Quantifying the impacts of opencast mining on vegetation dynamics over eastern India using the long-term Landsat-series satellite dataset

Enhanced spatio-temporal and up-to-date information on vegetation dynamics at various spatial scales are imperative in understanding the human, biosphere, and atmosphere interactions. Thus, the present study attempts to derive the vegetation greenness trends with the medium spatial resolution (30 m) satellite data at the regional scale with the support of Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud platform. The long-term Landsat series satellite dataset was employed to characterize vegetation greenness trends using the Mann-Kendall test over the mining-dominated regions of Eastern India (Jharkhand and Odisha states) for two study periods, viz. earlier (1988–2004) and later (2000−2020). The key findings revealed that ∼1285 km2 (2.97%) and 1688 km2 (3.91%) areas over Jharkhand state and ∼ 5213 km2 (5.68%) and 2940 km2 (3.20%) areas over Odisha state showed the negative vegetation greenness trend (indicative of decreasing vegetation activity) during 1988–2004 and 2000–2020, respectively. It was observed that the major anthropogenic activities, particularly opencast mining, are the major factor for vegetation degradation in Jharkhand and Odisha states, contributing to ∼3–5.7% vegetation degradation during the study periods. The negative vegetation greenness trend patches were mainly observed in mining sites, settlement encroachments, construction sites, roadways, logging sites, etc. The drastic rise in the intensity of mining activities in the last two decades (2000–2020) has led to massive vegetation destruction compared to the earlier period (1988–2004). Furthermore, the key climatic parameters (i.e., precipitation, temperature, downward radiation, and soil moisture) have less control over the long-term vegetation greenness trends in the mining-dominated regions (∼ 27%) in contrast to forest regions (∼ 47%). The findings of the study shall be helpful to the policy-makers, stakeholders, environmentalists, and government bodies to formulate and implement various sustainable development programs in the mining-dominated regions to ensure ecological conservation and enhance ecological services.