Grazer Schriften der Geographie und Raumforschung Band 45/ 2010

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Vegetation types of the endangered Eastern Ghats mountain ecosystem – A Remote Sensing perspectiveG. Areendran, P. Rao, K. Raj, and L. SahuWWF India 172 B, Lodi Estate, New Delhi 110003, India

pp. 63 - 72

Abstract

Vegetation and land cover information have been generally recognised as the basis for planning and managment and for detailed habitat inventories of large landscapes. The regular monitoring of these habitas permits the detection of change in the vegetation components and immediate surroundings for setting managment priorities.

The Eastern ghats constitue an important biogeographic region in the Indian region and is a major center of plant diversity with a high endemism. Ranging from Orissa Andhra Pradesh to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the Eastern ghats are spread over an area of about 75,000 sq.km through a chain of fragmented and disjunct hill ranges. The fragmen-ted nature of the Eastern ghats mountain ecosystem include a rich assemblage of fl oral, faunal wealth including many endangered and endemic species. An estimated 3000 species of fl owering plants constitute the entire fl ora of the Eastern ghats out of which at least 100 species are known to be endemic to the region. Several forest vegetation types including tropical deciduous, mixed dry deciduous, dry evergreen forest occur in the region. The study was car-ried out through a combination of different fi eld techniques includind fi eld surveys, satellite data processing and GIS data analysis.

Dry deciduous forsets, thorn forests and scrub vegetation constituted 38.1 % of the forest cover which included critical forest patches in the Seshachalam and Palamner hll ranges of Andhra Pradesh. These hills harbour endemic fl oristic elements like Shorea tumbuggaia, Boswellia ovalifolia, Petrocarpus santalinus, Terminalia pallida, Pimpinella tirupa-tensis, Cycas beddomi and faunal assemblages like Golden Gecko, Slender Loris Loris tardigradus.

Mixed dry deciduous forests accountd for 18514.09 sq.km (12.03%) as per Remote Sensing data. Increased economic activities along costal regions have led to exploitation of these unique forset ecosysems for fuelwood and fodder purposes. Scrub vegetation classifed as scrub fores constituted 9.12 % with increasing of there conversion to irrigation and cultivation purposes.

Several fl oral species of this landscape have a narrow distributional range and any adverse impact on their habitats can lead to serious decline in the native populations of these species. We suggest a more detailed assessment and analysis of a higher scale of the rare and endangered biological diversity for future conservation planning for mana-gers and policy makers.

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faunal elements which are evidences of a once continu-ous distribution. The region also is known to be a centre where wild rela-tives of rice and pepper are found, making the region a potential site for germplasm diversity. The faunal values of the region are very rich and include several rare and en-demic species including the Asian Elephant, Tiger, Slender Loris, etc. The dry scrub thorn forests of Cuddapah is the only known habitat of the highly endangered bird species, the Jerdon’s Courser, rediscovered in 1986 after being con-sidered extinct for nearly a century.The Eastern Ghats have suffered considerable degradati-on from pressures of deforestation and natural resource exploitation. Some parts of the region are also affl icted by repeated droughts and cyclonic destruction. The present study was conceived with a view to understanding the land use and land cover patterns of the southern parts of the fragmented hill ranges of the Eastern ghats in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu considering the rich biological values known to occur in this region. Although there have been several efforts by scientists and conservation biolo-gists to document the region’s biodiversity in detail in the past (EPTRI publications on Conservation of Eastern Ghats 1998, 2002), it was felt that the use of Remote Sensing and GIS as a tool would further enhance our knowledge of the biological resources of the region by mapping the land use pattern.

2. Study Area

The present study area is located between 78°31‘35“E & 15°2‘28“N and 79°46‘15“E & 14°51‘25“N and 80°16‘9“E & 13°0‘22“N and 78°53‘45“E &10°55‘52“N and 77°5‘27“E & 12°1‘47“N (See map) and constitute an assemblage of dis-continuous hill ranges, plateaus and escarpments running along the Eastern coast. Within Andhra Pradesh the study covered the Chittoor hill ranges including the Palakonda, Seshachalam ranges as well as the Kaundinya Wildlife Sanctuary hills in Palamaner Forest division. In Tamil Nadu the study covered the North and South Arcot hills, Salem (Yercaud hills, Kollimalai hills, Villupuram (Kalrayan Hills) and Coimbatore (Satyamangalam ranges).

