N. Awasthi, M.B. Bande and A. Agarwal ( 1991 ).
PALAEODEPOSITIONAL HISTORY AND SWAMP TYPES (DISCUSSION)
It is g e n e r a l l y b e l i e v e d t h a t the v e g e t a t i o n c o m p l e x e s o f the p a s t h a d e n v i -
r o n m e n t a l r e q u i r e m e n t s s i m i l a r to t h e i r c o u n t e r p a r t s o f today. D u e to the
striking s i m i l a r i t y o f fossil t a x a to a c o n s i d e r a b l e n u m b e r o f m o d e r n p l a n t
f a m i l i e s / g e n e r a / s p e c i e s , it w o u l d b e r e a s o n a b l e to c o m m e n t u p o n the general
climatic setting and the type of forest complexes during the formation of lig-
nite deposits.
Interpretations of palaeovegetation/palaeoclimate made here are based on
family level, because the affinity of several fossil pollen-spores are yet to be
ascertained with their modern counterparts. Thus, it is of a generalized nature
and would be supplimented by further investigation. The significant angios-
permic (macro and micro) fossil taxa (Table 8 ) recovered from the Neyveli
lignite field/seam belong (among others) to the following families: Alangi-
aceae, Anacardiaceae, Araliaceae, Arecaceae, Avicenniaceae, Boraginaceae,
Bombacaceae, Brassicaceae, Clusiaceae, Combretaceae, Ctenolophonaceae,
Dipterocarpaceae, Droseraceae, Ebenaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Haloragaceae,
Hippocrateaceae, Icacinaceae, Lauraceae, Lecythidaceae, Leguminosae (Fa-
baceae), Lentibulariaceae, Liliaceae, Lythraceae, Meliaceae, Nymphaeaceae,
Nyssaceae, Oleaceae, Plumbaginaceae, Poaceae, Polygalaceae, Potamogeton-
aceae, Rhizophoraceae, Rosaceae, Rubiaceae, Sapindaceae, Sapotaceae, Son-
neratiaceae, Sterculiaceae, Thymeliaceae, Tiliaceae, Typhaceae and Ulma-
ceae. In addition to this, other significant pollen genera with unknown affinity
include: Bacuspinulopollenites, Bacustephanocolpites, Tamilipollenites, Vel-
laripollis, Scrobiculatricolporites, Hexacolpites, Polybrevicolpites, Syncolpor-
ites, Maculoporites, Tricolpites, Verrutricolpites and Inaperturotetradites.
Pteridophytes are represented mainly by a variety of schizaeaceous spores, in
addition to a subordinate amount of those belonging to Polypodiaceae, Os-
mundaceae, Gleicheniaceae and Adiantaceae (Table 9 ).
The overall floral evidence (Tables 8 and 9) reasonably establish that the
field (and its environs) was inhabited by moist tropical forests (comprising
wet-evergreen, semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests) along with in-
land, coastal, mangrove, mangrove-associate, back mangrove and beach plant
communities. These types of forest are found today in the western ghats, As-
TABLE 9
Pteridophytic fossil floral records from the Neyveli lignite field, south India
Family Fossil spores genera (botanical affinity)

Adiantaceae Pteridacidites
Gleicheniaceae Gleicheniidites ( Gleichenia )
Hymenophyllaceae Hymenophyllumsporites
Osmundaceae Todisporites
Polypodiaceae Polypodiisporites ( Polypodium ),
Monolites, Laevigatosporites
Schizaeaceae Schizaeoisporites ( Schizaea ),
Neyvelisporites ( Schizaea.)
Lygodiumsporites ( Lygodium ),
Crassoretitriletes ( Lygodium )
Compiled from Ramanujam ( 1967, 1990); Ramanujam and Reddy (1984).
86 A. SINGH ET AL.
sam, West Bengal and foothill zones of Himalaya (Fig. 14; Champion and
Seth, 1968). A variety of moisture- and shade-loving herbs and shrubs (in-
cluding ferns) as well as pteridophytes grew profusely as undergrowth. Small
fresh water lakes or ponds were presumably the site for aquatic and water
edge angiospermous plants.
The western ghats (southern) and Assam (northeastern) flora, in general,
f.x
:
~ Southern limit of Sol
Northern limit of Took
7
/
~.~
Calcutta ~" "
Bombay,:
~-.'.;;~'_~I:" ~ Tropical wet evergreen forest

