Environmental Impacts of Opencast Coal Mining in the Margherita-Ledo Region, Assam, India: A Temporal Analysis using NDVI, NDBI and LST

The coal mining is responsible for landscape and environment degradation. The open-cast mining in Makum-Ledo area has more impact on environmental degradation then underground coal mining. Unscientific and unauthorized mining led degradation in quality of air, water, soil, changes in landform, land use/land cover, vegetation distribution mainly due to open crust mining activity. Desertification of the coal field region degradation led to the biodiversity influencing Land Use and Land Cover (LULC), land, water and air pollution. The temporal change in land cover is revealed by NDVI and NDBI of the area, the LST of the study area reveals that the decrease in forest cover for mining activities increases land surface temperature. The new areas are includes since 1993 to 2024, which the area loss of top soil due to opencast mining, the dumping of overburden material, and the deposition of coal dust due to wind erosion. Apart from that, opencast and underground mining, as well as the construction of coal-related businesses, have a direct impact on the environment (including crops in agricultural land). The study focuses to evaluation of the environmental impact and estimate the present status of machineries active in the study area. The study provides an important insight on temporal change in the study area and open scope for further scientific investigation of various factors unaddressed in this paper for future researchers. The paper would be a primary evaluation of the temporal change for the stakeholders to plan strategies for its maintenance and development in scientific way.