Forest Cover Change Detection using Geospatial Technologies in Chandaka National Park, Odisha, India

Forest plays a vital role in carbon sequestration and climate regulation. A crucial tool for managing forest, particularly in protected regions, is keeping track of how the land cover changes in natural places. Using geospatial approaches, such as remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS), the present study has revealed spatio-temporal changes in land use categories and forest cover in the Chandaka National Park of Odisha, India, throughout the period of 1980-2020. The Landsat, LISS III and Sentinel satellite images of the year 1980, 2000 and 2020 were utilized respectively to map five land use land cover categories i.e. deciduous broadleaf forest, crop land, mixed forest, scrub land and water bodies in this preserved area. The satellite images were classified using a Supervised Classification method using Maximum Likelihood algorithm and ground control points (GCPs) were used for the spatial statistical analyses. The overall accuracies of the classification method in land cover categories in year 1980, 2000 and 2020 were 90.45%, 92.76% and 94.68%, respectively. Elsewhere, in order to study land use land cover (LULC) change and loss in forest of the Chandaka National Park, LULC classification, per-pixel scales post classification and self-knowledge on the LULC change process were used. The LULC change detection results showed that deciduous broadleaf forest decreased from 179.01 sq. km (76.66%) in 1980 to 132.75 sq. km (56.85%) in 2020, while mixed forest cover increased by 8.17 sq. km (3.50%) in 1980 to 38.84 sq. km (16.63%) in 2020. Crop land, Scrub land and Water bodies were also increased by 3.34%, 3.27% and 0.07%, respectively. Two significant change processes in the area are the logging activities in several places for timber and the conversion of natural forests with plantation. Agriculture expansion in the forest’s periphery is linked to the dramatic decline in forest cover change. The decline in forest cover is also a result of the production of charcoal and lumber exploitation. Overall, our findings indicated that more public awareness and participatory forest management are necessary to preserve Chandaka National Park. This study highlights the use of geospatial technologies in understanding the changes in LULC in the Chandaka National Park.