" ~ Tropical semi-evergreen forest
~ Tropical moist deciduous forest
r: ~ Littoral and swamp forest
r~ IEEEE] Tropical dry deciduou, forest
Tropical thorn forest
i Madras v~ Tropical dry evergreen forest
Vl. ~ Subtropical broadleoved hill forest
~i ~ Subtropical pine forest
•\ °. ~i ~ Subtropical dry evergreen forest
Montane wet temperate forest
X. ~ . ~ HimoloyGn moist temperate forest
Himalayan dry temperate forest
Subalpine and alpine forest
Fig. 14. The sixteen major forest types of India on the basis of climate (temperature and rain-
fall) (after Champion and Seth, 1968 ).
are recognized by Dipterocarpaceae, Anacardiaceae, Bombacaceae, Laura-

ceae, Magnoliaceae, Meliaceae, Arecaceae and Rubiaceae. Analysis of the
generic composition of Tertiary flora of the Indian subcontinent, and also
comparison of fossil macro- and micro-flora with the modern counterparts,
suggests that similar vegetation was present in the Neyveli and its environs
(east coast) and western ghats during the lignite accumulation (Prakash, 1972;
Awasthi, 1974; Lakhanpal, 1974; Navale, 1974). However, the eastern coast
(of peninsular India) gradually became dryer as many of the moist tropical
elements became extinct in this region. Figure 15 shows the warm humid cli-
i
~k 72"-.\
'' ..... " "-~", ~4° 0'8° 9'2° 96°
J (
// (~',J ~,~ 1. Rain in w i n t e r as well as in summer,
20 'L 50': Mean Jan. temp. 55 °,
= ,~ x 32 °
L_32° "*~-~.~ ,.",.) 2. Arid lowland - rain under 20'[
~.~,,~ t"~ 3. Moderate rainfall 20'L50':Very hot and
"'.~ "-...... dry in early ~umrner. Mean Jan. temp.
/
./X '"..'~ " "/' 50°- 65°" .....~"-
2¢ /%/ /'K" ~. -" "
",,® ~',.--,.. .... .~U_..,' ,,

', "" . . . . . > \ ....... ~(D " 2~+°
-.- " ~ (~ ,, .~alcuita \ ;

r.7~" ,e~;
'.~, i,:,
• Hagpur /( 20 °-
~o" .... / " ' x IS
•
t
/
.!
.)
® ,?"
• • •/("
/. "
B°mba~'~ 1
Hyflerabad "• .:
/ 16°-
A"
e~ S
16" !t'~l • / 4. Heavy rainfall.Considerable humidity.
:;', \ ( ~ / 5. Very heavy rainfall over 75~
2/
i 6. Heavy rainfall 50"- over lO0. Dry season
I e.)~ Madras three months.
12°-
"12° Xx~' . , i 7. Maximum rainfall in Nor. and DeC.30~50':
# l I /2
Qto' S I' 8. Moderate rainfall,2OYSO'.JMean Jan.
)~ ' i temp. 6 5 - 7 5 :
•~ r.J
I } if'.' 9, Very heavy rainfall. Dry season seven
,~J.j,' .f o month ,
- 8" 72 ° 76 ° "< •/ 80 8/, ° 88" 92"
i I I I I
Fig. 15. The present climatic regions o f India (source: G o v e r n m e n t o f I n d i a ) .

