Spotlight

Biodiversity Conservation in the Eastern Ghats using Remote Sensing & GIS

The Eastern Ghats located between 770 22' and 850 20' E and 200 0' N latitude are an assemblage of discontinuous hill ranges, plateaus & escarpments running along the eastern coast of India.

They spread over an area of 75,000 sq. km covering parts of Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu & Karnataka States. The Western Ghats are joined to the Eastern Ghats by the shevaroy hills, an important link for genetic continuity of the region biodiversity, and an important corridor for large mammals such as elephants, and tiger. 

Even after suffering considerable degradation (natural as well as anthropogenic), certain pockets representing the near original assemblages of biodiversity and habitat still remain, and these areas are in urgent need of survey, documentation & conservation.

This project is being perceived as precursor to an umbrella project for an integrated conservation & sustainable development initiative for the region using a community based approach for promoting conservation action.

The southern part of the Eastern Ghats particularly the shevaroy  - Nallamalai - Cuddapah - Tirupati - Chittoor hill ranges, are known to be major centers of plant and animal diversity and it was chosen as our study areas, which is located between 780 31' 35' E & 150 2' 28" N and 790 46' 15" E & 140 51' 25" N and 800 16' 9" E & 130 0' 22" N and 780 53' 45" E & 100 55' 52" N and 750 5' 27" E & 120 1' 47" N, covering parts of orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states.

Following studies were carried out in the above mentioned geographical area:

• Study the degree of fragmentation, Patch size of forest islands.
• Undertake ground truthing of the vegetation to define components of forest community structure.
• Study landuse patterns in and around the natural forest patches

To study the broad class vegetation type ground truthing were carried out through out the study area. Based on the field data and observations, a preliminary vegetation map is prepared from remotely sensed data.

The FCC output of the digital data was carried to the field for the purpose of ground-truthing. Each class was sampled in proportion to its availability field work was carried out from December 2002 to September 2003. During the survey the concerned forest department were met and discussed regarding the details about project.

For the Creation / Generation of baseline maps, data (Toposheets) was procured and were georeferenced (registering), using the world co-ordinates system Geographic lat/lon WGS 84. After Geo-rectification has been over, certain procedures has been followed to achieve the end result in the form of  "Geocoded Baseline Maps". These maps and 3D models are created/generated using Geographic Information System (GIS).

The GIS is designed to carry out operations on the data stored in its database, according to a set of user specifications. Large volume of spatial as well as attribute data regarding ecological boundaries consisting of classified vegetation, topographical & drainage features ecosystems, location of village & town, water bodies, major infrastructure facilities, administrative boundaries etc. on appropriate scale can be generated, stored and quarried. Spatial data regarding different geographical features are stored in different layers and can be overlayed according to requirement for analysis.

These data along with existing maps, satellite imagery, digital analysis & ground truthing collectively helped in carrying out a final analysis & report generation regarding extent, status & species composition of various vegetation type throughout the study areas.

The result at the end of this project will be specifically utilized for designing an integrated conservation & sustainable development programme for the Eastern Ghats.