Land Change in Tirthan Valley

Humans are dominant agent of landscape change. Off lately, anthropogenic induced changes have visibly degraded environment around the world putting a serious question over the sustainability of both natural and man-made ecosystems. The sustainability of the ecosystems has found to be directly linked to changes in LULC. The present study aims to analyse long-term land use change in the Tirthan Valley of Himachal Pradesh; the region is a part of protected area collectively known as GHNPCA. With the help of multi-temporal satellite images of LANDSAT, this study reconstructs the trajectory of land changes over a period of five decades. The data shows an increase in forest cover (7.29%), rocky/barren land (45.35%), agriculture/horticulture land (28.94%) and settlement/ built-up (190.48%) while decrease in pasture/open land (29.97%), snow cover (56.14%) and river/water body (54.52%). The results have shown significant land changes in post protected area status

Agriculture · Agroforestry · Ecosystem · Environmental protection · Geography · Land cover · Land use · Land use, land-use change and forestry · National park · Natural (archaeology) · Physical geography · Sustainability · Ecology · Environmental Science · Forestry · Land Use and Ecosystem Services · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Remote Sensing in Agriculture