Spatio_Temporal Change of Forest Cover _1980 _ 2015 and Its Impact on Surrounding Area _ A Case Study of Hazaribag District_Jharkhand

Abstract

All types of land with minimum one hectare of areal extent and tree density of more than ten percent called forest cover. Forests are invaluable property of a nation. It is an important source of livelihood through its NTFPs. Hazaribag district is an important district of Indian state Jharkhand where the forest cover is more than 30 percent. But this forest cover changes over the years. The present study has main objective to highlight the problem of deforestation and its consequential impact on occupation in Hazaribag district. Study based on hypothesis is that forest cover changes due to human interferences and inverse relation between population growth and forest cover. The methodology of present study is based on LANDSAT satellite imageries of year 1988, 2000 and 2015 and interpretation of LULC prepared through Arc GIS 10.4 and ERDAS 14 software. The impact on occupation is based on analysis of data obtained by schedule/interview method of sample villages of the district. Sample of 500 House Hold of 20 villages selected though stratified random sampling. The main cause of deforestation in district are increase of population, urbanisation, establishment of industries and construction of roads and railways etc. Decreasing of forest cover reduces the opportunities of livelihood of forest dwellers and villagers of nearby forest area. The average employment generation from NTFPs based on self-employment is only 53.76 man-days per annum. There are some areas where forest cover increased due to awareness among the people and stringent forest protection laws. After analysing and hypothesis testing, we can say there is inverse correlation between population growth and forest cover. Present study will give impetus to the government in planning at village level. Awareness among people to the forest and proper advertisement by different media and inclusion of syllabus at school and university level will help in protection of forest. Study will also help to deal the problem of employment based on NTFPs