article · Results in Engineering
• Environmental degradation in forest cover, agriculture-fallow land, and water bodies. • Soil health impacts decreased pH, bulk density, and organic carbon content. • LST consistently rose, with a 4 °C increase in summer/pre-monsoon and 1 °C in winter. • Sustainable mining and eco-restoration initiatives to address environmental degradation . Coal serves as the primary energy source in India, with over 75 % of coal excavated from open cast coal mines, leading to significant environmental repercussions, especially in eastern and central regions. This study delves into the challenges posed by open coal mining in Katghora, a coal-abundant tehsil town situated in Korba district, Chhattisgarh in central India. Spatial analysis of LANDSAT-TM and OLI satellite data from1990 to 2023 reveals 3.93 % reduction in forest area, an 18.04 % decrease in agriculture-fallow land, and 1 % decline in water bodies, primarily due to their conversion into degraded land. Conversely, mining, and built-up areas experienced a respective increase of 1.74 % and 4.30 % during the same period. Moreover, intense mining activities have adversely affected soil health, with significant decrease in pH (varying from 4.8 to 5.6), and bulk density (reduced by up to 25–28 %) in the mined sites and the degraded wastelands compared to the agricultural and forest areas. Organic carbon content was also significantly lower in these areas, varying across soil depths from 0.21 % to 0.60 % (0–20 cm), 0.16 % to 0.54 % (20–40 cm) and 0.13 % to 0.51 %, (40–60 cm). Furthermore, analysis of land surface temperature (LST) data from LANDSAT datasets for 2000, 2010, and 2023 revealed a consistent increase in temperature, around 4 °C rises in both summer and pre-monsoon periods and approximately 1 °C in winter. These findings emphasize the importance of prioritizing eco-restoration initiatives and adopting sustainable mining practices to address the environmental degradation resulting from coal mining activities.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.rineng.2025.104692
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