88 A. SINGH ET AL.
mate on the western coast (ghats) of India, where there is an annual rainfall
of 150-< 250 cm (in the moist tropical forests) and a mean annual temper-
ature between 22°C and 27°C. A fair representation of Shizaeaceae (Schi-
zaeoisporites and Neyvelisporites), Arecaceae, Rhizophoraceae ~, Hippocra-
teaceae, Clusiaceae ~, Caesalpiniaceae (Margocolporites, Trisyncolpites),
Ebenaceae ~, Combretaceae ~, Sapotaceae, Dipterocarpaceae ~, Meliaceae, Po-
aceae, Ctenolophonaceae, Moraceae and Anacardiaceae ~plant communities
(Table 8 ), as well as the common presence of microthyriaceous complex fungi
(diverse epiphyllous ) and an. absence of gymnospermous plants, besides thick
lignite deposits, suggest that a warm climate with high rainfall (precipitation
exceeding evaporation; tropical humid type climate ), congenial for evergreen
to moist deciduous forests, existed during the formation of the Neyveli de-
posits (Lakhanpal, 1974; Meher-Homji, 1978; Awasthi, 1984; Ramanujam
and Reddy, 1984; Ramanujam, 1990).
The Neogene sedimentation continued on a stable shelf in the South Arcot
basin. A thick sedimentary pile of the lignite-bearing Cuddalore Formation,
with wide range of lithologies, accumulated. All the major palaeo-rivers of the
Cauvery basin appear to have been accumulating deposits during a regressive
phase; when the environment varied between fluvial, lacustrine, brackish, la-
goonal, and probably marine, in a prograding deltaic system (Ramanathan,
1968, 1979; Banerji, 1979 ). In addition to this, poor sorting of clastics, rapid
alternations of sandstone, clayey sandstone, sandy clay and clay with frequent
pinchouts and channel-fill sands, together with the thick lignite seam, also
corroborate this. However, Ramanathan ( 1979, p. 172) considers that the
Cuddalore sediments were deposited in lagoons. A palaeo-shoreline orienta-
tion parallel to the lignite deposits is, itself, indicative of the existence of la-
goonal swamps. The basin enjoyed stable tectonic conditions during vegetal
accumulation, as is evident by the thick and extensive nature of the lignite
deposit. Association of fine-grained sediments with the seam indicate depo-
sition mostly from suspended load material in an almost stagnant condition
with a sediment source from a peneplained provenance.
The Cenozoic palynofloral assemblages afford a better grouping into eco-
logical groups. The montane elements (Clavaperiporites, Lakiapollis, Thy-
melaepollis, Caprifoliipites, Umbelliferoipollenites, Syrnplocoipollenites,
Triorites, Engelhardtioidites, Retibrevicolporites, Tetrapollis, Ericipites, Hip-
pocrateaceaedites, Proteacidites) recovered from the Neyveli field indicate
flood plain and coastal plain deposition in lakes influenced by back- and flesh-
water swamps. The fresh water swamp and water edge flora are represented
by taxa such as Schizaeoisporites, Meliapollis, Ctenolophonidites, Margocol-
porites, Jacobipollenites, Droseridites, Anacolosidites, Sapotaceoidaepollen-
ites, Polygalacidites, Cupaniedites, Araliaceoipollenites, Trisyncolpites,
~Fffmilies represented by more than one or all three fossil types-pollen, wood and cuticle.
Neyvelipollenites, Polygonacidites, Haloragacidites and Retipilonapites. Back

