Detecting Forest Cover Changes of Kokrajhar District Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques

Abstract

Forests are one of the most complexes and a multifunctional asset of all natural resources. They are a key component of the natural resource base that provides the capabilities, assets and activities required for a means of living. Over utilization of forest resources due to illegal logging conversion to agricultural land and encroachment has resulted to its depletion. The changes in forest cover are the matter of great concern as it disrupt the global environmental system, threatens the global biodiversity and the sustainability of livelihood as well. In present study an attempt has been made to detect the changes taking place to the forests of Kokrajhar Districts of BTAD in four consecutive decades, i.e. 1977, 1987, 1997 and 2007 using RS and GIS techniques. Unsupervised classification method of image classification was adopted for generating landuse and landcover map. The results show that there is a sharp decline in all categories of forest from 1977-2007 and the highest change being recorded in moderate forest during 1977-87 where there is a negative change of 23 percent. On the other hand, there is a gradual increase in non-forested land.