Understanding forest loss and recovery: a spatiotemporal analysis of land change in and around Bannerghatta National Park, India

Abstract

Bangalore is India’s third fastest-growing city and a major information technology center of India. The city is unusual in also having a major protected area located at its periphery, which creates a significant challenge for conservation. Bannerghatta National Park and its surrounding landscape, situated south of Bangalore, have experienced significant land-use and land-cover changes over the last two decades. This analysis combines discrete and continuous approaches of satellite remote-sensing-based change detection using multitemporal Landsat and IRS LISS III imagery to analyze the rate and extent of spatiotemporal changes in and around the Bannerghatta National Park between 1973, 1992 and 2007. Most of the native forest cover loss and decrease in forest density has taken place outside the park, or at the edge of the park, and relates to increased agriculture, suburban development, grazing and illegal logging. However, forest cover inside the park has been maintained, counter to the dominant global theme of deforestation as a consequence of urbanization. Overall, despite the decrease in native forest cover the landscape has experienced a net increase in tree cover or reforestation, which can be attributed to an increase in tree plantations outside the Bannerghatta National Park.