Assessment of Wildlife Habitats Using Geo-Spatial Techniques; Implications for Long-Term Habitat Management of Girnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Gujarat, India

Wildlife habitats are under significant threat due to rapid development activities. At present, remote sensing and GIS has been used widely for modelling, evaluating and monitoring wildlife habitats. These techniques have proven to be efficient tools for integrating the spatial and non-spatial data required for monitoring wildlife habitats. This study focuses on modelling the forest cover, assessing the hydrology and land surface features of the Girnar wildlife sanctuary using such geo-spatial techniques. The forest of Girnar is known for Asiatic lions, birds and its rich floral diversity, in which habitat characteristics and land surface features are poorly known. The spatial data from various Earth observation satellites were acquired, interpreted and analysed using different tools on the GIS platform to derive the hydrology, land use-land cover and land surface parameters of the sanctuary. Geospatial maps were prepared showing suitable forest cover, drainage pattern with respect to elevations, and the land surface temperature with respect to NDVI. The LST-NDVI plot shows the inverse correlation between the surface temperature and vegetation indicating the importance of dense vegetation in the dry deciduous forest. These deliverables will help policy makers in evaluating suitable habitats for Asiatic lion and its prey base in Girnar and formulating effective habitat enhancement and conservation strategies.