Assessing Habitat Quality of Forest-Corridors through NDVI Analysis in Dry Tropical Forests of South India: Implications for Conservation
Most wildlife habitats and migratory routes are extremely threatened due to increasing demands on forestland and forest resources by burgeoning human population. Corridor landscape in Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve (BRT) is one among them, subjected to various anthropogenic pressures. Huma...
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doaj-1b7b431a562845a1988b44cd7f443c8e2020-11-24T20:57:55ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922015-02-01721619163910.3390/rs70201619rs70201619Assessing Habitat Quality of Forest-Corridors through NDVI Analysis in Dry Tropical Forests of South India: Implications for ConservationParamesha Mallegowda0Ganesan Rengaian1Jayalakshmi Krishnan2Madhura Niphadkar3Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Royal Enclave, Sri Ramapura, Jakkur Post, Bangalore 560 064, IndiaAshoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Royal Enclave, Sri Ramapura, Jakkur Post, Bangalore 560 064, IndiaAshoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Royal Enclave, Sri Ramapura, Jakkur Post, Bangalore 560 064, IndiaAshoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Royal Enclave, Sri Ramapura, Jakkur Post, Bangalore 560 064, IndiaMost wildlife habitats and migratory routes are extremely threatened due to increasing demands on forestland and forest resources by burgeoning human population. Corridor landscape in Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve (BRT) is one among them, subjected to various anthropogenic pressures. Human habitation, intensive farming, coffee plantations, ill-planned infrastructure developments and rapid spreading of invasive plant species Lantana camara, pose a serious threat to wildlife habitat and their migration. Aim of this work is to create detailed NDVI based land change maps and to use them to identify time-series trends in greening and browning in forest corridors in the study area and to identify the drivers that are influencing the observed changes. Over the four decades in BRT, NDVI increased in the core area of the forest and reduced in the fringe areas. The change analysis between 1973 and 2014 shows significant changes; browning due to anthropogenic activities as well as natural processes and greening due to Lantana spread. This indicates that the change processes are complex, involving multiple driving factors, such as socio-economic changes, high population growth, historical forest management practices and policies. Our study suggests that the use of updated and accurate change detection maps will be useful in taking appropriate site specific action-oriented conservation decisions to restore and manage the degraded critical wildlife corridors in human-dominated landscape.http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/7/2/1619wildlife corridorNDVIchange analysisgreeningbrowninganthropogenic pressure |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Paramesha Mallegowda Ganesan Rengaian Jayalakshmi Krishnan Madhura Niphadkar |
spellingShingle |
Paramesha Mallegowda Ganesan Rengaian Jayalakshmi Krishnan Madhura Niphadkar Assessing Habitat Quality of Forest-Corridors through NDVI Analysis in Dry Tropical Forests of South India: Implications for Conservation Remote Sensing wildlife corridor NDVI change analysis greening browning anthropogenic pressure |
author_facet |
Paramesha Mallegowda Ganesan Rengaian Jayalakshmi Krishnan Madhura Niphadkar |
author_sort |
Paramesha Mallegowda |
title |
Assessing Habitat Quality of Forest-Corridors through NDVI Analysis in Dry Tropical Forests of South India: Implications for Conservation |
title_short |
Assessing Habitat Quality of Forest-Corridors through NDVI Analysis in Dry Tropical Forests of South India: Implications for Conservation |
title_full |
Assessing Habitat Quality of Forest-Corridors through NDVI Analysis in Dry Tropical Forests of South India: Implications for Conservation |
title_fullStr |
Assessing Habitat Quality of Forest-Corridors through NDVI Analysis in Dry Tropical Forests of South India: Implications for Conservation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Assessing Habitat Quality of Forest-Corridors through NDVI Analysis in Dry Tropical Forests of South India: Implications for Conservation |
title_sort |
assessing habitat quality of forest-corridors through ndvi analysis in dry tropical forests of south india: implications for conservation |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Remote Sensing |
issn |
2072-4292 |
publishDate |
2015-02-01 |
description |
Most wildlife habitats and migratory routes are extremely threatened due to increasing demands on forestland and forest resources by burgeoning human population. Corridor landscape in Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve (BRT) is one among them, subjected to various anthropogenic pressures. Human habitation, intensive farming, coffee plantations, ill-planned infrastructure developments and rapid spreading of invasive plant species Lantana camara, pose a serious threat to wildlife habitat and their migration. Aim of this work is to create detailed NDVI based land change maps and to use them to identify time-series trends in greening and browning in forest corridors in the study area and to identify the drivers that are influencing the observed changes. Over the four decades in BRT, NDVI increased in the core area of the forest and reduced in the fringe areas. The change analysis between 1973 and 2014 shows significant changes; browning due to anthropogenic activities as well as natural processes and greening due to Lantana spread. This indicates that the change processes are complex, involving multiple driving factors, such as socio-economic changes, high population growth, historical forest management practices and policies. Our study suggests that the use of updated and accurate change detection maps will be useful in taking appropriate site specific action-oriented conservation decisions to restore and manage the degraded critical wildlife corridors in human-dominated landscape. |
topic |
wildlife corridor NDVI change analysis greening browning anthropogenic pressure |
url |
http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/7/2/1619 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT parameshamallegowda assessinghabitatqualityofforestcorridorsthroughndvianalysisindrytropicalforestsofsouthindiaimplicationsforconservation AT ganesanrengaian assessinghabitatqualityofforestcorridorsthroughndvianalysisindrytropicalforestsofsouthindiaimplicationsforconservation AT jayalakshmikrishnan assessinghabitatqualityofforestcorridorsthroughndvianalysisindrytropicalforestsofsouthindiaimplicationsforconservation AT madhuraniphadkar assessinghabitatqualityofforestcorridorsthroughndvianalysisindrytropicalforestsofsouthindiaimplicationsforconservation |
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1716787218454937600 |