In the present study an attempt has been made to carry out the detailed petrographic characterization of the Karharbari coals of Talcher coalfield and to reconstruct the paleoenvironment conditions of coal formation using macerals and microlithtotypes as a tool.For these purposes a large number of samples were collected following the pillar sampling method and were subjected to detailed petrographic study.The petrographic observation shows that these coals are vitrinite rich followed by the liptinite and inertinite group of macerals.On microlithotype scale,these coals shows the dominance of the vitrite followed by clarite,vitrinertite and inertite.The concentration of liptite,clarodurite,duroclarite and vitrinertoliptite are insignificant.The vitrinite reflectance ranks the Karharbari coal as high volatile bituminous ‘C’ to high volatile ‘B’ bituminous.Coal petrography based depositional models suggest peat accumulation in forested telmatic swamp.Moreover,during the time of their evolution,there were alteate phases of oxic and anoxic moor conditions with good tissue preservation.