Impact of Open Cast Coal Mining on Ecosystem Services: A Case Study of Bhadravati Mine Area in Central India Based on Three-Decadal Land Use Land Cover Assessment

The valuation of ecosystem services over ecologically disturbed landscapes provides an objective metric to understand the level of disturbances in an economic domain. The present study investigates the impact of open-cast coal mining on land use and land cover (LULC) and ecosystem service valuation (ESV) in the Bhadravati area from 1993 to 2023. Results showed that mining activities expanded dramatically, increasing from 21.49 km² (8%) in 1993 to 56.43 km² (21%) in 2023, driven by economic and industrial growth. Built-up areas have similarly expanded from 18.84 km² (7%) to 45.68 km² (17%), due to rapid urbanisation. This expansion contributed to a decline in agricultural lands, which shrank from 204.20 km² (76%) to 96.74 km² (36%), leading to a 52.66% decrease in the ESV of agriculture from $1.88 million to $0.89 million. On the other side, vegetation cover tripled from 16.12 km² (6%) to 61.80 km² (23%), due to successful reforestation and land management efforts of the mining company. This increase in vegetation contributed to a 283.58% rise in its ESV, from $3.23 million in 1993 to $12.40 million in 2023. This study underscores the critical need for mainstreaming the idea of ESV in industrial activities to objectively quantify the economic value of sustainable practices, using remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) techniques. Further, scenarios were created for improving the ESV for proper post-mine implementation.