Change Monitoring and Forest Density Classification of Gir Wildlife Sanctuary, India

Abstract

In India we found a main 5 types forest classification. As India covers the 21.7% of the total land in Forest. Forest are the main and most important ecosystem on earth without forest there is impossible for any creature to survive on earth, because almost 70% of the resources are obtained from the forest. In this research we have study the forest change monitoring of the Gir sanctuary in Saurashtra district of Gujarat. The forest of Gir sanctuary is Dry deciduous forest. As this district covers the main portion of the forest cover in Gujarat state. With the help of remote sensing and GIS we can easily monitor the change monitoring and forest density change in the area by taking the 20 years difference 1999 to 2019. This study identifies the change monitoring and density classification in the Gir wildlife sanctuary and we have also taken 40 km buffer zone near the sanctuary. It was observed that there is increase in the forest cover while comparing the images of Sentinel-2 (1999) and landsat-5 satellite data (2019) of the study area that the Forest cover since the year 1999 has increased with an increase in Forest density. There is an increase in the human population in the 40 kilometres buffer zone. This human population is mainly dependent on the agriculture and animal husbandry business. An increase in the livestock population may also increase the issue of overgrazing. Plus, the conflict of wildlife with the livestock may also harm the wildlife. Hence government must look in the issue of increasing human population near the sanctuary area.