Monitoring of Forest Cover in Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani Eco-Sensitive Zone of Maharashtra Using Remote Sensing and GIS

Forests play an important role in the world ecosystem and their value in the environmental, economic and social aspects are uncountable. Human, as well as some natural factors are responsible for the decline in the forest cover and is adversely affecting the ecosystems. The monitoring of forest cover is necessary for the preventive measure for its conservation. Recently Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) have emerged as an effective tool for the monitoring of forest cover changes. The present study focuses on the monitoring of forest deforestation in Mahabaleshwar, Maharashtra using remote sensing and GIS. The multispectral satellite data of 1977, 1995, 2014 and 2021 were used to assess spatial changes in forest cover. The results show the considerable loss of forest cover in the study area during the study period, accounting for 42.76 km2 between 1995 to 2014 and a substantial increase of 31.42 km2 between 2014 to 2021. The net change of forest cover over the 46 years was 17.64 km2. The area closer to agriculture and human settlement shows a high rate of forest degradation. Therefore, the study suggests that the afforestation initiatives by civilians, the Forest department and NGOs resulted in the increase in the forest cover in some parts of the study area.