IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jrpoli/v60y2019icp23-35.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing the impact of mining on deforestation in India

Author

Listed:
  • Ranjan, Ram

Abstract

We explore the role of mining in contributing to deforestation across 300 plus districts in India. Using a unique dataset, covering the period 2001–2014, the impact of mining related deforestation is delineated from those driven by various socio-economic, demographic and climatic factors. The roles of several minerals, such as coal, iron, bauxite, dolomite, limestone, manganese, quartz, fireclay and granite are explicitly tested using econometric analysis. Findings indicate that, on average, a district that did not produce any of the minerals considered in the study had suffered about 350 km2 lower forest area loss compared to a mineral producing district. Districts that produced coal, iron or limestone, saw on average 450 km2 higher forest cover loss compared to those that did not produce the same minerals. Iron ore production was positively associated with barren land area across districts, whereas forest cover loss was higher in districts that produced higher amounts of limestone or granite. Overall, mining has evidently contributed to deforestation at a district level, and within the mineral groups considered in this study, coal, iron and limestone have had the most adverse impact on forest area loss. However, minerals such as fireclay, manganese, dolomite, and quartz are being produced in districts that have seen either a lower deforestation rate or an improvement in forest area over the study period. Among the non-mining related drivers of deforestation, higher share of cropping area in a district's geographical area significantly contributed to deforestation.

