Tirap Gaon, Ledo

Tirap Gaon, Ledo also known as Tirap Colliery,[1] is a small village in Margherita Tehsil in Tinsukia District of north-eastern state Assam, India. It is located around 3 km away from nearest town Ledo, 11 km away from sub-divisional town Margherita and 60 km away from district headquarter Tinsukia. Tirap Gaon is connected to Makum by National Highway 38 (old numbering).

Tirap Gaon, Ledo
village
Nickname:  Colliery
Tirap Gaon, Ledo Location in Assam, India Show map of Assam Tirap Gaon, Ledo Tirap Gaon, Ledo (India) Show map of India
Coordinates: 27°19′0″N 95°49′0″E
Country	India
State	Assam
District	Tinsukia
Elevation	333 m (1,093 ft)
Languages
• Official	Assamese
Time zone	UTC+5:30 (IST)
PIN	786182
ISO 3166 code	IN-AS
Vehicle registration	AS
Coastline	0 kilometres (0 mi)

The Indian census counts Tirap Gaon as two villages: No.1 and No.2.[2]

This place is known for opencast coal mining since 1983[3] under North Eastern Coalfields, a unit of Coal India Limited.[4] In 2018–2019, an international team of researchers discovered fossil impressions of two previously unknown species of bamboo (Bambusiculmus tirapensis and Bambusiculmus makumensis) in the Tirap coalmine. These fossils date back to about 25 million years ago, falling in the late Oligocene period. This discovery strengthened the theory that bamboo came to Asia from India and not from Europe. It also challenged the previous hypothesis that Asian bamboo spread from the Yunnan region of China to India.[5]