mangrove and mangrove are indicative of deposition in a brackish environ-
ment. Sand dune or beach elements (taxa of family Arecaceae, Table 8 ) in-
dicate deposition beyond tidal reach. Table 8 reveals that such ecological
groups, which are indicative of various depositional conditions, are irregu-
larly distributed in the seam and no distinct pattern in deposition is evident.
This is possibly because of the fact that, of all the pollen-spore forms re-
covered, only 50-60% of them could be affiliated with extant taxa up to the
family level. Furthermore, the dominance of the fresh water elements mixed
with those of typical brackish water in the seam is not unusual for an ancient
virgin coastal to near shore forest vegetation, because the intermixing of flora
in fossil record is controlled by several factors: seaward distributory channels
flowing through the mangrove belt, tidal influence, the position of fresh water
feeding channels, marine inlets in the swamps and, of course, dispersal pat-
tern of the allochthonous pollen-spores.
The palynodebris for use in organic matter (OM) typing were logged for
environmental interpretation with an understanding that the palynodebris
content of a lignite/coal deposit, in comparison to the contents of other sedi-
ments, would be inherently marked by a high content of structured terrestrial
OM (in the present case) and would effect the overall picture. The presence
of structured terrestrial (OM), consisting of woody and non-woody cellular
tissues, suggests terrestrial vegetation as lignite source material. Its domi-
nance, along with common presence of resin, indicate deltaic plain environ-
ments where flora is dominated by woody vegetation. Biodegraded terrestrial
OM showing evidence of microbial decay, moderate amount of amorphous
OM and semi-amorphous resins (recorded as resins) suggest the possibility
of a coastal swamp with restricted low-energy and anaerobic conditions (Fig.
16; Pocock et al., 1987). The floral community, being dominated by angio-
sperms, indicates a swampy, montane, and back mangrove habitat of a coastal
regime.
The palynodebris contents (Table 5) clearly show that the seam section
encountered in borehole NLE-35, in the northern part of the mine III, has
experienced the best vegetal preservation among all the three sections. How-
ever, its basal portion has suffered a moderate amount of biodegradation, as
is indicated by degraded + amorphous + fungal + resin OM types. In con-
trast to this, towards the south, in boreholes NLE-36 (7 km south of NLE-
35 ) and NLE-27 (5 km southeast of NLE-35 and 7 km east-northeast of NLE-
36) a moderately high degree ofbiodegradation is evident in the bottom and
top of the middle and bottom and the top of the middle and top parts of the
seam sections. It appears that the lignite seam section in the north (NLE-35),
in general, experienced a high water table level which retarded biodegrada-
tion, whereas, towards south (NLE-36) and southeast (NLE-27) fluctuating
and relatively shallow water table levels apparently facilitated the growth of
I Common to a b u n d a n t I . STRUCTURED TERRESTRIAL
L Scarce to common
. Common Z. SPORES and POLLEN
~ Scarce to a b u n d a n t 3. FUSINITE
sl Rare to common
Rare to common • %/. % • ~ . BIOOEGRAOED TERRESTRIAL
71 Rare to scarce
-~_~-'_-~_--~ ' rotato 5. AMORPHOUS
=,__ ":., ,. Z~ncrea~es ."
'~, • ....... • .,,,,.' 6. GREY AMORPHOUS
1. common to dominant
,,,,,
7. STRUCTURED AQUEOUS
2. Rare to common %"".... S" ,'""
3. Common
t,. Common
5. Common
6, Common o dominant
..........~ r"...................... '""',. 1. A b u n d a n t
............ m~'tter increases",. " ~
Rare ~ 2. Absent to comm¢
......... ' " ' .......... 2. Rare to common 3. Rare to common
3 Common &. Common to dominan 1. A b u n d a n t to ~ "
/~.
5, Rare
Rare to common ,,.,,,,, 5. Absent to common . -: 2. Absent to a b u n d a n t J
----~'-"~;~ G. Abundant to dominant ~.. -- ~ 3 Rare to common
~'~--";~- 7. Common to abundant r r ~ Common to dora inane
• ~ k, 5. Absent to a b u n d a n t %
.....
=" . 1. Common to dominant

