Raj Shekhar Singh

Purpose: Surface coal mining operations generate large quantities of mine-waste that are disposed in land-raised ‘mine-waste dumps’, which are generally unstable, nutrient deficient and unsuitable for creating ecological structure and functions. The natural recovery of disturbed ecosystems is a long-term process extending to decades. The purpose of the present work is to explore the restoration opportunities using a scientific revegetation approach for re-establishment of ecological services and mine dump stabilisation in selected Indian mining wasteland. Methods: A 18 year re-vegetation study was undertaken into the Indian coalmine spoils to understand the process of ecosystem development, with an ecological and geotechnical perspective. This long-term investigation examined (i) the physico-chemical properties of soil/mine spoil following standard methods; (ii) screened suitable plant species for restoration; (iii) assessed the impact of revegetation on mine dump slope stability by measuring the dump geometry using an electron distance meter (EDM), numerical simulations and in-situ shear jack test; and (iv) basic ecological services that were achieved in two different spoil heaps located in Jharia, formerly comprising native grassland and forest, some 20 km apart. Results: The results clearly indicated that leguminous plants significantly enhanced spoil stability from 4 to 18 years after re-vegetation. Following, considerable quantities of organic carbon were stored in the mine spoil, with increases of 125–250% and by 82–282% being recorded at 6 and 18 years, respectively. Similarly, C in below ground biomass (BGB) increased by 380–945%, and 300–993%; C in plant biomass by 194–345% and 392–695% and 214–429% and 73–662%; and C in soil microbial biomass (MBC) by 157–372 kg ha ^–1 and 121–292 kg ha ^–1 . The factor of safety (FOS) was significantly enhanced from 1.4 to 1.6 and 1.9 after 6 and 18 years of plantation on dump slope, respectively. Further, the ecological services were considerably enhanced by increased soil carbon stock, soil nutrient, microbial biomass, reduced soil runoff and wildlife movement. Conclusion: Long-term monitoring following a scientific re-vegetation approach can assess ecosystem recovery and the re-establishment of ecological services in damaged ecosystems from mining. The physico-chemical and biological properties of re-vegetated mine spoils helps to assess the critical indicators for mine spoil dump stabilisation and ecosystem recovery. These indicators can be used to elucidate the geotechnical and ecological engineering processes pertinent for mine spoil and degraded ecosystem management.

The increasing demand for food and other basic resources from a growing population has resulted in the intensification of agricultural and industrial activities. The wastes generated from agriculture are a burgeoning problem, as their disposal, utilisation and management practices are not efficient or universally applied. Particularly in developing countries, most biomass residues are left in the field to decompose or are burned in the open, resulting in significant environmental impacts. Similarly, with rapid global urbanisation and the rising demand for construction products, alternative sustainable energy sources and raw material supplies are required. Biomass wastes are an under-utilised source of material (for both energy and material generation), and to date, there has been little activity focussing on a ‘low-carbon’ route for their valorisation. Thus, the present paper attempts to address this by reviewing the global availability of biomass wastes and their potential for use as a feedstock for the manufacture of high-volume construction materials. Although targeted at practitioners in the field of sustainable biomass waste management, this work may also be of interest to those active in the field of carbon emission reductions. We summarise the potential of mitigating CO₂ in a mineralisation step involving biomass residues, and the implications for CO₂ capture and utilisation (CCU) to produce construction products from both solid and gaseous wastes. This work contributes to the development of sustainable value-added lower embodied carbon products from solid waste. The approach will offer reduced carbon emissions and lower pressure on natural resources (virgin stone, soil etc.).

