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Impact of Change on the Landscapes of Ecodevelopment Area, Himachal Pradesh
Suneet Naithani
NRDMS Centre,
Dept. of Geography
SSJ Campus
Almora, Kumaun University
Uttaranchal.
Vinod B. Mathur
Wildlife Institute of India
P.O. Box.18
Chandrabani
Dehradun
Introduction
Himalayas are young and well known for their climatic, floristic, faunistic and geological diversity. Great Himalayan National Park Conservation Area (GHNPCA) is one of the important protected areas (PAs) for the conservation of the biological diversity in Western Himalayan region. Vegetation in park area is mainly temperate, sub-alpine and alpine.
Ecodevelopment Area (EDA) is one of the important sub units of GHNPCA. This is the main habitation zone within the conservation area. The area bears maximum biotic pressure and puts pressure in GHNPCA too in the form of migratory sheep and goat grazing, extraction of medicinal plant, collection of Guchhi mushroom, fuelwood etc.
For the EDA the Landuse/Landcover mapping had been done using Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS). Because the technology is cost effective with repetitive coverage, whereas GIS domain provides techniques to capture, store, manipulate, analyze and display geographically referenced data. The study used socio-economic data to monitor change in Landuse/Landcover with respect to population between 1961 and 1991.
The Study Site
The GHNPCA encompasses nearly 1171 km2 area and altitude varies from 1344 to 6248 m. Whereas EDA is covering about 255 km2 area (310 54’ N to 310 81’ N Latitude and 770 28’ E to 770 53’ E Longitude). According to Biogeographic Classification, GHNPCA falls under north-western Himalayan biotic province i.e., 2A (Rodgers et al 2000). The park is well known for its rich diversity compared to other areas at similar altitudes in the north western Himalaya (Gaston et al 1981). It supports a large number of rare and endangered species
The mean annual rainfall recorded at Niharni for the period, 1992-94 was 1155.67 mm. while at Sainj for 1992-94 it was 1158.26, the temperature varies from minus 10°C to 35°C by Gaston et al (1981).
Based on the dominance and physiognomy according to Champion and Seth’s classification (1968) following vegetation types have been recognised in the study area ; (1) Sub-tropical Pine Forest (9/C1b), (2) Temperate Moist Deciduous Forests (12/C1e), (3) Temperate Broadleaved-conifer mixed Forests (12/C1d; 12/C2b), (4) Temperate Coniferous mixed Forests (12/C3a), (5) Temperate Broadleaved (Evergreen) Forest (12/C2a) Kharsu Oak Forests, (6) Himalayan Temperate Secondary scrub, (7) Birch-Rhododendron Scrub, (8) Alpine Scrub, (9) Temperate Grasslands, (10) Alpine Pastures.
The fauna of the GHNPCA comprised 31 species of mammals (Gaston and Garson, ( 1992); Vinod and Sathyakumar (1999), 183 species of birds Gaston et al (1993 ), Ramesh et al (1999), and more than 125 species of invertebrates Uniyal & Mathur (1999). From conservation point of view this area has a great significance. The map of village locations can be seen on Fig 1.
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