2. Rare to a b u n d a n t Rare to c o m m o n
r.~C,- ?~ ~-" ". . . . . . . . . _ACK)ON ~]__r.~ 13 Common to abundant 2. Common to a bundant
~-~ /.i Common to dominanl ~.~_= _~_= -
~ 3. Common
~'~ 5 Rare to common =-~ ~. Common to dominant
BF,.ACH Iw '=-'---~ 6: Rare to dominolnt ~ ~ S. Rare to common
~ (part.granular) 6. Rare to common
i ' ~ _~-j 17. Rare or absent t o ~ , RaT. to . . . . . .
content
Total organic
ow l ~3.° oScarce
m r ~ n mto~ !common
i bE--~T common
4.Scarce to commor
5. Common Mu h bacter,a,:,otion *,,h
G. Scarce to commol format on ~f amorphous
ISLANDS - -
1. Absent to rare
2. Rare
3. Common to dominant
SEA Rare
~ Absent
matter . Absent
~
• Common torare
.... Upper t i d a l l i m i t Decrease in watervelo<:i

NU$ precipitationwher,
MONTANE RAIN FOREST satine and freshwater =r/
II organlc m i x result~ in hiqh / / NOTE :
[--] LOWLAND RAIN FOREST -- CHOMOTRILETES ( CONCENTRICYSTIS )
commonly e n c o u n t e r e d in moist soils,
FRESH WATER SWAMP 1. Common to abundant
2. Co mmon swamps, w a t e r c o u r s e s and in estuaries z
3. Common c~
z Common to dominant and b r a c k i s h w a t e r tagoons inTROPICAL .r
BACK MANGROVE
S. Common
g. Rare to common REGIONS• .H
MANGROVE 7. Rare to common >
--SCHEI~A after Haseldonckx,t97t. F'
Fig. 16. Palynodebris data of tropical e n v i r o n m e n t s (after P o c o c k et al., 1987 ).

