Extensive opencast coal mining in India's Korba Coalfield has fundamentally transformed regional landscapes and ecosystems since 1991, necessitating comprehensive evaluation of both environmental impacts and restoration effectiveness using multi-temporal satellite-based monitoring approaches. This investigation employed supervised maximum likelihood classification of Landsat-5 TM (1991, 2001, 2011) and Landsat-9 OLI/TIRS (2021) imagery to delineate eight major LULC categories and fifteen detailed sub-classes across the 780 km 2 study area. Ecological restoration success was assessed through integrated analysis of plantation establishment, canopy density transitions, and landscape heterogeneity metrics. Classification accuracies exceeded 85% with Kappa coefficients ranging from 0.79–0.93, indicating substantial to excellent agreement. Net change analysis revealed significant losses in dense forest cover (− 98.71 km 2 , − 12.7%, r = − 3.42% yr⁻ 1 ) and agricultural land (− 87.51 km 2 , − 11.2%, r = − 0.93% yr⁻ 1 ), while active mining areas expanded by 25.65 km 2 (+ 194.9%, r = + 3.60% yr⁻ 1 ). Plantation areas increased dramatically from 2.2 km 2 to 34.67 km 2 (+ 1475.9%, r = + 9.19% yr⁻ 1 ), primarily on reclaimed overburden dumps. Statistical analysis demonstrated highly significant negative correlations between mining expansion and forest/agricultural cover ( r = − 0.992; r = − 0.952), while plantation establishment showed strong positive correlation with mining activities ( r = 0.987). Results demonstrate complex ecological trajectories characterized by initial degradation followed by systematic restoration interventions. Dense forest conversion to scrubland represents early-stage ecosystem disruption, while plantation establishment on overburden dumps provides measurable carbon sequestration and habitat restoration benefits. Multi-temporal Landsat analysis provides robust quantitative evidence that systematic biological reclamation programmes can effectively moderate mining-induced ecosystem degradation.
Dubey et al. (Sun,) studied this question.