2.1. Vegetation

An estimated 3000 species of fl owering plants constitute the entire fl ora of the Eastern ghats out of which at least 100 species are known to be endemic to the region.(Sastry 2002, Pullaiah and Rao 2000, 2002). According to Cham-pion and Seth (1968) the forests of the Seshachalam hill ranges are classifi ed as Southern tropical Dry deciduous forests with Red Sanders Pterocarpus santalinus, a high yielding timber tree endemic to the region.

1. Background

Remote Sensing and the processing of remotely sensed data through Geographical Information system (GIS) are two most important synergistic technologies which offer present ecologists and resource managers, a tremendous potential to address their needs and process their infor-mation (Roughgarden et. al. 1991 and Sample 1994). Ho-ward et. al (1996) has highlighted the importance of the remotely sensed data in linking ecological information recorded from ground, air and space. Cornett (1994) and Sample (1994) emphasize that GIS and Remote Sensing are catalysts for effective public involvement in ecosystem management planning, analysis and policy making.An excellent database of the existing infrastructure and the important biological, anthropological and environmental processes operating and interacting within a given Pro-tected area forms the backbone and yardstick for the ma-nager in the effective management of the area. Due to over extraction of natural resources in recent times, tropical forests in India are being increasingly fragmented. Deforestation is today cited as one of the major causes of habitat fragmentation thereby impacting on biological di-versity. The management of remnant forest patches in the Eastern Ghats mountain ecosystems along the eastern face of India assumes greater conservation signifi cance in terms of the biological values existing within this region. The Eastern Ghats located between 770 22’ E and 850 20’ N and 110 30’ E and 200 0’ N Latitude are an assemblage of discontinuous hill ranges, plateaus and escarpments run-ning along the eastern coast of India. They are spread over an area of 75,000 sq. km covering parts of Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states. The Western Ghats are joined to the Eastern Ghats by the Shevaroy Hills, an extremely important link for genetic continuity of the region’s biodiversity, and an important corridor for large mammals. The southern part of the ‘Eastern Ghats, particularly the Nallamalai – Cuddapah – Tirupati – Chit-toor - Shevaroy – hill ranges, are known to be major cen-ters of plant and animal diversity. Over six different forest types are known to occur in these hill ranges including moist deciduous forests. Several authors have suggested that the Eastern ghats were possibly important corridors for dispersal of wet zone species which occur in Southern India( Abdulali 1949, Ripley and Beehler 1990). Other the-ories also postulate that the present discontinuous distri-bution of faunal elements is representative of a former continuous distribution (Mani 1974). The scenario suppo-ses that the region was earlier a vast stretch of continues humid forest which has over the years been broken down into isolated patches because of climatic changes (Legris and Meher-Homji 1982). The present fragmented parts of the Eastern ghats ranges contain many fl oristic and

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Figure 1: Location of study area.

area. They occur in most parts of the eastern ghats in small or large patches. Thorny elements dominate the scrub forests including Acacias, Capparis sepiaria, Zi-ziphus mauritiana, Euphorbia antiquorum, E tirucalli, Flacourtia sepiaria, Xeromphis spinosa.

6. Tropical dry evergreen forests – Found mainly in the coastal plains area of the middle and southern eas-tern ghats they represent a unique ecosystem along a narrow belt on the south eastern coast and plains characterised by thorny and tree elements. Dominant species include Manilkara hexandra, Memecylon um-bellatum, Syzygium cumini, Albizia amara, Strychnos nux vomica, Sapindus emarginatus, Drypetes sepiaria, Pterospermum canescens, Garcinia spicata, Cordia di-chotoma etc.

