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Forest vegetation maps of Western Ghats
Marie-Claire Guero
Head Geomatics Laboratory, French Institute of Pondicherry,
11 St. Louis Street, Post Box 33,
Pondicherry
freninst@ind2.vsnl.net.in
B.R. Ramesh
Head Botanical Laboratory, French Institute of Pondicherry,
11 St. Louis Street, Post Box 33,
Pondicherry
ifpbota@satyam.net.in
Introduction and Background
The State of West Bengal has a total geographical area of 88,750 Sq. Km. i.e. 13.4% of its land area is under recorded forest. Out of this recorded forest area,
nearly 34% of the forest has been brought under Protected Area network which includes National Parks and Sanctuaries. West Bengal has one of the highest population
densities in the country and there is tremendous pressure on forest land. During the Sixties and Seventies of twentieth century, because of a series of development
activities and population explosion, there had been large-scale degradation of natural forest. However, from the early Eighties, with the adoption of the technique of
Joint Forest Management, the process of degradation could not only be stopped but also reversed. Peoples’ participation in management of forest and sharing of usufruct
from the resuscitated forest was the key to success of Joint Forest Management. Since the natural eco-system has been undergoing rapid changes in the recent times, the
conventional methodology of forest vegetation monitoring through the long-term process of preparation of forest stock maps through manual survey has become almost obsolete.
For better management of this dynamic eco-system, a more realistic method has been felt necessary. The modern technology of GIS and vegetation mapping through Satellite Imagery provides an opportunity for such real-time monitoring of the eco-system. Rapid appraisal of the forest inventory will help identification of the correct strategy to achieve the desired goal of conservation of forests and bio-diversity.
Background
Most of the territorial forest Divisions in the State have Working Plans prepared for a period of 10 years or so, within the framework of which detailed activities of the Divisions are drawn up. These Working Plans are to be approved by Government of India, as per the direction of the Supreme Court of India. No forest can be worked without an approved Working Plan. Each Working Plan has normally 3 volumes. Volume-I contains background information of the Forest Division including history of its management in the past, information on the quality and growth of the forest vegetation, geographical description of the forest land and organisational pattern. Volume-II of the Working Plan includes the objectives and strategies of management and is the real operative part of the Working Plan. Volume-III contains the stock maps which indicate details of the forest stock/inventory, mouza-wise, and also is the reference map for forest land boundary demarcation.The two most important components of the Working Plan are
- Description of forest boundary (Forest Map)
- Description of forest vegetation (Forest inventory)
Survey of the forest boundary to check about their correctness and encroachment etc. is done mainly by the staff of Working Plan Divisions. The conventional plain table survey method adopted in this case is not only time consuming but also perennial in nature, since detection of any change of boundary or encroachment can be confirmed only through another detailed field survey.
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