Forest Cover Assessment as Influenced by Anthropogenic Activities in Mundgod Taluka of Uttara Kannada District Using Remote Sensing and GIS

Abstract

The study was taken up in Mundgod taluka of UK (Uttara Kannada) district to assess the anthropogenic impact on forest resources. The forest area from 1989 to 2006 was analyzed using LANDSAT TM and ETM+ imageries in ERDAS IMAGINE and Arc GIS. The result revealed that the forest area in the year 1989 was 78.59% which was reduced to 64.65% in the year 2006 mainly due to human interference. There has been an increase in area under agriculture and water body. The detection of change in forest area was identified through NDVI maps. The increase in agricultural land was due to cultivation in forest land by cutting the trees, there by reduced the forest area. The trend of result indicated that the forest resources are decreasing year by year due to human activities.