A study carried out by the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) has predicted a depletion of 9,007.14 square km (2.94%) of forests in parts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh by 2028. The study, Forest Cover Monitoring and Prediction in a Lesser Himalayan Elephant Landscape, published in the current issue of Current Science, says deforestation and loss of wildlife habitat in Upper Assam is likely to influence not only adjoining Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh but lower Assam as well.
Scientists involved in the study said they monitored the depletion of forest cover in parts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh over 42,375 square km in an elephant landscape falling in the Lesser Himalaya in the Northeast. The forest cover of 2028 was predicted using the 2000-2009 depletion of forests study and Cellular Automata Markov Model (CAMM). As elephants are long-ranging animals and are distributed across the landscape, it is important to carry out studies covering large areas to address the habitat status over time, which can be used for effective habitat conservation.
According to this study, more districts of Assam than Arunachal Pradesh and more plains than hills faced deforestation. It has identified increasing human population and subsequent demand on land for cultivation as major reasons for forest cover depletion. With the highest rate of deforestation (in the Assam-Arunachal area) in India, the study area can also be addressed as the deforestation hotspot of India.
The annual rate of deforestation was found to be higher in Assam than Arunachal Pradesh primarily due to the latter’s inhospitable mountainous terrain. Among the districts in Assam, the highest deforestation was noticed in Barpeta, followed by Dhemaji, Tinsukia, Lakhimpur, Darrang, Dibrugarh and Sonitpur during the 85-year study period. Area-wise, the largest amount of forest cover loss was noticed in Dhemaji (1,419.99 square km), followed by Sonitpur (825.85 square km), Lohit in Arunachal (820.61 square km), Tinsukia (662.28 square km) and Lakhimpur (635.15 square km).Of the 9,000 square km forest cover loss prediction, Assam and Arunachal are predicted to lose around 670.55 square km of moist deciduous dense forest by 2028.
A.J.T. John Singh and Kamal Medhi evaluated the three community conservation areas (CCAs) established by the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-India and talked in their report about tremendous extraction of wood for various purposes, garbage management problem, and how cultivation was encroaching upon the mountain slopes, destroying the ecologically precious forests, and road-building activities with enormous extraction of wood.
This kind of massive green cover loss by 2028 will not only affect India but it will also affect the ecology of neighbouring country Bhutan. Wildlife activists said lack of forest cover will bring further chaos from food and water security point of view in Assam. With planting trees, we also need to work towards revitalising the forest ecosystem. It is important to sensitise the local people to realise and protect the forest wealth and biodiversity of these regions as development must not take place at the cost of conservation.
India Outbound
October 12,2018
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source https://indiaoutbound.org/green-cover-loss-in-arunachal-pradesh-and-assam/
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