Geospatial Modeling To Assess Geomorphological Risk For Relentless Shifting Cultivation In Garo Hills Of Meghalaya, North East India

Authors

  • Pramod Kumar Yadav Department of Forestry and Natural Resources H.N.B. Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand-246174,
  • Kiranmay Sarma University School of Environment Management, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Dwarka 16C, New Delhi - 110078,
  • Ashish Kumar Mishra Department of Forestry and Natural Resources H.N.B. Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand-246174,

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3126/ije.v2i1.9212

Keywords:

Shifting cultivation, Slope, Elevation, Garo hills, Remote sensing, GIS,

Abstract

Due to shifting cultivation, the overall structure and composition of ecological condition is affected, hence landscape study becomes important for maintaining ecological diversity and appropriate scientific planning of any area. Garo hills region of northeast India is suffering from Geomorphological risk like sheet erosion, landslide etc. due to the age old tradition of shifting cultivation in the fragile hill slopes aided by other anthropogenic activities. The present study was conducted to examine the role of shifting cultivation for deforestation and degradation with variant of slope and elevation to relate vegetation cover with slope and elevation in the Garo Hills landscape of Meghalaya using temporal remote sensing data of 1991, 2001 and 2010. It revealed that there is decrease in dense forest and open forest during the 1st decade while areas under dense forest and non-forest increased in 2nd decade. This increased forest area is confined in the high slopes, which are inaccessible. The study shows increase in shifting cultivation near-about double fold in high slope and more than a double fold in the high altitudinal area in last decade, which is negative sign in terms of Geomorphological protection.

International Journal of Environment, Volume-2, Issue-1, Sep-Nov 2013, Pages 91-104

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ije.v2i1.9212

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
Abstract
1136
PDF
826

Downloads

Published

2013-12-02

How to Cite

Yadav, P. K., Sarma, K., & Mishra, A. K. (2013). Geospatial Modeling To Assess Geomorphological Risk For Relentless Shifting Cultivation In Garo Hills Of Meghalaya, North East India. International Journal of Environment, 2(1), 91–104. https://doi.org/10.3126/ije.v2i1.9212

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 1 (2013)

Section

Research Papers

License

The author(s) acknowledge that the manuscript submitted is his/her/their own original work; all authors participated in the work in a substantive way and are prepared to take public responsibility for the work; all authors have seen and approved the manuscript as submitted;  the manuscript has not been published and is not being submitted or considered for publication elsewhere; the text, illustrations, and any other materials included in the manuscript do not infringe(plagiarism) upon any existing copyright or other rights of anyone.

Notwithstanding the above, the Contributor(s) or, if applicable the Contributor’s Employer, retain(s) all proprietary rights other than copyright, such as Patent rights; to use, free of charge, all parts of this article for the author’s future works in books, lectures, classroom teaching or oral presentations; the right to reproduce the article for their own purposes provided the copies are not offered for sale.

The copyright to the contribution identified is transferred to IJE.