Anthropogenic Pressure on Forest Resources in Chitradurga Taluk of Karnataka State, India using Geospatial Technology

Abstract: Forests are predominantly made of thick vegetation, medicinal plants and huge number of vegetation types and other forest economic products. These products boost the economy by providing food, fibre, timber and maintain a healthy environment by sequestering the carbon through regulation of gaseous and nutrient cycling. Geological landforms, climatic conditions, water regime, soil erosion are widely controlled by forest resources. Each forest type has its own uniqueness and together supports various socio-economic, ecological, cultural and spiritual functions. Forest cover is associated with other land surface features which need immediate monitoring for its sustainability. Forests management, conservation and developmental strategies are an utmost important to meet demand and supply of environmental needs for upcoming generations. The study area holds 7.8% spread of forest cover which includes open deciduous; dense/closed deciduous; forest plantations and scrub forest according to 1999 assessment of the Karnataka Forest Department. The present study aims to map forest types and it's Change Detection Analysis (CDA) from 1978 to 2019 through geospatial technology. Thematic maps are prepared using Survey of India (SoI) topomap of 1:50,000 scale; geo-rectified multi-spectral & multi-temporal satellite images of IRS-1C/1D PAN+LISS-III of 5.8m resolution and Sentinel-2A of 10m resolution. The present study reveals the change detection in forest cover of over 4 decades using geospatial techniques for sustainable management of forest goods and services.

Keywords: Forest resources; CDA; Chitradurga taluk; Geospatial Technology.