The combined area of the core zones of the three mining lease area is equivalent to 6712.46 ha. The pre-mining land use of the area consists of private agricultural and fallow lands as well as Government waste lands, the latter forming larger proportion of the core zone. The buffer zones of the mines have additional landuses. These include reserved forest areas, rivers, and their basins and smaller seasonal streams. The landuse patterns of core and buffer areas of the three proposed mining projects are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Landuse/Landcover patterns of core and buffer zone areas of the proposed lignite mines