Ecological Shifting and Land Use Land Cover Changes in Pindari Valley, Uttarakhand Himalaya, India

Abstract

The current study assessed the spatial and temporal ecological dynamics shift of land use and land cover of Pindar valley in Uttarakhand Himalaya, India, for five decades from 1972 to 2018 (46 years). The area is classified using supervised and unsupervised classification, maximum likelihood, and K-means techniques. Seven major LULC categories were identified: agriculture, forest, grassland, scrubland, settlement, snow, and water. Results indicate that since 1972, settlement, agriculture, grassland, scrubland, and water body have increased by 0.1% (0.07 km2), 0.31% (0.23 km2), 4.55% (17.84 km2), 0.8% (2.41 km2), and 1.47% (5.73 km2) respectively, while forest and snow cover has decreased by − 6.32% (− 24.74 km2) and − 2.79% (− 2.26 km2), respectively. In addition, water bodies increased due to the rapid melting of glaciers. It is a maiden attempt to study the upper Himalayas, a part of the Pindar Valley region, for change detection of an ecological shift in land use and land cover.