HYDERABAD: People often associate forests with greenery but same might not be the case in future in India, as forests in the country are turning brown or basically, degrading. More concerning fact is that this decreasing ‘greenness’ has been found to be occurring at a rapid rate in ‘core’ areas of forests. This loss of greenery was observed in 46,35,580 hectares of forests, around 6.5 percent of country’s forest cover.
This has been stated in the findings of a nation-wide study based on satellite-derived data, conducted by researchers from Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), an arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The study reports that all 14 types of forests in India are losing their ‘greenness’ and turning brown — ranging from Himalayan moist temperate forests of Jammu & Kashmir, wet evergreen forests of Northeast India, and Western Ghats to moist deciduous forests of Chattisgarh and dry deciduous forests of Telangana and AP. The study titled ‘Persistent negative changes in seasonal greenness over different forest types of India using MODIS time series NDVI data (2001-2014)’ with Abhishek Chakraborty of NRSC as the lead author, was published this month in the journal Ecological Indicators.
The study notes, “..most of the forest types showed more than 80% of the total negative changes in seasonal greenness in the core forest areas. Importantly most of these changes were of high to medium category, signifying the vulnerability of the Indian forest.” Evergreen dense forests located in Northeast region of India and in Western Ghats may be the epitome of green forests for anyone but even these forests are losing their greenness.
As many as 5,77,000 hectares of wet evergreen forests were reported to lose greenness in the study period, a maximum of which came from three states — Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka. Not just the terrestrial forests but 50,550 hectares of mangrove forests were found to have lost greenness in the study period. Mangroves play an important role in protecting coastal areas from natural hazards like tsunami and coastal erosion.
Area wise, the maximum loss of greenness was observed in moist deciduous forests, at 20,67,350 hectares. This type of forest is spread across many states, mainly central, north and parts of northeast India.
Second highest loss of greenness was from Dry deciduous forests at 14,07,730 hectares. The highest contributing states to this loss were MP, Chattisgarh and Telangana. Telangana was the third highest contributor at 1,87,430 hectares.
Telangana
The researchers also listed 20 protected areas as ‘hotspots’ where loss in greenery was observed.
Of these, Telangana had three protected areas — Eturnagaram, Pakhal and Kinnersani wildlife sanctuaries, which reported a loss of over 6,800 hectares, 5,100 hectares and 4,400 hectares green cover.
What is greenness?
It is a parameter for understanding the recurring patterns of vegetation growth and development, which in this study has been arrived at by using mathematical calculations, satellite data and imagery. Speaking in simple terms, it gives an idea of how long a particular forest remains green.