## 5 Conclusions  
Vegetation destruction and land use alteration due to mining activity and lack of mines restoration are critical global issues requiring a concerted effort from governments, industry, and civil society to address the challenges. The present study utilized the benefits of various satellite/gridded remote sensing datasets and exhibited the mining-induced land cover alteration, vegetation destruction, and vegetation regrowth due to mining practices. The satellite-based approaches have shown to be the most cost-effective, efficient, and reliable data source for continuous, detailed, and robust monitoring of mining operations (e.g., LULC change, vegetation dynamics, mines reclamation monitoring, and vegetation regrowth analysis). The study further accounted for the losses in the vegetation carbon sink, sequestration, and transpiration due to vegetation loss in the mining regions. Based on the comprehensive study, the following remarks are drawn:  
1. Development in the remote sensing-based satellite/gridded datasets assisted in making the latest contribution in monitoring and addressing the mining-induced environmental issues (land cover dynamics, vegetation loss, vegetation productivity loss) at the local scale;
2. Mining activity, especially stone quarrying, has negatively affected the land use pattern and significant vegetation clearance in the Rajmahal Hills during the last decades (2010-2020);
3. The mining-induced vegetation destruction in the Rajmahal Hills was responsible for the remarkable loss in carbon and transpiration, which have negative impacts on the local environment;
4. Due to the lack of proper mine reclamation practices, vegetation regrowth over the mining clusters across the Rajmahal Hills was found to be worrying. Only Rajmahal coal mines in the Godda district have shown remarkable vegetation regrowth;
5. The vegetation regrowth over the Rajmahal coal mines in Godda district owing to mine reclamation activity has positively assisted in restoring the ecological condition, which improves vegetation productivity and transpiration;
6. Though vegetation regrowth due to mine reclamation may help to substitute the losses of vegetation cover and associated productivity up to some extent, the biodiversity loss due to mining activity is still irreversible, which could greatly threaten to maintain the ecological equilibrium;
7. The outcomes of the present study shall be helpful to the policy and decision-makers, stakeholders, mining authorities, and regulatory bodies for policy and sustainable mining plan-making. So that the mine's reclamation actions can be properly implemented and executed to ensure the restoration of the abandoned mines. It can directly and indirectly impact the ecosystem functioning in the Rajmahal Hills. Conceptualization, A.K.R., B.R.P., J.D. and A.K.G. ; methodology, A.K.R., J.D. and A.K.G. ; software, A.K.R. ; validation, A.K.R. ; formal analysis, A.K.R., B.R.P., J.D. and A.K.G. ; data curation, A.K.R. ; writing--original draft preparation, A.K.R. ; writing--review and editing, B.R.P., J.D. and A.K.G. ; visualization, A.K.R., B.R.P., J.D. and A.K.G. ; supervision, J.D. and A.K.G. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. This research received no external funding. Not applicable. **Acknowledgments:** Authors sincerely acknowledge the UGGS earth explorer for providing Landsat series satellite datasets, respectively. The Google Earth Engine cloud platform is acknowledged for providing cloud-based computing facilities. The utilization of PML_v2-based GPP and vegetation transpiration; MODIS-based NPP data is sincerely acknowledged. The authors sincerely thank anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. Thanks to [PERSON] for help during field visits. **Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest. * _[PERSON] et al. (2006)_ [PERSON]; [PERSON]; [PERSON]; [PERSON]; [PERSON] Assessing Areas Deforested by Coal Mining Activities through Satellite Remote Sensing Images and Gis in Parts of Korba, Chattisgarn. _J.