Change detection analysis using multi temporal satellite data of Poba reserve forest, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh

Information on landuse/cover change is a critical input for natural resource management policy decisions. The land use/land cover pattern of a region is an outcome of natural and anthropogenic process. Land use/land cover change has become a central component of current strategies in managing natural resources and monitoring environmental changes. Remote Sensing data under GIS domain were utilized to evaluate the changes in land use/land cover spanning period of five years during 2005 to 2010 along the Siang River in Poba reserve forest Assam. Six different types of land use/land cover were categorized and out of them semi evergreen dense forest was evident as the most important land use/land cover practice followed by semi evergreen open forest in and the agriculture in 2010. The changes in the areas of agriculture land is evident from the present study in turn will impact the environment quality around leading to more open forest. The area of semi evergreen open forest increased from 13.43 sq.km to 17.6 sq.km, which is sign of deforestation and illegal tree cutting by local people. The study shows that the increase of anthropogenic activities has led to a serious trouble in the region.