Spatio Temporal Change Analysis of Forest Density inDoodhganga Forest Range, Jammu & Kashmir

The increasing use of satellite remote sensing for civilian use has proved to be the most cost effective means of mapping and monitoring environmental changes in terms of vegetation and non-renewable resources, especially in developing countries. Data can be obtained as frequently as required to provide information for determination of quantitative and qualitative changes in terrain. The ever increasing population is increasingly changing forest to the other unsuitable applications such as: agriculture, providing energy and fuel, million of hectares fromthis natural resource are destroyed every year and the remainder of the surfaces change quantitatively and qualitatively. For better management of the forests, the change of forest area and rate of forest density should be investigated. It is possible that there isn't any change in the area of forest during the time but the density of forest is changed. Therefore, in this research the method of Forest Density Mapping has been developed and tested in an area, which is located in the Northern part of India. For this, TM & LISS – III images from different dates are used. At first, the forest density map was prepared by using Supervised Classification for two images. Then, the changing ofthe area and forest density during these periods was distinguished.