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Bellary iron ore belt

Iron ore quarrying and its spread across the Karnataka scrubland.

610.1 hectares changed — new vegetation · Before: 1 Dec 2018 – 15 Mar 2019 · After: 1 Dec 2024 – 15 Mar 2025 · 15.100, 76.600

BEFORE 2019-03

AFTER 2025-03

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610.1 haarea changed

164areas flagged

6,416 haarea examined

2satellites used

What changed, by type

342.4 haNew vegetation

243.1 haNew water / flooding

15.1 haVegetation cleared

7.1 haBurnt ground

2.4 haNew construction / earthworks

Land changes in both directions at once. SCOPE reports every type it measured, not only the one that makes the better headline.

What SCOPE found

New water / flooding — 243.1 ha
1.6 km north-west · between 1 Feb 2019 and 5 Jan 2025 · 98% sure

New vegetation — 44.3 ha
1.3 km west · between 18 Dec 2018 and 1 Feb 2019 · 87% sure

New vegetation — 20.3 ha
3.9 km south-east · between 18 Dec 2018 and 1 Feb 2019 · 83% sure

New vegetation — 17.3 ha
4.7 km north-west · between 18 Dec 2018 and 1 Feb 2019 · 86% sure

New vegetation — 15.9 ha
2.6 km north-west · between 18 Dec 2018 and 1 Feb 2019 · 81% sure

How sure is this?

The strongest area (#1) has 98% confidence. It appears in 6 of 6 later clear images, so it is not a one-day artefact. Radar confirmed some of these areas; the others rest on optical and seasonal evidence. Compared with the same season in earlier years, this is clearly unusual. Confidence measures how strong the evidence for real surface change is; it does not identify the cause or who did it.

How it was measured

SCOPE used Sentinel-2 optical imagery at 10 m, cloud-masked and combined over each period, Sentinel-1 radar as an independent check , and the same season in earlier years so normal seasonal change is not reported as real change. The analysis took 22 seconds.

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