The coal is largely used for generation of energy in the India, and their huge exploitations cause contamination of the soil. In the present work, the inorganic contamination of surface soil in the coal basin of the country, Korba is described. The concentration of elements i.e. C, O, S, Cl, Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, K, Ca, Ti, Fe, Mn and Ni in the surface soils (n = 30) was analysed by technique i.e. scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), ranged from 6.6% - 36.4%, 37.8% - 54.3%, 0.07% - 0.39%, 0.03% - 0.25%, 0.10% - 0.39%, 0.12% - 0.49%, 3.7% - 10.3%, 12.2% - 24.4%, 0.11% - 0.60%, 0.68% - 3.22%, 0.8% - 2.7%, 0.25% - 0.61%, 2.3% - 6.4%, 0.08% - 0.22% and 0.04% - 0.16% with mean value (p = 0.05) of 18.8% ± 2.7%, 49.0% ± 1.5%, 0.18% ± 0.03%, 0.11% ± 0.02%, 0.23% ± 0.03%, 0.32% ± 0.03%, 6.1% ± 0.5%, 16.9% ± 0.9%, 0.27% ± 0.04%, 1.6% ± 0.2%, 1.5% ± 0.2%, 0.41% ± 0.03%, 4.3% ± 0.4%, 0.14% ± 0.02% and 0.08% ± 0.01%, respectively. The surface soil morphology, concentration variation of elements, pollution indices and contaminant sources in the soil are discussed.