Assessing the Priorities for Sustainable Forest Management in the Sikkim Himalaya, India: A Remote Sensing Based Approac
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Assessing the Priorities for Sustainable Forest Management in the Sikkim Himalaya, India: A Remote Sensing Based Approach Sandeep Tambe & M. L. Arrawatia & Narpati Sharma
Received: 16 October 2010 / Accepted: 11 April 2011 / Published online: 10 June 2011 # Indian Society of Remote Sensing 2011
Abstract Sikkim is a small, mountainous, Indian state (7,096 km2) located in the eastern Himalayan region. Though a global biodiversity hotspot, it has been relatively less studied. A detailed forest type, density and change dynamics study was undertaken, using SATELLITE remote sensing data and intensive field verification. The landscape was found to be dominated by alpine and nival ecosystems, with a large portion above the tree line, considerable snow cover, and a sizeable area under forest cover (72%, 5,094 km2). A total of 18 landscape components including 14 vegetation classes were delineated, with the major ones being oak forest, alpine meadow, alpine scrub, conifer forest and alder-cardamom agroforestry. Of the 3,154 km2 of forests below the tree
S. Tambe Department of Forest, Environment and Wildlife Management, Government of Sikkim, Forest Secretariat, Gangtok 737102( Sikkim, India M. L. Arrawatia : N. Sharma Department of Science and Technology and Climate Change, Government of Sikkim, Development Area, Gangtok 737102( Sikkim, India S. Tambe (*) 8 Unit, Class I, Government Quarters, Behind Sangram Hall, Development Area, Gangtok, Sikkim 737101, India e-mail: [email protected]
line, 40% were found to be dense (>40% tree canopy cover). A sizeable portion of the non dense forests below the tree line was contributed by the degradation of oak forests, which was confirmed by change detection analysis. However on a positive front over the past decade, ban on grazing and felling of trees in forests has been implemented. In order to expand the extent of dense forests, further efforts are needed for the restoration of oak forests such as fire protection, providing alternatives to firewood use, promotion of alder-cardamom agro-forestry in the private lands and protection of the small-sized, fragmented forest patches in the subtropical belt. Keywords Eastern Himalaya . Spatial analysis . Change detection . Vegetation mapping . Oak forest
Introduction Sikkim is a small north-eastern Indian state that lies between 27° 04′ 46″ to 28° 07′ 48″ N latitudes and 88° 00′ 58″ and 88° 55′ 25″ E longitudes, covering an area of just 7,096 km2 (Fig. 1). The elevation ranges from 300 to 8,586 m, with the dominant feature being Mt. Khangchendzonga (8,586 m), the third highest peak in the world and the highest in the country. The state is a part of the eastern Himalayan region which is one of the 34 global biodiversity hotspots of the world (Myers et al. 2000; Mittermeier et al. 2004). The sharp altitudinal gradient and complex topography
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has manifested in 12 forest types (Table 1). It harbours nearly one third of the national flowering plants diversity, an estimated 5,000 species of flowering plants (Hajra an
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