A systematic review of approaches for studying mining induced environmental degradation in North-Eastern Region of India

With the rise in population and rapid urbanization, the demand for energy has grown significantly, largely met through mining resources. In recent years, however, coal mining has been shown to harm the environment, causing numerous ecological issues, despite being promoted for it economic benefits. North-Eastern Region (NER) of India despite being a mega biodiversity hotspot, has been facing enormous environmental challenges due to illicit and unscientific coal mining practices. In this context, it is important to study the ramifications the mining industry has on the environment as it has been placed under the red category owing to its hazardous environmental concerns. Therefore, this study systematically reviewed research papers on environmental degradation caused by mining in the NER, using studies (n = 38) obtained from Web of Science (WoS) and following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) framework. The paper reports bibliographic analysis using VOSviewer software. The review section focuses on different approaches used to study environmental degradation caused by mining, which include sampling and chemical analyses, field surveys, remote sensing, and other approaches. In this review, 54% of the total studies were conducted using traditional sampling and chemical analyses, another 16% were field-based ethnographic research, 14% utilized geospatial approaches, and rest of the 16% were theoretical studies. The objective is not to conduct comparative analyses of approaches but rather to discern and document numerous approaches employed in the investigation of diverse mining-related pollutions, which are influenced by geological formations, mineral distributions, and the specific types of pollutants involved. Over recent years, the utilization of remote sensing techniques has notably broadened due to its precision and practicality. These techniques should be used for better documentation and communication of mining-induced environmental degradation.