Based mostly on the geospatial visualisation and spatial evaluation, the Earth Statement (EO) knowledge of Girnar Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat’s Junagadh over a interval of 20 years by CEPT College reveals that whereas the settlements elevated from 2000 to 2020 at or close to the primary temple space, a big space of dense forest was transformed to open forest throughout the identical time frame.
The evaluation by Shraddha Shende, an M Tech in Geomatics from College of Expertise at CEPT College, performed in three time frames — 2000, 2010, and 2020 — utilizing multi-spectral Landsat knowledge revealed that the vegetation declined from 171.64 sq km in 2000 to 167.44 sq km in 2010 and additional to 149.97 sq km in 2020.
From 94 per cent vegetation of the overall space in 2000, the determine has dipped to 83 per cent in 2020.
The examine coated the realm of 182 sq km of Girnar Wildlife Sanctuary with an elevation ranging between 197 and 1031 metre. This space has a human settlement contained in the reserved space with an estimated inhabitants of 55 in a single village.
“The outcomes of the evaluation performed early this yr have been that the settlements or buildings elevated from the yr 2000 to 2020 at or close to the temple space. Additionally, a big space of dense forest obtained transformed to open forest whereas there was a little or no enhance in dense forest from open forest,” Shende mentioned.
The vegetation current on this forest largely consists of deciduous and thorny scrubland. The deciduous sort of vegetation sheds their leaves seasonally, normally within the dry season. The thorny scrubland vegetation is mostly present in areas with low water availability. These vegetation have fewer leaves and the bottom space is seen from these vegetation when seen from above; thus, these are labeled underneath open forest.
Completely different knowledge for the years 2000, 2010, and 2020 was used and evaluation performed by figuring out forest areas (dense and open), water our bodies, and buildings throughout totally different years.
On the explanations for these adjustments, Manushi Bhatt, the tutor for the examine, informed The Indian Categorical, “One of many causes might be that because of the rocky floor with a excessive gradient on the foothill facet of the sanctuary, the water doesn’t keep there for a very long time. Amongst different causes, this might be one motive for the rise within the open forest (scrubland) on the underside facet of the sanctuary, which is now not seen as dense vegetation.”
Trying on the outcomes, Bhatt mentioned that CEPT is planning to take this examine additional on discovering out the potential scientific causes for these
adjustments.
“Utilizing remote-sensing and GIS expertise, the evaluation has been carried out for the forest cowl of the sanctuary. The current examine exhibits the decadal change (in space) of the forest cowl, and potential elements liable for the change, both rainfall sample or the topography, are being explored and studied by the scholars,” Bhatt added.
