Abstract
The Khangchendzonga National Park (KNP) in India forms a part of the eastern Himalaya global biodiversity hotspot. Being the third highest protected area in the world, much of the park is inaccessible and has remained least understood. In this study, Remote Sensing and GIS tools were used to quantify landscape composition, configuration and patterns of changes in vegetation cover. From Landsat ETM+ data, 10 land cover types could be classified with 81% accuracy, which showed relatively higher coverage of snow, rock and alpine meadows. FRAGSTATS recognized 70790 patches with mean patch size of 1.2 ha. Watershed based approach showed that parts of KNP that had higher landscape heterogeneity, reflected a greater Himalayan character, high elevation gradient, east west orientation and not dominantly sculptured by valley glaciers. Riverine areas were found to be susceptible to glacial lake outburst and flash floods. Also vegetation cover has substantially declined at lower elevations (1000 to 2500 m) in the last three decades, particularly in portions not shielded from the villages by buffer forests. The park management needs to evolve innovative co-management models, use the riverine zone carefully, strengthen buffer zone management and prioritize conservation measures in the high impact areas.
Highlights
Protected areas (PAs) are viewed as cornerstones of biodiversity conservation in most of the countries and there are over 100 000 PAs in the world, covering an area of about 18 million km2 [1]
Conservation management in the Himalayan system revolved around information from natural history records documented by biologists and managers, and by intensive studies resulting into a spatial quantitative data that lacked location details and were restricted to small spatial and temporal scales
We present details of landscape composition, configuration and patterns of changes in vegetation cover in three decades based on fine scale remote sensing data and landscape analysis using specialized software
Summary
Protected areas (PAs) are viewed as cornerstones of biodiversity conservation in most of the countries and there are over 100 000 PAs in the world, covering an area of about 18 million km2 [1] It is, necessary for the natural resource ecologists and managers to periodically evaluate the management effectiveness of these protected systems. The PA managers need to detect positive and negative changes at a landscape level in order to take appropriate management decisions. These tools are useful for areas located in the Himalaya, where adequate field sampling is often negated by nonnegotiable rugged terrain. It facilitates the managers readily to understand location based details for directing appropriate conservation management decisions and efforts
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