2.1. ClimateThe climatic conditions of the eastern ghats favours both the south west and the north east monsoon cycles. In the coastal plains heavy winter rains coupled with cyc-lonic storms are typical characteristics.In the central and southern part of the eastern ghats the mean annual rain-fall ranges from 60-105 cm exhibiting a semi arid climate except in the higher reaches of the mountains. Average temperatures range from 20-35 ° C and can go up to 45 °C during the summer months (April –June) while the rela-tive humidity is quite high throughout the year (70-75 %)

3. Methods and Materials

The methodology for this study is divided into three com-ponents:i) Field surveyii) Satellite data analysisiii) GIS Data analysis

3.1. Field Survey

The fi eld visits to the study area were carried out in Janu-ary 2003, October 2003 and a fi nal survey in August 2004. Forest regions and adjoining areas were visited for acqui-ring ground data to corroborate the imagery classifi cation. Unsupervised classifi cation map of 30 classes was prepa-red for the entire study area and each class was surveyed for the vegetation type. The FCC output of the digital data was carried to the fi eld. Different colour tones were iden-tifi ed for the surveying of vegetation type. The fi nal fi eld survey was carried out in the month of Au-gust 2004 for the accuracy assessment of classifi ed image. The ground verifi cation was done for all the classes, inter-preted from the satellite image. GPS locations were recor-ded for each vegetation class along with other parameters such as terrain, disturbance, animal sightings, closeness to village, road etc. Finally land use/ land cover map with

The forest types of the region under the present study in-clude:1. Tropical evergreen forests - Seen in a few valleys in the

Shevaroy hills at Yercaud near Salem. 2. Southern Indian Tropical Moist deciduous forests –

Found in patches in the middle eastern ghats in places like Talakona, Seshachalam hills and the southern part of the eastern ghats in Tamil Nadu .

3. Tropical dry deciduous forests- Both teak and nonteak bearing forests are seen although non teak bearing category is dominant in the study areas along the Ses-hachalam hills, and North Arcot hills of Tamil Nadu. These forests have very important endemic species like Pterocarpus santalinus, Shorea tumbuggaia, Syzigium alternifolium, Boswelia ovalifoliata, etc.

4. Southern Mixed dry deciduous forests – These forests are found in the drier parts of the study area and in-clude elements like Anogeissus latifolia, Chlorozylon swietenia, Diospyros melanoxylon, Gardenia gummi-fera, Hardwickia binata, Pterospermum xylocarpum, Xeromphis spinosa, Helicteres isora etc.

5. Scrub forests - Most scrub patches in the study area are fragmented mainly due to biotic interference and form substantive part of the vegetation of the study

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17 broad vegetation classes have been prepared from sa-tellite imageries on the basis of pre and post fi eld survey data.

3.2. Satellite Processing

The Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) with LISS III sen-sor provided data in four bands which include two bands in visible ( green, red) , one in near infra red with a spatial resolution of 23.5 metres and one in shortwave infrared with a spatial resolution of 70.5 metres.. The Area of In-terest (AOI) of the present document is covered in 9 sa-tellite image, and lies in the Path 99, 100,101,102 and row 63,64,65,66 and ,67 respectively with the data coverage between November 2001 and February 2002. Data were selected from same period of the year for the entire area to maintain uniform spectral and radiometric characte-ristics, as well the seasonal variations or least difference due to phenology of the vegetation. Preparation of base map with information such as forest patch, road network, village locations, contours, draina-ge, were converted in to digital format using ARC Info 8.3/ARCView 3.3/ARC GIS 9 softwares. The digital image processing of satellite data has been carried out using ERDAS Imagine 8.7 software. Combination of supervised and unsupervised classifi cation techniques was employed to analyse land use/land cover from IRS image. The fi eld survey was carried out in the study area for collecting the ground truth information with respect to different classes interpreted from the imagery. The accuracy assessment was done based on the ground truth information.The in-formation for Base map were acquired from Survey Of In-dia (SOI) toposheets number: 57(J,K,H,L,D,I) and 58(A,E,I,F) and Forest Survey of India (FSI) at 1:250,000 Scale , Nati-onal Atlas of India at 1:2,000,000 and National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation at 1:250,000.The methodology adopted to extract the desired informa-tion included Geometric correction of the satellite data, AOI masking, mosaicing, Image Enhancement, classifi -cation and change detection analysis.The geometric cor-rection factors were incorporated by using topographical maps as reference with uniformly distributed Ground Control Points (GCPs) with rms error. During fi eld surve-ys the general pattern of vegetation and habitats of the study area was noted including cover types. Subsequent-ly the image elements were coorelated with the ground truth information. Supervised and auxiliary classifi cations were performed on the Digital Data on the basis of pre-existing knowledge and ground information to obtain various Land use/Land cover classes of the study area.

