Geographical analysis

Abstract

Abstract Forest is an important resource of eco-system for any country. Forest lands, all over, are under severe stress to be diverted for non-forest purposes. Change in ecology, especially involving forest degradation will have serious implications on both humans and wildlife. One such dangerous ill effect of ecological change is conflict between man and animals for space and food. In villages adjoining forest fringes, wild animals, especially elephants coming out of their natural habitat in search of food and thus resulting in conflict between man and elephants in form of animals raiding agricultural fields has become a regular menace. As there is damage and loss of life and property on either side, so both humans and elephants are on the losing side of this conflict. Major reasons for this clash could be shrinking of forest cover, degradation of forest grazing patches etc. The recent technology of remote sensing and GIS is very much useful for analyzing the change in forest cover over period of time. An attempt has been made in this paper to study the change in forest cover in Sakaleshpura Taluk of Hassan District -Karnataka, over the past two decades, from 1990 till 2015, which possibly could be one of major reasons for clashes between man and elephant.

Keywords: Forest Cover, Degradation, Man-Elephant Conflict, Landsat Imagery