Suggested Citation

  • Ranjan, Ram, 2019. "Assessing the impact of mining on deforestation in India," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 23-35.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:60:y:2019:i:c:p:23-35
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2018.11.022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142071830401X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resourpol.2018.11.022?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Singh, M.P. & Bhojvaid, P.P. & de Jong, Wil & Ashraf, J. & Reddy, S.R., 2017. "Forest transition and socio-economic development in India and their implications for forest transition theory," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 65-71.
    2. Tanner, Andrew M. & Johnston, Alison L., 2017. "The Impact of Rural Electric Access on Deforestation Rates," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 174-185.
    3. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    4. Laing, Timothy, 2015. "Rights to the forest, REDD+ and elections: Mining in Guyana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(P2), pages 250-261.
    5. Gerald C. Nelson & Daniel Hellerstein, 1997. "Do Roads Cause Deforestation? Using Satellite Images in Econometric Analysis of Land Use," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 79(1), pages 80-88.
    6. Barbier, Edward B., 2004. "Agricultural Expansion, Resource Booms and Growth in Latin America: Implications for Long-run Economic Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 137-157, January.
    7. Sonalde Desai & Prem Vashishtha & Omkar Joshi, 2015. "Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: A Catalyst for Rural Transformation," Working Papers id:7259, eSocialSciences.
    8. Jonah Busch & Kalifi Ferretti-Gallon, 2017. "What Drives Deforestation and What Stops It? A Meta-Analysis," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 11(1), pages 3-23.
    9. Xingli Giam & Julian D. Olden & Daniel Simberloff, 2018. "Impact of coal mining on stream biodiversity in the US and its regulatory implications," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 1(4), pages 176-183, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pouresmaieli, Mahdi & Ataei, Mohammad & Nouri Qarahasanlou, Ali, 2023. "A scientometrics view on sustainable development in surface mining: Everything from the beginning," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    2. Liu, Quanlong & Qiu, Zunxiang & Li, Ma & Shang, Jianping & Niu, Weichao, 2023. "Evaluation and empirical research on green mine construction in coal industry based on the AHP-SPA model," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    3. Li, Ying & Cen, Hongyi & Lin, Tai-Yu & Lin, Yi-Nuo & Chiu, Yung-Ho, 2022. "Sustainable coal mine and coal land development in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    4. Bose, Purabi, 2023. "Equitable land-use policy? Indigenous peoples’ resistance to mining-induced deforestation," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    5. Anita Punia, 2021. "Carbon dioxide sequestration by mines: implications for climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 1-17, March.
    6. Joseph Oduro Appiah & Dina Adei & Williams Agyemang-Duah, 2022. "Land Use and Landscape Characteristics Are Associated with Core Forest Patches in Ghana," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, December.
    7. Jean-Louis Combes & Pascale Combes Motel & Manegdo Ulrich Doamba & Youba Ndiaye, 2023. "Mining the forests: do protected areas hinder mining-driven forest loss in Sub-Saharan Africa?," Working Papers hal-04061084, HAL.
    8. Kinda, Harouna & Thiombiano, Noel, 2021. "The effects of extractive industries rent on deforestation in developing countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    9. Mulvaney, Dustin & Richards, Ryan M. & Bazilian, Morgan D. & Hensley, Erin & Clough, Greg & Sridhar, Seetharaman, 2021. "Progress towards a circular economy in materials to decarbonize electricity and mobility," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    10. Jenna N. Trost & Jennifer B. Dunn, 2023. "Assessing the feasibility of the Inflation Reduction Act’s EV critical mineral targets," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 6(6), pages 639-643, June.
    11. Avinash Kumar Ranjan & Bikash Ranjan Parida & Jadunandan Dash & Amit Kumar Gorai, 2023. "Evaluating Impacts of Opencast Stone Mining on Vegetation Primary Production and Transpiration over Rajmahal Hills," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-22, May.
    12. Sujoy Banerjee & Tuomo Kauranne & Mirja Mikkila, 2020. "Land Use Change and Wildlife Conservation—Case Analysis of LULC Change of Pench-Satpuda Wildlife Corridor in Madhya Pradesh, India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-17, June.
    13. Guimbeau, Amanda & Ji, Xinde James & Menon, Nidhiya & Rodgers, Yana van der Meulen, 2023. "Mining and women’s agency: Evidence on acceptance of domestic violence and shared decision-making in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kaczan, David J., 2020. "Can roads contribute to forest transitions?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    2. David López-Carr, 2021. "A Review of Small Farmer Land Use and Deforestation in Tropical Forest Frontiers: Implications for Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-23, October.
    3. Figueroa, Daniela & Galeana-Pizaña, J. Mauricio & Núñez, Juan Manuel & Anzaldo Gómez, Carlos & Hernández-Castro, J. Roberto & Sánchez-Ramírez, María del Mar & Garduño, Andrea, 2021. "Assessing drivers and deterrents of deforestation in Mexico through a public policy tool. The adequacy of the index of economic pressure for deforestation," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    4. Barbier,Edward B., 2007. "Natural Resources and Economic Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521706513.
    5. Novice Patrick Bakehe, 2020. "L'accès à l’électricité: une solution pour réduire la déforestation en Afrique?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 32(3), pages 338-348, September.
    6. Friedrich, Sarah & Pauly, Markus, 2018. "MATS: Inference for potentially singular and heteroscedastic MANOVA," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 166-179.
    7. Sandy Fréret & Denis Maguain, 2017. "The effects of agglomeration on tax competition: evidence from a two-regime spatial panel model on French data," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 24(6), pages 1100-1140, December.
    8. Cantoni, Enrico & Gazzè, Ludovica & Schafer, Jerome, 2021. "Turnout in concurrent elections: Evidence from two quasi-experiments in Italy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    9. Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Zhao, Jun, 2020. "Doubly robust difference-in-differences estimators," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 219(1), pages 101-122.
    10. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/6unm655ita9ojbuuc83c9h0is8 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Corno, Lucia & Voena, Alessandra, 2023. "Child marriage as informal insurance: Empirical evidence and policy simulations," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    12. Wissmann, Daniel, 2020. "Finally a Smoking Gun," Discussion Papers in Economics 73026, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    13. Ilhom Abdulloev & Ira N Gang & Myeong-Su Yun, 2014. "Migration, Education and the Gender Gap in Labour Force Participation," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 26(4), pages 509-526, September.
    14. Hamid Boustanifar & Everett Grant & Ariell Reshef, 2018. "Wages and Human Capital in Finance: International Evidence, 1970–2011 [Financial reform: what shakes it? What shapes it?]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 22(2), pages 699-745.
    15. Marcel Fafchamps & Julien Labonne, 2017. "Do Politicians’ Relatives Get Better Jobs? Evidence from Municipal Elections," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 33(2), pages 268-300.
    16. Silverio-Murillo, Adan & Hoehn-Velasco, Lauren & Rodriguez Tirado, Abel & Balmori de la Miyar, Jose Roberto, 2021. "COVID-19 blues: Lockdowns and mental health-related google searches in Latin America," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    17. Kjetil Bjorvatn & Alexander W. Cappelen & Linda Helgesson Sekei & Erik Ø. Sørensen & Bertil Tungodden, 2020. "Teaching Through Television: Experimental Evidence on Entrepreneurship Education in Tanzania," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(6), pages 2308-2325, June.
    18. Bobonis, Gustavo J. & Morrow, Peter M., 2014. "Labor coercion and the accumulation of human capital," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 32-53.
    19. Galletta, Sergio & Jametti, Mario, 2015. "How to tame two Leviathans? Revisiting the effect of direct democracy on local public expenditure in a federation," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 82-93.
    20. Hagemann, Andreas, 2019. "Placebo inference on treatment effects when the number of clusters is small," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 213(1), pages 190-209.
    21. Thushyanthan Baskaran & Zohal Hessami, 2017. "Political alignment and intergovernmental transfers in parliamentary systems: evidence from Germany," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 171(1), pages 75-98, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    District level deforestation; Mining and deforestation; Barren land area; Cropping intensity and deforestation; Deforestation from coal mining; Deforestation from iron mining;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment
    • Q23 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Forestry
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:60:y:2019:i:c:p:23-35. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30467 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.