4. Results

In Andhra Pradesh the recorded forest area is 63814 sq km, which constitutes 23.20% of geographic area of the state. Reserved Forest constitutes 50,479 sq km, Protected Forest 12,365 sq km, and unclassed Forest 970 sq km. (FSI, 2001) As per the State of the Forest Report,2001, Andhra Pradesh has a forest cover which constitutes 9.4% dense forest, 6.8 % open forest, and 83.8 % non forest. In Tamilnadu, the recorded forest area is 22,871 sq km which constitutes 17.6% of the land area of the state. Re-served Forest comprises 19,325 sq km, Protected Forest 2240 sq km and Unclassed Forest 1306 sq km. According to State of the Forest Report(2001) Tamil Nadu’s forest over includes 9.6% dense forest, 6.9% open forest, and 83.5% non forest.The present study covered a large geographical landscape over an area of 153,934.29 sq. kms primarily in the state of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Within the project zone the survey was conducted to assess the forest cover and land use distribution pattern across 17 different thematic elements, which have some level of signifi cance with the landscape of the region.

Figure 2: Land use/land cover of study area.

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The satellite based data that was analyzed using Remote Sensing techniques provided some interesting data of the present land use dynamics of a biotope, which is increa-singly being fragmented due to human interference and other developmental activities including urbanization. The hill ranges of the Eastern Ghats are under severe biotic pressure and the rapid changes that are taking place will alter the unique character of the ghats. From the data ob-tained through satellite imageries (IRS LISS III) the major thematic groups that dominated the entire landscape in-cluded dry deciduous forests, dry evergreen forests, mixed

dry deciduous forests, thorn forests, scrub, water bodies, mangrove, agriculture fallow land etc. (see map No.2).Within the study area, dry deciduous forests, thorn forests and scrub vegetation constitute 38.1 % of the forest cover. The important categories of vegetation and other classes as refl ected by satellite data along with ground truth in-formation greatly helped in the overall interpretation and analysis of the data. Some of the important classes are de-tailed below:

Land use/Land cover Area (in Hec.) Area in sq.kms Percentage

Dry Evergreen Forest 248252 2482.52 1.61

Dry Deciduous Forest 1496761 14967.61 9.72

Mixed Dry Deciduous Forest 1851409 18514.09 12.03

Thorn Forest 1113089 11130.89 7.23

Scrub 1404011 14040.11 9.12

Water Bodies 227325 2273.25 1.48

Sandy Bed 70583 705.83 0.46

Open/Barren/Rocky Exposure/Cloud 1958003 19580.03 12.72

Plantation 54313 543.13 0.35

Waste Land 178501 1785.01 1.16

Settlement 80171 801.71 0.52

Salt Pan 22.4 22.14 0.01

Shadow 10442 104.42 0.07

Mangrove 6380 63.80 0.04

Agriculture 4341689 43416.89 28.20

Fallow Land 2341910 23419.10 15.21

Total 15393429 153934.29 100

Table 1: Land use/Land cover distribution within the Study Area from satellite interpreted data.

4.1. Dry deciduous forest

These constitutes a susbstantial part of the forest cover covering an area of 14967.61 sq.km (9.72%) in the two states . In Andhra Pradesh the Chittoor district these fo-rests occupy 1518 sq.km mainly in Seshachalam hills and the Palamaner forest ranges apart from reserve forests. Including other deciduous forest types and scrub the-se constitute over 6600 sq.km in the district. Similarly Cuddapah district also harbours a good density of dry deciduous forest. The Venkateswara National park and

the Kaundinya Wildlife Sanctuary are designated within these forested regions. The forests are characterised by several non teak bearing forests species including some rare and endemic elements which include, Pterocarpus santalinus, Shorea tumbuggaia, Cycas beddomei etc. The National park is also one of the last remaining refuges for the endangered Golden Gecko, as well other endangered species like the Slender Loris (Loris tardigradus). Apart from these economically important species like Ta-marind (Tamarindus indica), Red sanders (Pterocarpus san-

