8 is in the west-central portion of Raniganj Coalfield and spans over four geological blocks, namely Sripur, Satgram, Ningha and Bhanora.

In Ningha UG mine, Dishergarh (R-IV) seam was being worked by board and pillar method.

According to Haradhan Roy, the veteran political leader and trade unionist, about a million tonnes of coal are produced by illegal collieries in Raniganj alone.

[6] Systematic mining and movement of coal by the railways, started in the mid-nineteenth century in the Raniganj Coalfields, led by Carr, Tagore and Company.

In this system coal pillars are left behind to support the roof and the vacant space was not always filled with sand.

[9] The veteran CITU leader, Sunil Basu Roy, described the workers of the illegal mines as "the wretched on the earth" – they have nowhere else to go and no other means of survival.

In Gourandi village, near Asansol, around 5,000 people work in shifts in an open cast mine.

The entire stretch of Grand Trunk Road from Andal to Barakar passes through a subsidence-prone area.

[10] Amongst the major accidents in Indian coal mines in the post-independence period, only one has occurred in what is now the Sripur Area, On 14 March 1954, 10 persons were killed in an explosion of fire damp at Damra Colliery, then owned by Kalipahari Coal Company.

[11][12][13] Prior to the advent of coal mining, the entire region was a low-productive rice crop area in what was once a part of the Jungle Mahals.

The ownership of land had passed on from local adivasis to agricultural castes before mining started.

However, the Santhals and the Bauris, referred to by the colonial administrators as "traditional coal cutters of Raniganj" remained attached to their lost land and left the mines for agricultural related work, which also was more remunerative.