Land Cover Change Assessment of Pakke Tiger Reserve (PTR), East Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh

Abstract

Land cover change is a global concern and a major contributor to the degradation of biodiversity loss, more specifically in reserved forest areas. As the human population increases, the forest covers of unprotected areas are used up and slowly the protected areas are being intruded to meet the needs. Presently, such cases of land cover changes and biodiversity losses in protected areas have been reported from many parts of the world. The present work attempts to assess land cover change in one of the important tiger reserves of India where increasing degradation of forest cover has been reported. The satellite images of Landsat for the year 2007 and 2017 have been used with the help of geospatial technology (Remote sensing and GIS) to assess the land cover change in this decade. The study reveals a change of 79.80 km 2 area of dense forest in a decade which is the major habitat of the tiger and other important plants and animals. Therefore, there is an urgent need of evolving strategies to contain the increasing rate of land cover change in such an important forest reserve area. The study concludes with some important suggestions for conservation of the forest resources in the study area. Keywords: Land cover change, Pakke tiger reserve, Remote sensing and GIS, forest resource conservation Cite this Article Tashi Dorjee Bapu, Gibji Nimasow. Land Cover Change Assessment of Pakke Tiger Reserve (PTR), East Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh. Journal of Remote Sensing & GIS. 2018; 9(1): 26–33p.