[Business Communication]

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Application of Remote Sensing in studying forest
cover conditions of protected areas in Himachal
Pradesh, India
Vandana Kumari Chauhan Ruchika Acharya Project
Assistants Biodiversity Division
Palampur- 176 061 (H.P.) India Website
http//www.ihbt.res.in EPABX 91-233338-39,
230742-43, 230431 FAX [phone]/230428
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FOREST COVER ???

• An area more than 1 hectare in extent and having
  tree canopy density of 10 and above
• IMPORTANCE
• is one of many factors which affect climate at
  the global level as well as regionally and
  locally.
• is important element in the global cycling of
  carbon, oxygen, and other gases of importance
  which influences the composition of the earths
  atmosphere.
• is source of wood, timber, forage, edible
  products including fruit, honey, mushrooms,
  fungi, meat (from wildlife) and medicinal
  aromatic plants.
• provide habitat for wildlife
• have been a source of inspiration for people who
  have often
• identified forests, forest groves or even
  individual trees as
• sacred places or objects.

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PROTECTED AREA

• A clearly defined geographical space,
  recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal
  or other effective means, to achieve the
  long-term conservation of nature with associated
  ecosystem services and cultural values (Dudley,
  2008)
• IMPORTANCE
• in supporting species to adapt to changing
  climate patterns and sudden climate events by
  providing refuges and migration corridors.
• in protecting people from sudden climatic
  events and reducing vulnerability to floods,
  droughts and other weather-induced problems

Forest cover assessment in protected area, which
is devoid of anthropogenic interferences provides
real time information on forest conditions
prevailing on the ground.
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STUDY AREA
Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) Conservation
Area, Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, India

• Geographical extent 31 33' -3156'" N to
  7717'- 7752'E
• Geographical area 1171 km2
• Altitude 1334 to 6194 m amsl
• Drained by Jiwa, Sainj, Tirthan and Parvati
  rivers.
• Subdivisions
• Core area (754.40 km2)
• Sainj Wildlife Sanctuary (90 km2)
• Tirthan Wildlife Sanctuary (61 km2)
• Ecozone (265.60 km2).

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OBJECTIVES

• Preparation of forest cover map using Satellite
  remote sensing.
• Calculation of forest cover density.
• Calculations of altitudinal variations in forest
  cover density.
• Verification of forest density with NDVI results.

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Methodology
SCANNING, GEO-REFERENCING AND DIGITIZATION OF
STUDY AREA MAPS

• Hard copy maps of the study area were scanned to
  image files (digital raster format) using SLC
  1036C Widecom single line contact scanner.
• Scanned maps were Geo-referenced using
  latitudinal (x) and longitudinal (y) information
  provided on the maps.
• Digitization of the boundaries were performed on
  Geo-referenced map in ArcView 3.3.

Scanned map of GHNP
Geo-referenced Digitized map of GHNP
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Methodology
PREPARATION OF ELEVATION MAP

• CARTOSAT (30m) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) from
  National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) was used
  for the preparation of Elevation map of study
  area.
• DEM of the study area was clipped using Area of
  Interest (AOI) of GHNP boundary.
• Clipped DEM was converted into ESRI grid format
  and elevation map was prepared by categorizing
  DEM in to various altitudinal zones like Alpine
  (gt3600m), Sub-alpine (3300-3600m), Upper
  temperate (2800-3300 m) and Mid temperate (lt2800
  m).

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Methodology
LANDUSE/ LANDCOVER CLASSIFICATION
LANDSAT TM satellite image of study area was
classified into two broad classes i.e. forest
area and non forest area using Hybrid (supervised
and unsupervised) classification technique.
LANDSAT IMAGE
CLASSIFIED IMAGE
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Methodology
CALCULATION OF FOREST COVER DENSITY
GHNP Sub-divisions
Altitudinal zones
1 km X 1 km mesh
GHNP
Forest area
Forest cover density () (Forest cover area /
Total land area)100
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Methodology
CATEGORIZATION OF GHNP FOREST AREA
1Km x 1km Mesh

• The forest cover densities were grouped into four
  different classes
• Scrub (lt10),
• Open forest (1040 ),
• Moderate dense forest (4070 )
• Very dense forest (gt 70 )
• based on the criteria followed by
  Forest Survey of India

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Methodology
Calculation of Normalized Difference Vegetation
Index (NDVI)
NDVI was calculated from LANDSAT TM image using
IR-R/IRR

• The forest cover density was significantly
  correlated with NDVI (?0.93).
• It was also observed that the NDVI in various
  altitudinal regions increased with forest cover
  density and decreased with decrease in the forest
  cover density.

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RESULTS

• The result of this study revealed that the forest
  cover density of GHNP was 31.94 .
• Overall, more than 50 of the forest in GHNP was
  categorized as Very dense forest owing to canopy
  cover gt70 .

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Results

• The Core area had lowest forest cover density
  (15.73 ) because most of its area is occupied by
  alpine zone.
• Highest forest cover density was observed in Eco
  Zone (72.18 ).
• The Tirthan wildlife sanctuary and Sainj wildlife
  sanctuary had 56.13 and 40.5 area under
  forest cover, respectively.
• Altitude wise, the forest cover density was
  observed highest in upper temperate region (90 )
  followed by mid-temperate region (73.34 ),
  sub-alpine region (52.78 ) and alpine region
  (0.26 ) respectively.

The study concluded in GHNP highest forest
cover density conditions prevails in upper and
mid temperate regions, which is an indication of
healthy forest conditions in the study area
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PERSUING PROGRAMMES

• Change Detection studies using Temporal satellite
  Images.

• A network of Permanent Monitoring Plots (PMPs)
  have been marked in various altitudinal zones of
  GHNP as well as some other areas for Long Term
  Ecological Research (LTER).

• Recording of data on the Biotic, Environmental
  and Ecological aspects of forest is being done
  from the LTER for studying the impact of global
  warming on the forest health.

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Team Members
Miss Vandana Kumari Chauhan, Project Assistant CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Palampur, Himachal Pradesh 176 061, India E-mail vandu_chauhan_at_yahoo.co.in
Miss Ruchika Acharya, Project Assistant CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Palampur, Himachal Pradesh 176 061, India E-mail acharya.ruchika_at_gmail.com
Mr. Amit Kumar, Scientist CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Palampur, Himachal Pradesh 176 061, India E-mail amitkr_at_ihbt.res.in
Dr. R.D. Singh, Head of Department CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Palampur, Himachal Pradesh 176 061, India E-mail rdsingh_at_ihbt.res.in
Acknowledgements Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR) is acknowledged for
financial grant to exploratory studies on
climate change and adaptation of species
complexes (NWP-0020).
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Thank You .....!
E-mail vandu_chauhan_at_yahoo.co.in