Remote Sensing And Geographic Information System Tools To Support Conservation And Sustainable Management Of Sacred Groves In Kodagu District

Abstract

India has got worldwide recognition in terms of biodiversity, as it is a mega-diverse country having four biodiversity hotspots. The biodiversity of the country mainly preserved on the religious beliefs and even today traditional conservation practices are followed in all most all parts of the country. One among such tradition is the tradition of Sacred Grove (SG) which can be defined as “patches of forestland, preserved in their virgin condition on religious grounds, satisfying the aesthetic, scientific, cultural and recreational needs of mankind”. They are extremely useful and essential for the maintenance of biodiversity, ecosystem and to bring harmony in social life. But increased population and its growing demands assimilated with few other facts are acting behind the degradation of these SGs. This calls for the need to prudent conservation and sustainable management of these delicate resources. Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques can be applied as an effective measure to generate data and information needed for conservation and sustainable management of the SGs. The research is carried out to make use of the recent technology to get the support required for preservation of SG. Aiming towards conservation and sustainable management, the objectives of the research work has been set in such a way that, the outcome of the research work must support effectively for the conservation process. The study area considered for the research is Kodagu district of Karnataka, as it is the ‘HOTSPOT’ for SGs. The objectives of research are viz., (i) development of a complete geodatabase, (ii) prioritization of SGs, (iii) estimation of biodiversity based on ecological indices, Land Use Land Cover (LULC) classification and Normalized Differential Vegetative Index (NDVI) (iv) development of web based Sacred Grove Information System (SGIS), and (v) estimation of ground water recharge and discharge in the study area. Data for attaining the objectives have been collected from field visits and state and central government departments. Geodatabase was developed with the schema that holds all the necessary attributes of SG. The biodiversity was estimated by using ecological indices and LULC, NDVI classification for the year 2006 and 2012 by following the supervised classification technique. For the dissemination of SGs data in the internet, the web based SGIS was developed through open source OpenGeo suite application of GIS. The groundwater recharge and discharge rates were estimated based on hydraulic conductivity, water table, andv bed rock elevation data with help of PRO GRADE plug-in package. Based on these findings of above objectives Sacred Grove Management plan was prepared. The geodatabase was developed for 85 SGs of study area holds complete information about 2831 individual species along with the conservation status of flora and fauna. The biodiversity estimation was done for all the four types of species such as ‘Trees’, ‘Medicinal Plants’, ‘Animals’, ‘Birds’, by using five ecological indices. Among them Shannon’s and Simpson’s index and Margalef’s index have shown highest and higher values for all types of species present in Virajapet, and Mercara taluk respectively. LULC classification suggests that increase in built up and agricultural land is due to urban expansion and the economic returns of coffee plantations. The reduction in water resource, forest resource and sandy area as is due to the increase in demand for raw materials and land resource. The NDVI analysis shows the decrease of vegetation by 177 sq km area. The reduction in surface water resource might have caused more exploitation of ground water resource and decrease of vegetation reduces water retention capacity of soils which affect the ground water recharge .In this way these factors may also be attributable for, the increase in ground water discharge rate and decreased recharge rate. This has been well represented by the zonation maps obtained by PRO GRADE GIS. The prioritization of SG represents the threat status, which is alarming and calls for the conservation plans and action. The details in the geodatabase were made, accessible in internet through OpenGeo suite software, which helps in dissemination of data that also supports to bring awareness about the tradition and its value. From the present work it was found that, these SGs are very essential for the well being of human beings as well as ecosystem and their dwindling nature calls for the urgent need for protection of SG. The essential and basic supporting parameters needed for conservation can be prepared /developed by using RS and GIS and it can be used as an effective tool for planning and management of SGs. This in turn helps policy makers for the implementation of new policies by the government towards the conservation of SGs.