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talinus), Sandal wood (Santalum album), Sissoo(Dalbergia sissoo), Pepper (Piper nigrum) have increased the overall biological values of these forests .In Tamil Nadu, as per the suryeyed area, dry deciduous forests were largely recorded in Vellore, (559.08 sq.km), Villupuram (474sq.km),Tiruvannamalai(446 sq.km), Sa-lem (Yercaud) 501.58 sq.km, Dharmapuri (931.96 sq.km) and Nilgiris districts (1116.25 sq.km). Some key hill ranges around Tiruvannamalai and Salem districts hold very good patches of dry and mixed dry deciduous forests.

4.2. Mixed dry deciduous forest

In both Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, mixed dry deci-duous forests account for 18514.09 sq.km (12.03 %) as per the satellite data. These non teak bearing forest patches occur in the Seshachalam ranges in Chittoor districts, An-dhra Pradesh and in Vellore, Tiruvannamalai districts in Tamil Nadu supported by elements like Pterocarpus san-talinus, Shorea tumbuggaia, Syzygium alternifolium, Bos-wellia ovalifoliolata, Wrightia tinctoria, Vitex altissima, Terminalia pallida, Shorea roxburghii , Phyllanthus embli-ca, Anogeissus latifolia, Chloroxylon swietenia, Diospyros melanoxylon, Gardenia gummifera etc. Albizia odoratissi-ma, Hardwickia binata, Pterospermum xylocarpum, He-licteres isora, Xeromphis spinosa, Flacourtia ramontchi. Shrubs include Toddalia asiatica, Lantana camara, Chro-molaena odorata, Tarenna asiatica, Acalypha fruiticosa and Securinega leucopyrus. Herb layer mainly consists of Justicia simplex, Blepharis madaraspatana, Hemionitis arifolia, Adiantum lunulatum, Tridax procumbens, Sida acuta and Leucas bifl ora.The mixed dry deciduous forests in the study area are an important component of the overall vegeation cover of the region. Given the diversity of forests in the region, Chittoor district covers 2228 sq.km of mixed dry decidu-ous forests while Cuddapah district has over 1815 sq.km of these forests. Although the present study did not take into account some of the dry deciduous forest patches in Karnataka, it is important to mention here that in My-sore district alone has over 2780 sq.km of these forests. We also note that these forests have signifi cant presence in Salem (472 sq.km), Tiruvannamalai (407 sq.km), Dhar-mapuri, Vellore (630.07 sq.km) and Villupuram (506.72 sq.km) (Annexure 1).

4.3. Dry evergreen forests

Dry evergreen forests form a very small portion of the eastern ghats forest type and have a very thin distributi-onal range across the eastern coastal belt in Tamil Nadu and some parts of southern Andhra Pradesh. In the pre-sent study only 2482.519 sq km (1.61 %) of dry evergreen forests were recorded through satellite data interpretati-

on. The presence of these forests is characterized by low and dense forest thickets at times impenetrable with di-stinct thorny elements. Occurring in South Cuddapah(601 sq.km) and Mamandur valley, Seshachalam hills, Chittoor districts (445 sq.km) the forest type also has a sizeable presence along the coastal belts of both southern Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in Nellore district in Andhra Pra-desh and in places like Marakanam near Pondicherry and Point Calimere in Tamil Nadu . The vegetation has typical elements like Manilkara hexandra, Memecylon umbel-latum, Syzygium cumini, Albizia amara, Albizia lebbeck, Strychnos nux-vomica, Sapindus emarginatus, Drypetes sepiaria, Petrospermum, Garcinia spicata, Cordia dichoto-ma, Flacourtia indiaca. In some parts of Tamil Nadu these forests are reduced to tropical dry evergreen scrub with dominant tree species like Memecylon edule, Dichrosta-chys cinerea, Catunaregum spinosa, Diospyros ferrea.The tropical dry evergreen forest are an endangered forest type in India and have a very limited distributional range in southern India. Increased economic activities along coastal regions have led to exploitation of these unique forest ecosystems for fuelwood and fodder purposes. This has led to severe fragmentation of these forests and there is a real threat of losing the gene pool of a unique forest ecosystem. The present study also reinforces the view that these fo-rests occur in a very limited range and therefore there is a need to conserve this valuable ecosystem.

