An analysis of forest vegetation and land use change in the Khecheopalri sacred lake watershed in Sikkim

Abstract

The present study was conducted in a 12 km2 sacred Khecheopalri Lake Watershed in the Sikkim Himalaya. The Lake is known for its sanctity, pristine condition, multi ethnicity and also as famous tourist destinations of Sikkim. The influx of tourists is high with visible impact of disturbance on the Lake and its watershed. The anthropogenic pressure has led to land use/cover change of the watershed in the past decade with increase of agricultural land at the expense of forests. The forested vegetation composition in the lake watershed forest has density of 248 trees/ha with sub-canopy species being dominated in the lower diameter class. The local people remove about 28% wood from annual biomass increment and the canopy species have reduced considerably because of fuelwood and timber collection resulting in invasion of some opportunistic species in the regeneration stage. The pressure of grazing is also high resulting in removal of 47% of annual primary production of floor phytomass during 1998. Therefore, the anthropogenic pressure on the watershed forest needs to be minimized for minimizing the soil erosion processes and thus maintaining the health of the Lake.