micro-organisms degrading the existing vegetal matter. The palynodebris as-

sociation and distribution pattern, in general, suggest a coastal environment
where peat accumulated without break.
The high frequency of Arecaceae pollen (represented by Acanthotricolpites
in the clay bed and Spinomonosulcites in the lignitic clay bed), characteristic
of beach vegetation, along with some montane (also in the clay from NLE-
27) back mangrove and fresh water elements in the lignitic clay (NLE-36)
bed, indicate near-shore deposition. In contrast, the low frequency of terres-
trial amorphous and biodegraded OM, with abundant structured terrestrial
OM and pollen-spores, suggest a coastal flood plain environment during the
deposition of lignitic clay and clay beds.
The sparingly banded nature of the lignite seam with the overwhelming
dominance ofhuminite macerals and poor sporinite content (Table 6) is in-
dicative of its formation from forest vegetation (Stach et al., 1982 ). A general
predominance of humodetrinite fractions (attrinite + densinite macerals)
with the frequent association of fungal remains (sclerotinite) relate to a warm
humid (tropical) climate and peat accumulation under subaqueous condi-
t i o n s - u n d e r a higher water table with a high degree of aerobic fungal/bacte-
rial degradation. Pyrite framboids and concretions ( < 1 mm to 10 cm),
together with common presence of Botryococcus (Navale and Misra, 1980;
Ramanujam and Reddy, 1984) are also indicative of anaerobic alkaline con-
ditions during the lignite formation, which was probably in a lagoon.
The deduced petrographic facies in the main seam (especially from mine
I) indicate that the top and bottom sections, which are dominated by humo-
telinite/collinite contents, enjoyed basically anaerobic conditions during
coalification. Soon after deposition, the degradational effects of combined
fungal and other biological agencies were gradually warded off, due to the
increasing toxicity in the peat, hence, the humodetrinite fractions in these
parts are relatively less than in the middle section. In contrast, the middle part
of the seam apparently experience slightly more degradational oxidative con-
ditions. This is corroborated by the dominance of the high degradation prod-
ucts attrinite and densinite. From observation on the lignite pellets of the
mine III area, it is inferred that the lignite did not experienced a uniformaly
high rate of degradation as in mine I. Instead, the degradational effects were
pronounced only in certain parts of the seam in various borehole core sec-
tions. These observations have also been corroborated, to a great extent, by
the degradational effects found on tissues, pollen and spores caused by fungal
and other biodegradational agencies, during the macerate analysis.
The thickness variation of the seam sections (5.85 m NLE-35; 7.5 m NLE-
36; 25.0 m NLE-27 ) was possibly controlled by the basin floor configuration,
late initiation and early drowning of the peat and post-depositional wash outs.
Late initiation of the peat swamp is evident from the almost stagnant sedi-
mentation of the lignitic clay bed (seam floor) instead of a lignite seam in
92 A. SINGH ETAL.
borehole NLE-36 and by the low energy, sluggish channel deposit represented
by the clayey sandstone floor of the seam in NLE-35. The cessation of the
peat accumulation (in NLE-35 and 36 ) is probably marked by the drowning
of the peat swamp represented by the clayey sandstone roof. The lithology of
the roof indicates a low energy deposition from a mixed load of a sluggish
channel or channels in a more-or-less flat or low gradient plain, possibly in a
coastal or near-shore region. In contrast to these two sections, the seam sec-
tion in borehole NLE-27, located towards the deeper side or in the direction
of the basinal slope, shows the best development of the main lignite seam (25
m ), presumably because of early initiation of vegetal accumulation there and
simultaneous subsidence of the basin with peat growth. The peat formation
(in NLE-27 ) commenced after the high-energy deposition of a sand floor and
ended with a relatively low-energy suspended load deposit represented by the
sandy clay roof.
The preceding evidence and inferences clearly show that the lignite seam
sections, including the lignitic clay and clay beds below the seam, were depos-
ited under a wide range of environmental conditions: coastal fresh water, flood
plain, back mangrove and lagoonal swamps. These depositional environ-
ments, requiring both fresh and sea water with stagnant conditions, are pos-
sible in a prograding delta, especially on a lower delta plain, restricted
towards the sea by wave-formed bars and spits. The clay bed below the seam
(in NLE-27) was apparently deposited in a flood plain environment, which
gradually became swampy, and was supported by back mangrove vegetation
(in NLE-36 ) immediately before the seam formation. The main lignite seam
was formed from vegetal accumulation, probably in a lagoonal swamp fed by
fresh water from the western side and sea water from the east.
Information about the autochthonous nature of lignite formation is not
available, mainly because no attention has been paid to this up to now. Never-
theless, the frequent occurrence of vertical twigs or branches (up to a few
centimeters in diameter) in the lignite chunks, a low ash/mineral matter con-
tent, uninterrupted development of a thick seam, the presence of possible root
zones, the petrographic character (clean to very clean nature of the huminite)
of the lignite seam, and record of Botryococcus, suggest the possibility of its
autochthonous genesis; incorporating in situ plants as well as those growing
in the vicinity of the ancient peat swamp.
CONCLUSIONS
The Neyveli lignite deposit occurs in the northernmost Ariyalur-Pondi-

