A Geographical Analysis of Challakere Amrit Mahal Kaval Grasslands. Using Remote Sensing and GIS Technologies

Abstract

The Amrit Mahal Kaval grassland is a protected area dedicated to conservation of Amrit Mahal, an endangered breed of cattle that originated from the erstwhile state of Mysore in Karnataka. Nearly 14519 acres of grassland is reserved which is enriched with biodiversity and grassland ecosystem as well and with over 450 years of history. Thus, such kind of research on grasslands is important and also inevitable. Another important point to be noticed is that, this area was portrayed as barren land and in the year 2007, a report was prepared and submitted to the state government permitting Defense and other departments to use these 11400 acres of Amrit Mahal Kaval Grasslands which led to several impact on the biodiversity in this area. Remote sensing and GIS technologies were used to study the impact on grasslands in terms of Social, Cultural, Economic and Environmental changes between 2009 to 2019. By looking at the statistics of the Challakere Amrit Mahal Kaval grasslands it is evident that the developmental work carried out here has led to the loss of 4.59% of the vegetation area, 0.29% of the water sources and 24.6% of the pasture land. The Study focuses not only on the impact of biodiversity in that area but also on the social life of people. In today’s condition both development and ecological balance are important but at the same time it is really hazardous to suppress ecology in the name of development. Compromising ecology for development is proven inimical. It is the need of the hour to protect Amrit Mahal Kaval grasslands as it provides an important habitat for many endangered species like the Great Indian Bustard and Amrit Mahal cattle breed.