Assessment of Forest Fragmentation of Rajaji National Park, Uttarakhand

The geospatial landscape characterization of Rajaji National Park (RNP), Uttarakhand, exhibited Forest as the largest patch among the four land-use classes of Forest, Scrub, Water channels, and Non-Forest. The Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes for 10 years from 1995 to 2005 depicted a decrease in forested area by 17% and water area by 20%. On the other hand, non-forest areas increased by 35% and scrub area increased by 172%. However, in the next 10 years, from 2005 to 2015, new management practices in the park resulted in an increase in the forest by 2% and water areas by 32%, respectively; there was a decrease in the non-forest area by 38%. However, the scrub area had increased again by another 15%. Overall, in 20 years, from 1995 to 2015, there was 212% increase in area under scrub and 15% decrease in area under forest. The steady increase in area under scrub resulted in greater patchiness of the RNP landscape that impacted qualitative indices such as Shannon’s diversity index, contiguity, connect and fractal dimensions of the Park landscape from 1995 to 2015. The invasive character of the scrub was primarily due to the presence of the invasive species Lantana camara, which was one of the driving forces that fragmented the forests of RNP. The scrub not only increased in number and size but also exhibited multi-directional dispersion. The invasive attribute of the scrub exhibited a tendency to coalesce its random patches and engulf the forested areas. The regular monitoring, assessment and remodelling of the scrub would be critical in combating the forest fragmentation of RNP. Hence, this study brings forth the use of geospatial tools as an effective medium for studying the quantitative and qualitative changes in land use patterns of large protected areas. Such studies are important to ensure the ecosystem services of a National Park for in-situ biodiversity conservation.