Impact of Coal Mining on Vegetation: A Case Study in Jaintia Hills ...

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IMPACT OF COAL MINING ON VEGETATION: A CASE STUDY IN JAINTIA HILLS DISTRICT OF MEGHALAYA, INDIA4.4.2. Changes in different land use/ land cover categories from 1975 to 2001To understand the land use dynamics related to vegetation and mining, successive land cover changemaps <strong>of</strong> 1975 and 1987, 1987 and 1999 and 1999 and 2001 has been prepared. Seven classes <strong>of</strong>changes i.e., dense forest to open forest, dense forest to mining, dense forest to non-forest, open forestto mining, open forest to non-forest, no change and others are considered (Figure 4.14, Figure 4.15,Figure 4.16).It was found from the change analysis that there was impact <strong>of</strong> mining to different land uses, whichwere directly or indirectly related to vegetation. About 6 km 2 <strong>of</strong> the dense forest <strong>of</strong> the study area werechanged to the open forest during 1975 to 1987. This rate <strong>of</strong> change was not maintained in theproceeding years. More than 6 km 2 area <strong>of</strong> open forest converted into non-forest during that period.The changes <strong>of</strong> about 25 percent <strong>of</strong> the total area could tell how much stress was going on to thelandscape during 12 years <strong>of</strong> time. During 1987 to 1999 changes occurred in about 20 percent <strong>of</strong> thetotal area. About 4 km 2 <strong>of</strong> the dense forest were converted into open forest during this period. Thechange <strong>of</strong> open forest area to the non-forest recorded a considerable portion (12.87 km 2 ). During theyears 1999 and 2001 about 7 percent <strong>of</strong> the total area undergone changes. During this period about 3percent <strong>of</strong> the area were converted into non-forest either from dense forest or open forest (Table 4.13).The changes that occurred due to the direct or indirect impact <strong>of</strong> mining are represented in Figure 4.13.Prakash and Gupta (1998) while studying the change analysis <strong>of</strong> the Jharia coal field found that therewere changes in different land uses. They concluded that there was general decrease in the vegetationcover. But after the change detection analysis it was apparent that due to the initiation <strong>of</strong> afforestationactivities there were increase in the vegetation cover in the study area. The classification done for thechange analysis for the study were open cast mining, new plantation level out area and area <strong>of</strong> nochange. Rathore and Wright (1993) emphasized that the mining and changes were correlated to eachother.Table 4.13: Changes in land use/ land cover in different yearsChange type 1975-87 1987-99 1999-2001Dense to open Forest 5.92 (1.41%) 3.68 (0.88%) 0.86 (0.21%)Dense forest to mining 0.61 (0.15%) 0.09 (0.02%) 0.06 (0.01%)Dense forest to non-forest 29.35 (6.99%) 19.25 (4.58%) 4.64 (1.11%)Open forest to mining 0.22 (0.05%) 0.41 (0.1%) 0.12 (0.03%)Open forest to non-forest 6.53 (1.55%) 12.87 (3.07%) 5.51 (1.31%)No change 318.16 (75.75%) 335.81 (79.96%) 390.35 (92.94%)Others 59.19 (14.09%) 47.86 (11.4%) 18.46 (4.4%)Total 420 (100%) 420 (100%) 420 (100%)55
IMPACT OF COAL MINING ON VEGETATION: A CASE STUDY IN JAINTIA HILLS DISTRICT OF MEGHALAYA, INDIA1000100Area (km 2 )1010.10.011975-87 1987-99 1999-2001YearsDense to open forestDense forest to non-forestOpen forest to non-forestOthersDense forest to miningOpen forest to miningNo changeFigure 4.13: Changes in different land use/ land cover categories in different years.56
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Impact of Coal Mining on Vegetation: A Case Study in Jaintia Hills ...

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