Spatio-Temporal Landuse and Land Cover Change Detection in the Lataguri Forest Range under Mal Sub-division, Jalpaiguri District, West Bengal, India

Forest resources are vital for society and wildlife animals. In the northern part of West Bengal, forest resources are threatened by deforestation. Landuse and land cover change indicate that natural land is converted into multipurpose use. The Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) is used for analysis of land use and land cover changes. In this paper, Landsat TM & OLI 30-meter resolution satellite imagery and image processing techniques were used to determine changes in land use and land cover during the study period of 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020. In this paper, eight land cover categories are used. These are agricultural land, built-up area, fallow land, marshy land, plantation area, river, vegetation area, and water bodies. The image classification and accuracy assessment by Kappa coefficient. In the Jalpaiguri forest fringe area, the population is increasing, and the natural area is converted into agricultural land, habitat land, and tea gardens. This paper highlights vegetation areas, plantation areas, agricultural areas, built areas, marshy land, fallow land, water bodies, and rivers. This paper also highlights the past 40 years of change in the pattern of land use and land cover. In the four decades, vegetation areas and plantation areas have declined. Whereas part of agricultural land, built-up area, and fallow land has increased in the last four decades. Due to human interaction, the Jalpaiguri forest fringe (Lataguri Forest Range) area rapidly changed into a cultural landscape.