Abstract
Conservation of forest biodiversity is vital for mankind as it provides enormous benefits such as biological resources and ecosystem services. Of late, the forests are facing risk and threats such as fragmentation, degradation and forest fires which are responsible for the deteriorating condition. The progress in the field of science and technology like satellite remote sensing and GIS since the past few decades in India and the world provide an opportunity to track and monitor the changes taking place on the Earth’s surface. Besides, analysis of large spatial data in GIS can also provide insight into the various driving factors which lead to the loss of biodiversity in the threatened ecosystems i.e forests. This study has attempted to obtain information about the spatial extent of the three forest ecosystem degradation indicators viz. deforestation, fragmentation of forest and forest fires using methodical approach in the Jharkhand state of India. The satellite remote sensing data sets belonging to Landsat-8 were used to analyse the forest cover of Jharkhand state. To identify the areas of threat, grid cells (5KmX5Km) were generated in GIS domain. Analysis of deforestation was conducted using multi source data of the time periods 1935 and 2015. Evaluation of deforestation spanning over a time period reveals that vital changes have occurred in the forests of Jharkhand and determined 1224 extinct, 248 critically endangered, 318 endangered and 396 vulnerable ecosystem grid cells. The fragmentation analysis has determined 148 critically endangered, 296 endangered and 402 vulnerable ecosystem grid cells. Forest fire point’s data from the year 2005 to 2016 were utilized and analysis was executed. Further frequency of forest fires for each grid was noted. The result indicates that 67.3% of grid cell of Jharkhand forest was affected with forest fire. Conservation status has been evaluated based on the value of threat for each grid which was the fundamental criteria for conservation priority hotspot. About 2.1% of Jharkhand forest ecosystem grids are defined as extremely high ecosystem risk stage and have been designated in the category of conservation priority hotspot-1 followed by 19.7% conservation priority hotspot-2, 41.3% conservation priority hotspot-3, 27.8% conservation priority hotspot-4 and 9.1% lowest conservation priority hotspot-5. This study highlights the capability of integrating remote sensing and GIS data for mapping the forest degradation, which can be useful in formulating the strategies and policies for protection and conservation of forests.
Highlights
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was drafted in Rio in 1992 and since the issue of conservation of forests has become a major concern worldwide
Forest degradation is often associated with varied degree of habitat fragmentation.The theory of island biogeography states that when a large part of native habitat is lost and the rest is fragmented the area would lose some of its important species[12]
The above analysis has attempted to evolve maps based on multiple grid analysis
Summary
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was drafted in Rio in 1992 and since the issue of conservation of forests has become a major concern worldwide. Tropical dry deciduous forests are one of the largely neglected natural resources all over the world They are the most inadequately safeguarded forest categories in the world with only 5% area under protection[3] as stated by Kapos and Iremonger[2 ].these forests satisfy the demands of the local tribal populations of basic necessities of life which include food, fuelwood, fodder, fibre and medicines. It occurs mainly due to the warm summers and mild winters They may be natural or human induced but in both cases cause large damage to the forest ecosystem. For any landscape conservation at regional scale, core areas should be focused along with buffers which would act as transitional zones allowing human access such that they can take advantage of forest produce
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