Application of GIS & Remote Sensing Data in monitoring of plantation in the projected
forests of Barak Basin, Manipur
Dr. R.K. Chingkhei
Department of Earth Sciences, Manipur University, Imphal 795 003, Manipur, India,
Telephone No. - 91-0385-2221695, 2435173
Email: d_chingkhei@yahoo.co.in
ABSTRACT Barak River with its tributaries is the second largest in the NE India and
constitutes a part of Ganga-Brahmaputra water resource region. The major portion of the upper
catchment is a hilly terrain with medium to degraded vegetation. State Forest Department has
notified most of the Protected Forests in the subwatersheds 3C2D5, 3C2E3, 3C2E4 and 3C2E5
in the Barak Basin. The studies aimed to identify and assess the forest plantation and monitor
the temporal vegetation changes in these subwatersheds. In the present studies, the application
of digital image processing techniques has been used in identification of forest plantation sites in
the protected forests area. Out of the various options of classification available in ERDAS
Imagine, the Subpixel Classification of IRS I-C LISS III satellite data was adopted to identify
the plantation sites. The total area of plantation in protected forest is approximately 20 km 2 , the
age of plantation is approximately 25 yrs and the size of their stem is >1.5ft diameters. The
monitoring of forest plantation sites has become essential to create a database for the State
Forest Department and also to bring about a general awareness among the people.
1. INTRODUCTION
The northeastern region of India in general and Manipur in particular, endowed with rich and
diverse forest cover, are under severe threat from population explosion, over exploitation of
forest produces, unscientific felling of trees, encroachment of forest land, shifting cultivation
practices etc. Forests of this region, which are unique in structure and species composition,
exhibit a meeting zone of the temperate East Himalayan flora, Palaeo-Artic flora of Tibetan
Highland and Wet Evergreen flora of Southeast Asia and Yunnan province. The northeastern
part of India contributes an area of 1,63,799 km 2 forest which is about 25% of the total forest
cover of the country (Anonymous 2000). But to no surprise, the forest cover of this region is
decreasing day-by-day because of acute deforestation. And to check this fast deteriorating
‘biodiversity pool’ of the region is a real challenge for the government and other concerned
organizations in the region because there is lack of scientific management scheme for the same.
Hence, to start with, the need for a regular monitoring of the forests and to build up a digital
database comes up. Here, using remote sensing data and application of GIS techniques can
provide a fast and reliable monitoring system. Considering all these aspects, an attempt has been
made to identify, assess and monitor the plantation using the modern technology of Remote
sensing data and GIS techniques. Attempt are made to highlight the present scenario of the
plantation programmes taken up by the state government in the region through Joint Forest
Management Schemes and also tries to bring out the ground reality of the efforts made by the
state government to counter the deforestation.