4.4. Scrub forests

Scrub vegetation classifi ed as scrub forests constituted 9.12% or 14040.11sq.km of the study area as per satellite data interpretation. During our fi eld visits in Andhra Pra-desh and Tamil Nadu, we came across several regions which were dominated by scrub patches with a diverse range of thorny elements. These included Acacias, Cap-paris sepiara, Ziziphus mauritiana, Ziziphus oenoplia, Zizi-phus xylopyrus, Euphorbia antiquorum, Euphorbia tirucal-li, Flacourtia sepiaria, Xeromphis spinosa, Dolichandrone falcata, Wrightia tinctoria, Dodonaea viscosa, and Cassia fi stula. In Andhra Pradesh Chittoor, Cuddapah and Nellore districts have signifi cant portions occupied by scrub fo-rests mainly consisting of thorny elements. The scrub fo-rest along the hill slopes of the Lankamalleswaram sanc-tuary are particularly important forming the only known habitat of the highly endangered Jerdon’s Courser (Curso-rius bitorquatus). The presence of scrub forests was more noticeable in different districts of Tamil Nadu (Vellore, Villupuram,Tiruvannamalai) where vegetation was cha-racterized by a vast range of plant species including trees like Moringa concanensis, Commiphora wightii, Canthi-

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um dicoccum, Limonia alata and Euphorbia antiquorum. Common shrubs occurring were Acalypha fruticosa, Lan-tana camara, Securinega leucopyrus and Tarenna asiatica. Pterolobium hexapetalum, Cissus quadrangularis, Cardi-ospermum halicacabum, Asparagus racemosus and Jas-minum auriculatum were common climbers. Herb layer included Ocimum canum, Tephrosia purpurea, Polycarpae corymbosa, Borreria, Desmodium trifl orum and Boerhavia diffusa.

4.5. Evergreen Forest

Although evergreen forests did not come under the pur-view of the present study nevertheless there are patches of evergreen forest occurring in the areas where the eas-tern and western ghats meet. The common trees found in this patch were Michelia champaca, Prunus ceylania, Vitex altissima, Fillicium decipiens, Canarium strictum, Melia dubia, Litsea oleoides, Ficus sp., Gmelina arborea, Maesa indica, Macaranga peltata and Aglaia roxburghia-na. Lianas and climbers such Gnetum ula, Entada rheedii and Rhaphidophora pertusa were common in this forest. The undergrowth was mostly dominated by Pyschotria sp, Leea indica, Ziziphus rugosa, Ecobolium viride, Cyathea niligiriensis and Strobilanthes spp e.g. the Madeswarama-lai reserve forest patch in Karnataka comprised of mainly evergreen vegetation type. This area constitutes an impor-tant assemblage of canopy trees as described below: At lower elevations ( 1000 – 1400 m) the forest compositi-on was made up of Elaeocarpus tuberculatus — Michelia champaca — Canarium strictum: which occur as a nar-row belt of evergreen forests occurring along perennial streams and are termed as riparian forests. Other impor-tant canopy trees include: Mangifera indica, Dimocarpus longan, Elaecarpus serratus, Ficus nervosa, Persea ma-crantha, Aphanamixis polystachya, Canarium strictum. However, along with evergreen elements the presence of few characteristic species of the Eastern Ghats such as Olea glandulifera and Diospyros ovalifolia indicates the difference from its counterpart.At higher elevations (upto 1800m) Neolitsea zeylanica, Scheffl era capitata, Meliosma sp occur. Daphniphyllum neilgherrense, Ixora notoniana, Rapanea wightiana, Te-renna asiatica, Syzygium densifl orum, Vernonia monosis, and Viburmum coraiceum are common along the borders of the forest.

