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Photo: Nigahi Coal Mines, Northern Coal Fields

Mr. Firoz Ahmad and Dr. Laxmi Goparaju of VENHF have published a research paper titled "Spatio-temporal dynamics of mines in Singrauli, India: An analysis using geospatial technology" in 'Journal of Geomatics'. The article is available online for free access on the journal's website. We congratulate the authors The abstract and the full paper is reproduced below:

Forests are at present facing threat because of various reasons. One such reason is the blooming of mining industry. It has many adverse impacts on the forest environment, water resources and wildlife habitat. Evaluation of such impacts time to time and controlling the negative aspects to promote sustainable living would benefit the nation and the people.The present study is an attempt to evaluate the spatial and temporal expansion of mines near Singrauli district (Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh border) since 1976. Amidst the dry tropical forests, the mines are prevalent since  1980sand are now a threat to the health of these forests. Satellite remote sensing data have the potential to observe large areas at regular intervals. Further, in GIS domain, area statistics can be computed which help in quantifying the actual loss or gain in various LULC classes. The temporal datasets for the present case were from Landsat (1976, 2002, 2010 and 2015). After the image processing and classification, the expansion of mines and transformation of various LULC classes were observed. The loss of forests and conversion to other land use was analyzed between different time periods. It was observed that the annual increase in mines area is 4.25 times higher when compared with the period (2010-2015) to (1976-2002). Continuous losses in the annual forest cover was due to increase in the mining area between the study periods (1976-2015) was observed.

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