Sonam Latwal (91717008) <br/><br/>
Human - Wildlife conflict and forest fragmentation linkages in Northern Western ghats 

 - MPhil EI (91717008) 
<br/><br/> Western Ghats is a region of high biodiversity and endemism, starts from Tapti river in Gujarat<br/>and extending up to Kanyakumari at the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula. It has an area<br/>of 1,64000 km<br/>2<br/>, covers parts of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu<br/>states. Geo-informatics approach is increasingly used to monitor land use change as well as forest<br/>fragmentation due to availability of Landsat satellite data. The Northern Western Ghats has<br/>experienced extensive deforestation and forest fragmentation due to increased anthropogenic<br/>pressures. The aim of this study is to analyze the changes in land cover and forest fragmentation<br/>that occurred in 2018 in NWG region in India using Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS and GRASS GIS<br/>software. Population density computed for NWG taluks to understand land use pattern in the study<br/>region. Forest intactness is measured by the proportion of four spatial patterns i.e. core, perforated,<br/>edge, interior and patches. NWG covers an area of 65, 105 sq. km and covers parts of Gujarat,<br/>Maharashtra and Goa states. Land use map of NWG showed that agriculture is predominant land<br/>use that covers 32.82% of the area. Forest fragmentation at the landscape level showed 59% area<br/>under non-forest category due to increase in agriculture land and development activities.<br/>Fragmentation map depicts that conflict occurred mainly in patch and perforated areas of NWG.<br/>Human-wildlife conflict analysis showed that elephant and gaur are the main wild species which<br/>are involved in crop depredation, livestock depredation and human attack, therefore initiates<br/>conflict with indigenous people. Human-wildlife conflict linkage with fragmentation depicts that<br/>there are few number of corridors present in NWG. The overall results indicate that anthropogenic<br/>activities are the main causes of the loss of forest cover, forest fragmentation and human-wildlife<br/>conflict. An increase in the area of cropland and barren land due to fragmentation contributed to<br/>the formation of wasteland or non-forest land in this region. Determining the trend and the rate of<br/>land cover conversion is necessary for development planners to establish a rational land use policy. <br/>  
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<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>FOREST FRAGMENTATION<br/>LAND USE<br/>HUMAN - WILDLIFE CONFLICT<br/>GRASS<br/>QGIS