The land use cover changes from 1992 to 2011 in Karbi Anglong, Assam, India

Sammanfattning: With an increased human impact, natural resources are under great pressure.  Deforestation is one effect of this, and the largest threat against biodiversity.. Changes in tropical habitats is a major concern for conservation biologists, due to its high biodiversity and rapid decreased area. Recently, developmental activities and habitat destruction have caused a major decline in the abundance of the terrestrial mega-fauna.This is especially evident in areas with a high human population and a rich mega-fauna as in India. The purpose of this project was to determine the land-use cover change (LUCC) in the area of Karbi Anglong, which lies in the middle of Assam, India. This was done by identifying different vegetation types from satellite images, from the years 1992, 2002 and 2011 using a remote sensing application (ERDAS) and ArcGIS. Interviews in the area werealso operated, and data about how animal use the corridors were used along with registered human-tiger conflicts. The results show that during the first period, a total of 360 km2 of the area changed vegetation type, mostly due to an increase of agricultural areas. The second largest change (79 km2) was an increase of moist mixed deciduous forest which seems to have taken over some of the semi evergreen forest’s previous area. If that is the case it is most likely an effect of selective logging from the local people, who use fire wood as fuel.All in all, there has been a great habitat loss along withfragmentation of the landscape. The conflict data shows that tigers are present between the core areas, and the interviews show that the migrations of other animals are also common.To maintain the high ecological values in Karbi Anglong, it is of great importance to maintain connectivity between core areas and stop further habitat loss and fragmentation.