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Pant, Daya Nand 
FOREST VEGETATION / LANDUSE CHANGE DETECTION AND IMPACT 
ASSESSMENT IN PART OF WESTERN HIMALAYA 
Daya Nand Pant'*, Susane M.E. Groten^** & Partha sarthi Roy'* 
1 Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, PB 135, Dehradun 248001, India 
dnpant@hotmail.com & dean@iirs.gov.in 
2 ITC, PB-6, 7500AA, Enschede, The Netherlands 
oten@itc.nl 
KEY WORDS: Forest, Landuse, Change, Impact, Remote sensing , GIS 
ABSTRACT 
Himalayan mountain ranges, which represent nearly 1896 of the total area of Indian sub-continent, play an important role 
for the maintenance of environmental set up of the country. The exploding population pressure has created the adverse 
changes and subsequent impact in the total eco-system of this region. In the present study, aerial photographs of the year 
1960 and Landsat Thematic Maper False Colour Composite image of the year 1985 were interpreted for detecting the 
changes on forest vegetation and landuse categories identified on both of them. These categories consist of Oak, Deodar, 
Pine, Miscellaneous, oak- Deodar, Oak-Pine, degraded forest, scrub/shrub, agriculture, habitation and lime stone quarries. 
The dynamics of changes within forest vegetation /landuse categories has been assessed by creating the database of the 
maps and subsequent analysis under GIS domain. The ground realities of changes and impact of those changes have been 
verified and ascertained respectively through field observations and site specific interviews. The study revealed a total 
change of 27 % out of a total area of 64.12 Km” during the year 1960-85. The changes have mainly taken place in the form 
of its depletion/degradation of forest vegetation and expansion of settlements. It is significant to note that most of the 
changes (70% out of total change) have occurred in the Oak forest area and among all the types of changes, forest 
degradation is the highest one. The impact of changes has been severe for the existing agro-ecosystem, as the productivity 
of agricultural crops has gone down considerably with the passage of time. 
INTRODUCTION 
Forest is a biological unit having a vast social organisation of living communities at work. These forest communities have 
a vital role in maintaining balanced eco-system of the world. India has been endowed with an immense variety of forest 
resources. However, with continuing pressures of an exploding population and the subsequent growing needs of industries, 
food, fuelwood, fodder, small timber etc., depletion and degradation of forests and subsequent adverse changes in 
ecosystem are taking place. 
Himalayan mountain ranges, which represent nearly 18% of the total area of Indian sub-continent, starting from 200 Mt. 
altitude rise with 92 peaks over 8000 Mt. above msl., are geologically young and the environment is fragile. There are a 
number of factors, which have been damaging the forests and agro-ecosystem such as overgrazing, mining, extraction of 
fuelwood, fodder and timber and the constructional activities particularly on steep slopes. The environmental degradation of 
this region is affecting the whole country due to the down stream affect of flood and siltation. The relevance of the present 
study is the alarming rate of adverse changes in the Himalaya. The lack of precise information with respect to these changes 
and their impacts is a major constraint for planning, development and prudent use of natural resources. 
Assessment and monitoring of forest vegetation\land use changes have greatly been facilitated by the advancements of 
(optical) satellite remote sensing technology (Hoffer, 1986 & Sader et. al., 1985). However, more number of studies have 
been carried out by using the aerial photographs, Landsat TM and Indian Remote sensing satellite (IRS-1A & 1B) data for 
the achievement of better accuracy and detailed classification results (Pant & Singh, 1992; Pant et.al, 1995; Pant & 
Kharkwal, 1995, Roy & Singh 1992, Kushwaha, 1990). But all these studies are independent of impact analysis through 
site specific interviews. The present study is based on remote sensing & GIS techniques supplemented with ground truth 
information from site specific interviews. Forest vegetation and land use /land cover changes have been defined as the 
spatial and structural changes in the form of forest degradation and depletion, reducing the forest density and species 
  
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part B7. Amsterdam 2000. 1111