cherry sub-basin (or South Arcot basin) of the Cauvery main basin. The de-
posit is in the upper part of the Cuddalore Formation--the topmost horizon
of the exposed Tertiary sequence--and is distributed in a single major lignite
seam (main seam) with some local seams above and some splits in the main
seam. The thickness of the main lignite seam varies between less than 6 to
more than 27 m, with uneven upper and lower surfaces. The seam attains its
maximum thickness along the north-south axis in the central portion of the
lignite. The lignite boundary (Fig. 4) possibly reflects the two-dimensional
morphology of the basin where vegetal accumulation took place.
The palynomorphs recovered from the main lignite seam sections encoun-
tered in boreholes NLE-35, 36 and 27 from mine III have been assigned to 38
genera (33 genera of angiosperms 79.6%, and 5 genera of pteridophytes
20.4%) distributed between 95 species, indicating a rich and varied angios-
permic vegetation. The palynoassemblages of the main seam from mines I, II
and III are qualitatively similar. Quantitative differences exist even between
two sections within a mine. The lignitic (carbonaceous) clay bed shows a
palynological resemblance to the conformably overlying lignite seam (in NLE-
36).
Available geological, geophysical and microfaunal/floral data, along with
the evidence of the present study from the Neyveli field, suggest that the main
lignite seam is of Miocene age. As regards the presence of the so-called Palae-
ocene-Eocene pollen-spores in the present assemblage, they have been found
to possess distinct morphological differences with those recorded from the
older Tertiary sediments of India. It is a well known fact that most of the plant
taxa originating/existing during the Palaeogene are extant. Therefore, it is
normal to record them even in younger sediments, provided their ecological
conditions are broadly identical. This is, in fact, the case with such pollen-
spores from the Palaeocene-Eocene sediments of the northeastern, western
and eastern coasts and the Miocene sediments of the eastern and western coasts
of India.
A comparison of the fossil floral community recorded, with those of the
extant vegetation of India, reveals that the vegetation which served as the
lignite source material resembles the moist deciduous tropical forest found
today in the western ghats, Assam, West Bengal and foothill zones of the
Himalayas. Cauvery basin possibly experienced a warm humid climate dur-
ing the time of the lignite formation. The fossil microflora of the seam show
a range of ecological conditions: fresh-water coastal flood plain, coastal swamp,
back mangrove and mangrove swamps; whereas, the lignitic clay (in NLE-
36 ) and clay (in NLE-27 ) beds below the seam have predominantly beach or
shore line vegetation.
The palynodebris association of the seam sections are characterized by the
predominance of structured terrestrial organic matter (OM) and subordinate
amount of biodegraded terrestrial, fungal and terrestrial amorphous OM types,
which suggest near-shore formation of the lignite seam. The lignitic clay and
clay beds below the seam appear to have been deposited in a coastal flood
plain rather than on a beach or shore line, as deduced on the basis of the
ecological grouping of the fossil flora.
94 A. SINGH ET AL.
A general preponderance of attrinite and densinite macerals, a low propor-

tion of inertinite macerals, the c o m m o n presence of Botryococcus and early
diagenetic framboidal and concretionary pyrite, indicate anaerobic alkaline
conditions during the vegetal accumulation in a brackish swamp. The lignite
seam sections formed without any interruption. However, its facies variation,
as evidenced by petrographic characters and palynodebris contents, was
mainly governed by environmental factors. The seam in mine III has lower
R o max. value (average for each three sections 0.39%) than its counterpart in
mine I (Ro max. 0.47%) indicating a southwards decrease in maturity.
From the overall assessment, it is visualized that the Neyveli main lignite
seam was formed from m a n g r o v e - m i x e d angiospermic moist tropical forest
vegetation. The vegetal accumulation presumably took place in a lagoon, al-
most parallel to the then existing shoreline which had fresh water inlets from
the western side and restricted sea water channels from the east.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the Geological Survey of India, for provid-
ing the core samples, and the Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Ltd., for generous
help during field visit. We also thank Drs. B.S. Venkatachala (Director), S.A.
Jafar and R.K. Saxena of this Institute for reviewing the manuscript and their
valuable comments. To Drs. N. Awasthi, M.B. Bande and A. Agarwal, Ceno-
phitic Evolutionary Botany Department (B.S.I.P.), we express our apprecia-
tion for fruitful discussion on macrofloral (fossil wood ) records. Finally, the
authors wish to thank Prof. C.G.K. R a m a n u j a m (former Head of Botany
Dept., Post Graduate College of Science, Osmania University, Hyderabad)
who suggested some additions.
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The Neyveli Lignite Deposits (Cauvery Basin), India: Organic Composition, Age and Depositional Pattern

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International Journal of Coal Geology, 21 ( 1992 ) 45-97 45

Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam

The Neyveli lignite deposits (Cauvery basin),

Alpana Singh, B.K. Misra, B.D. Singh and G.K.B. Navale

The largest exploitable Tertiary lignite reserve (3300 million t) in India

0166-5162/92/$05.00 © 1992 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. All rights reserved.

biopetrological compositions of the Neyveli lignites, which account for about

~.VR I -U H.ALI g.".-.~.%

/ ' + "t" "+~~.~-'~.'.'."r / / , 9 , ~ j IVlAI'AVAI~AM I

• +~-~* ~-~-;-, rr, IANJORE NAGAPATNAM

÷ae ~"-I, .~( #""f'~.~':"

+ +", %-..~ "''.'. "..'.# "r

+ , +'p. ~.. ::'::.:...~ /

+ + +/;; "o Cuddalore F o r m a t i o n

IMI~IlI~ : "/ f" ~ Da I m iapu ram For mation( reefoidal lira

Fig. 2. Regionalsetting of the Cauverybasin, India (after Ramanathan, 1968;Banerji, 1979).

paddi-Alapakkam road, Kailasam (1968 ) considered that the sediments of

Age Formation Lithology

T Late Miocene Cuddalore Argillaceous sandstone, lignite, pebble-bearing sandstone,

correlating surface and subsurface Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary lithounits

Cuddalore Formation (lignite-bearing lithounit)

The Cuddalore Formation, comprising alternate beds of sandstone, clayey

or ferruginous cementing m e d i u m (55%). The sandstone below the lignite

NLE - 27 N L E - 35 NLE -36

Closed Closed Closed

1 Dandotiaspora sp. ( X 400).

List of form genera found in in the Neyveli deposits, south India

Borehole Cummulative No. of

Icacinoipollenites Navale and Misra 1979 - 0.1 0.07 1

Cruc(feroipollenites Navale and Misra 1979 1.2 0.4 - 0.27 1

Dakshinipollenites Navale and Misra 1979 - 0.4 2.7 1.63 1

era. Singh and Misra 1991b

NLE-27 NLE-35 NLE-3& Mine III(cummuIative)

ites and Polycolpites forms are in abundance, besides Transdanubiaepollen-

ites, Spinomonosulcites, Icacinoipollenites, Lakiapollis, Jacobipollenites and

Borehole ~,-NLE-27---* * - ~ - N L E - 3 5 - - - - - ~ < ---MLE-36 )

TRAN SDA N'JBIAEPOL LE NITES I ~

Significant palynomorphs found in the Neyveli lignite field, south India

Mine I Mine II Mine Ill

~Genera also recorded from the mine I area.

cluded, the assemblage of NLE-36 is dominated by Transdanubiaepollenites

CATEGORY SUB- CATEGORY

SPORES and Monolete and trilete spores

BIODEGRADED medium stem and root

FUNGI I Mycelia (plectenchymite)

Fig. 9. Classification of palynodebris (after Pocock et al., 1987).

1 Sclerotia-fruiting body (ca. × 200).

Borehole Sample Structured terrestrial Resin Fungal Amorphous Biode- Pollen

70- F--I Amorphous

10- 5~, 9.3%

Fig. 10. Palynodebris composition of the Neyveli deposits, south India.

Significant petrological contributions to the characterization of the Neyveli

Top Middle Bottom Seam

HUMINITE 81.2 83.5 83.0 82.6

ire and alginite (Botryococcus). Quantitatively, resinite (0.9-5.7%) is the

Hurninite HUmodet rinit~

nate (45.0-70.7%) over the combined contents of the textinite corpohumin-

( 1 ) huminite dominant (humotelinite/collinite-rich),

The huminite reflectance measurements were carried out individually on

Sample Range of Highest 1/ Number Reflectance Rank ASTM/

NLE-27 0.28-0.49 0.30-0.35 3 0.39 Sub-bituminous

The moisture content can be reduced to 15% by air drying. It is reported

AGE OF THE NEYVELI LIGNITE DEPOSITS