4.6. Riverine Forest

Remnants of riverine forest ecosystems are seen in the Ta-mil Nadu part of the eastern ghats particularly in the Nil-giris region. Trees like Syzygium cumini, Pongamia pinna-ta, Mangifera indica, Ficus sp, and Mallotus philippinensis are common. A few patches of Bambusa arundinacea

were seen along riverside.

4.7. Agriculture

Based on the study, the use of existing natural lands for irrigation and cultivation has shown that about 43,416.89 sq .km or (28.20%) of the landscape is being converted for human use. Both in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu with increasing developmental activities more and more land area is being used for agricultural purposes. The satellite data interpretation shows that most of the districts that came under the purview of this study had signifi cant land areas under irrigation or cultivated land. In Andhra Pradesh Chittoor, Cuddapah districts showed fairly large areas as cultivated land while Vellore, Tiruvan-namalai, Villupuram, Salem and Dharmapuri districts also showed agriculture based land use. During fi eld surveys we came across large tracts of land which are being used for purposes of irrigation and it might be useful to make comparisons of the traditional land use of the region in the context of forest cover based on historical records. Further detailed interpretation of satellite based image-ries of forest regions in the eastern ghats of Andhra Pra-desh and Tamil Nadu through change detection analysis of the forested patches could throw light on the land use pattern and possible use of forest lands for non forest pur-poses which could form part of a separate study.

5. Conclusion

The project was conceived with a view to determining the present status of the land use of the southern part of the Eastern Ghats including delineating the broad class vege-tation types in the Eastern Ghats. The use of Remote Sen-sing and GIS as a tool for natural resources mapping has been amply demonstrated through this assessment of the vegetation types of the Eastern Ghats. While the forest cover analysis shows that nearly 38 % of the study area is characterised by forest habitats, there is also increasing pressure to these forests through develop-mental activities.The loss and decline of native vegetation can have serious implications on the biodiversity of the landscape. The eastern ghats which have long recognised as a major centre of plant diversity with several species of rare and endangered fl oral and faunal elements. Several fl oral elements of this landscape have a narrow distribu-tional range and any adverse impact on their habitats can lead to serious decline in the native populations of these species. Using satellite-based tools for the monitoring of fl oral communities can provide valuable inputs for deci-sion makers (Jayakumar et al 2002). Conservation efforts by various agencies including governments and NGOs have been partially successful in the past in halting the growing pressures to these forests. Prioritisation and con-

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servation of sensitive biorich patches like the Nallamalais, Seshachalam hills, Kaundinya Wildlife sanctuary and the Nilgiris – Satyamangalam forest complex is therefore ne-cessary to strengthen and maintain gene fl ow amongst various biodiversity and natural resource base. The exploitation of native species in Reserve Forests of this region despite protection suggests continuing loss of a gene pool, which might be valuable. The present study has only reiterated the fragile nature of our ecosystems and using such technologies like Remote Sensing can give greater insights into better understanding of our eco-systems for their protection.

Acknowledgements

We greatly appreciate the help and cooperation provided by the Andhra Pradesh Forest Dept. and in particular Mr. Kallol Biswas, Divisional Forest Offi cer, Chittoor East Divi-sion, Mr.Kukrety, Divisional Forest Offi cer, Chittoor West Division, Mr.Guruprabhakar, Range Forest Offi cer, Kup-pam Range and Mr. Chandrashekhara, Range Forest Offi -cer, Palamaner range for their support.We thank the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad for helping us procure the satellite data pro-ducts. We are extremely grateful to Mr Ravi Singh, Secretary Ge-neral and CEO, WWF India for his constant advice and en-couragement during the study. This study was supported through a grant provided by the Public Affairs offi ce of the United States Embassy, New Delhi (Public Diplomacy Grant Agreement No. S-IN650-02-GR-017 and S-IN650-05-GR-030 of the U.S. Department of State).

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71

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geo10th International Symposium on High Mountain Remote Sensing Cartography

Correspondence to:

G. AREENDRAN

WWF India 172 B, Lodi Estate

New Dehli 110003, India

e-mail: gareendran@wwfi ndia.net

PRAKASH RAO

WWF India 172 B, Lodi Estate

New Dehli 110003, India

e-mail: prao@wwfi ndia.net