Forest Canopy Density and Fragmentation Analysis for Evaluating Spatio-Temporal Status of Forest in the Hazaribagh Wild Life Sanctuary, Jharkhand (India)

Background and Objective: Forest changes and fragmentation are the major phenomena in the tropical forest.The current study evaluated the status of this phenomenon and their impact in the Hazaribagh Wildlife Sanctuary (HWS), Jharkhand, India from 1992-2017. Materials and Methods:Four-time frame data collections, i.e., 1992, 2005,2010 and 2017 were used from the Landsat satellite sensor.Forest cover change and fragmentation measured by Forest Canopy Density (FCD) and Ritterʼs model.Forest fragmentation contains a proportion of six spatial patterns, i.e., core, transitional, interior perforated, edge and patches.The scatter plot with its regression analysis and chart diagram was the statistical procedure for calculating spectral indices correlation and forest change in the spatiotemporal framework.Results: The very dense forest and moderately dense forest declined to 12 and 20 km 2 in 2017 compared to the year 1992.The overall increase in open forest in 2017 was 15 km 2 as equate to the year 1992.The core area in the forest was increased in 2017 due to good management practices inside the forest compared to 1992 but in decreasing trend compared to the year 2005.It puts serious concern that fragmentation continue in the future and affects biodiversity.Forest fragmentation doesnʼt have much effect in the transitional forest and perforated forest balanced or less shifting of forest to non-forest and vice-versa.The interior forest acts as a protective layer of core forest from the edges.The edge of the forest has decreased, showing good sign due to minimization of the edge effect.Conclusion: The FCD and Fragmentation model combines to provides useful insight on understanding forest changing environment and future trend analysis.These types of forest modeling technique aim for effective monitoring of forest to understand the cause of forest disturbance and further help in its mitigation.