Assessing the tropical forest cover change in northern parts of Sonitpur and Udalguri District of Assam, India

Abstract Sonitpur and Udalguri district of Assam possess rich tropical forests with equally important faunal species. The Nameri National Park, Sonai-Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary, and other Reserved Forests are areas of attraction for tourists and wildlife lovers. However, these protected areas are repo...

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Autores principales:	Ranjit Mahato, Gibji Nimasow, Oyi Dai Nimasow, Dhoni Bushi
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/b53b9ade2f804e4eb93f789a286f003d
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:b53b9ade2f804e4eb93f789a286f003d2021-12-02T15:02:57ZAssessing the tropical forest cover change in northern parts of Sonitpur and Udalguri District of Assam, India10.1038/s41598-021-90595-82045-2322https://doaj.org/article/b53b9ade2f804e4eb93f789a286f003d2021-06-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-90595-8https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Sonitpur and Udalguri district of Assam possess rich tropical forests with equally important faunal species. The Nameri National Park, Sonai-Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary, and other Reserved Forests are areas of attraction for tourists and wildlife lovers. However, these protected areas are reportedly facing the problem of encroachment and large-scale deforestation. Therefore, this study attempts to estimate the forest cover change in the area through integrating the remotely sensed data of 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020 with the Geographic Information System. The Maximum Likelihood algorithm-based supervised classification shows acceptable agreement between the classified image and the ground truth data with an overall accuracy of about 96% and a Kappa coefficient of 0.95. The results reveal a forest cover loss of 7.47% from 1990 to 2000 and 7.11% from 2000 to 2010. However, there was a slight gain of 2.34% in forest cover from 2010 to 2020. The net change of forest to non-forest was 195.17 km2 in the last forty years. The forest transition map shows a declining trend of forest remained forest till 2010 and a slight increase after that. There was a considerable decline in the forest to non-forest (11.94% to 3.50%) from 2000–2010 to 2010–2020. Further, a perceptible gain was also observed in the non-forest to the forest during the last four decades. The overlay analysis of forest cover maps show an area of 460.76 km2 (28.89%) as forest (unchanged), 764.21 km2 (47.91%) as non-forest (unchanged), 282.67 km2 (17.72%) as deforestation and 87.50 km2 (5.48%) as afforestation. The study found hotspots of deforestation in the closest areas of National Park, Wildlife Sanctuary, and Reserved Forests due to encroachments for human habitation, agriculture, and timber/fuelwood extractions. Therefore, the study suggests an early declaration of these protected areas as Eco-Sensitive Zone to control the increasing trends of deforestation.Ranjit MahatoGibji NimasowOyi Dai NimasowDhoni BushiNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Ranjit Mahato Gibji Nimasow Oyi Dai Nimasow Dhoni Bushi Assessing the tropical forest cover change in northern parts of Sonitpur and Udalguri District of Assam, India
description	Abstract Sonitpur and Udalguri district of Assam possess rich tropical forests with equally important faunal species. The Nameri National Park, Sonai-Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary, and other Reserved Forests are areas of attraction for tourists and wildlife lovers. However, these protected areas are reportedly facing the problem of encroachment and large-scale deforestation. Therefore, this study attempts to estimate the forest cover change in the area through integrating the remotely sensed data of 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020 with the Geographic Information System. The Maximum Likelihood algorithm-based supervised classification shows acceptable agreement between the classified image and the ground truth data with an overall accuracy of about 96% and a Kappa coefficient of 0.95. The results reveal a forest cover loss of 7.47% from 1990 to 2000 and 7.11% from 2000 to 2010. However, there was a slight gain of 2.34% in forest cover from 2010 to 2020. The net change of forest to non-forest was 195.17 km2 in the last forty years. The forest transition map shows a declining trend of forest remained forest till 2010 and a slight increase after that. There was a considerable decline in the forest to non-forest (11.94% to 3.50%) from 2000–2010 to 2010–2020. Further, a perceptible gain was also observed in the non-forest to the forest during the last four decades. The overlay analysis of forest cover maps show an area of 460.76 km2 (28.89%) as forest (unchanged), 764.21 km2 (47.91%) as non-forest (unchanged), 282.67 km2 (17.72%) as deforestation and 87.50 km2 (5.48%) as afforestation. The study found hotspots of deforestation in the closest areas of National Park, Wildlife Sanctuary, and Reserved Forests due to encroachments for human habitation, agriculture, and timber/fuelwood extractions. Therefore, the study suggests an early declaration of these protected areas as Eco-Sensitive Zone to control the increasing trends of deforestation.
format	article
author	Ranjit Mahato Gibji Nimasow Oyi Dai Nimasow Dhoni Bushi
author_facet	Ranjit Mahato Gibji Nimasow Oyi Dai Nimasow Dhoni Bushi
author_sort	Ranjit Mahato
title	Assessing the tropical forest cover change in northern parts of Sonitpur and Udalguri District of Assam, India
title_short	Assessing the tropical forest cover change in northern parts of Sonitpur and Udalguri District of Assam, India
title_full	Assessing the tropical forest cover change in northern parts of Sonitpur and Udalguri District of Assam, India
title_fullStr	Assessing the tropical forest cover change in northern parts of Sonitpur and Udalguri District of Assam, India
title_full_unstemmed	Assessing the tropical forest cover change in northern parts of Sonitpur and Udalguri District of Assam, India
title_sort	assessing the tropical forest cover change in northern parts of sonitpur and udalguri district of assam, india
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/b53b9ade2f804e4eb93f789a286f003d
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Assessing the tropical forest cover change in northern parts of Sonitpur and Udalguri District of Assam, India

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