Mining and human activities impacted the natural ecosystem leading to land use/land cover (LU/LC) change is of great concern by environmentalist and the society. The present study evaluated the LU/LC changes due to exploitation of coal in Dhanbad district of India during the period of 1987 to 2017. Remote sensing (RS) data indicated that out of 2043.32 ha LU/LC comprised of dense forest, low dense forest, open scrub, agriculture land, agriculture fallow, barren land, sand, river, water body, built-up and mining, constituted percent values of 8.17, 3.11, 39.51, 18.88, 12.69, 1.25, 0.76, 3.12, 2.88, 4.40 and 5.22 in 1987 and 4.69, 6.01, 15.78, 41.36, 9.97, 3.90, 2.55, 2.22, 1.43, 7.91, 4.18 in 2017 respectively. The LU/LC during 30 years indicated the percent share of dense forest, open scrub, agricultural fallow, river, water body and mining decreased by 42.63, 60.45, 21.47, 28.80, 50.37 and 19.85 % respectively. Land use changes were due to harvesting of forest for fuel, shelter and agriculture, construction of residential houses in fallow land, urbanization and sand removal for construction material. The increase in low dense forest, agricultural land, barren land, sand and built-up area by 93.38, 119.06, 211.63, 234.96 and 79.85 percent respectively were due to shift of land use from forest to open scrub, agricultural fields and barren lands, new settlement by utilizing sands from river banks making the river stretch wider, open mine pits converted into water bodies in the district. These resulted in a considerable change in land use pattern in Dhanbad district, Jharkhand, India.

Medicinal plant plays a crucial role in the socio-economic development and maintaining the human health and culture. Naturally, plant-derivative drugs have an imperative position in both traditional and modern medicine. Jharkhand is rich in biodiversity of medicinal plants. The forest area covers about 30.29% of the total area of Jharkhand. The extensive use of such medicinal plants is nowadays being adopted by almost all the developing and developed countries as therapeutic purpose. It is used to heal various diseases and also prevents the ill effects of synthetic drugs. The main objectives of this article are to identify selected native medicinal properties found in the native forest of Jharkhand and maintain the plants under ex-situ conservation Park for socio-economic development of the tribal which has been used for multipurpose curative applications and their value addition for different diseases. In the current article a total of 41medicinal plants have been selected for study and documented to their therapeutic use against various types of diseases frequently occurred in tribal dominating mining areas at coal capital of the country located at CSIR-CIMFR, Dhanbad in Jharkhand state of India.

Mining is known to demolish the natural ecosystem adjacent to mining sites all over world and it generates massive volumes of wastes which are dumped adjacent to mining areas resulting in damage to the natural ecosystem, reducing herbaceous ground cover and wildlife. Hinustan Copper Mines (HCM) is the Asia’s largest open cast copper mines and produces 70 % copper for the Indian market. A study was carried out at buffer zone of HCM in 31 forest sites of Birsha-Damoh forest range area of Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh in India. The herbaceous ground cover (HGC) was estimated by line transect method. Results indicated that the total average herbaceous ground cover ranged from 11.2 - 77.44%, indicating least wildlife movement at site 14 and maximum at site 29. The dominant herbaceous plants were Cynodon dactylon followed by Lantana camara, Thysanolaena maxima covering across most of the sites. The rest of the herbaceous species were Vallaris heyne, Achyranthes aspera, Eragrostis tenella , Waltheria indica and Ocimum Gratissimum, found as casual constituents of the community . The maximum number (7) of wild animals presence in day was observed at Cynodon dactylon and Thysanolena maxima dominated sites and minimum number (1) was observed at Lantana camera dominated forest sites.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of equilibration time on adsorption of zinc [Zn(II)] and nickel [Ni(II)] on pure and modified chitosan beads. The initial adsorption of Zn(II) was high on molybdenum (Mo)-impregnated chitosan beads (MoCB) during the initial 60 min. However, after 240 min, Zn(II) adsorption occurred more on single super phosphate chitosan beads (SSPCB), followed by monocalcium phosphate chitosan beads (MCPCB), untreated pure chitosan beads (UCB), and MoCB. Similarly, Ni(II) adsorption was greatest on MoCB during the initial 60 min. At the conclusion of the experiment (at 240 min), the greatest adsorption was occurred on MCPCB, followed by MoCB, UCB, and SSPCB. Chemical sorption and intra-particle diffusion were probably the dominant processes responsible for Zn(II) and Ni(II) sorption onto chitosan beads. The results demonstrated that modified chitosan beads were effective in adsorbing Zn and Ni and hence, could be used for the removal of these toxic metals from soil.