scholarly journals Farms or Forests? Understanding and Mapping Shifting Cultivation Using the Case Study of West Garo Hills, India

Land ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurien ◽  
Lele ◽  
Nagendra
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
State Government ◽  
Shifting Cultivation ◽  
Northeast India ◽  
Tree Plantations ◽  
Old Growth Forest ◽  
Forest Survey ◽  
Garo Hills ◽  
Government Statistics

Attempts to study shifting cultivation landscapes are fundamentally impeded by the difficulty in mapping and distinguishing shifting cultivation, settled farms and forests. There are foundational challenges in defining shifting cultivation and its constituent land-covers and land-uses, conceptualizing a suitable mapping framework, and identifying consequent methodological specifications. Our objective is to present a rigorous methodological framework and mapping protocol, couple it with extensive fieldwork and use them to undertake a two-season Landsat image analysis to map the forest-agriculture frontier of West Garo Hills district, Meghalaya, in Northeast India. We achieve an overall accuracy of ~80% and find that shifting cultivation is the most extensive land-use, followed by tree plantations and old-growth forest confined to only a few locations. We have also found that commercial plantation extent is positively correlated with shortened fallow periods and high land-use intensities. Our findings are in sharp contrast to various official reports and studies, including from the Forest Survey of India, the Wastelands Atlas of India and state government statistics that show the landscape as primarily forested with only small fractions under shifting cultivation, a consequence of the lack of clear definitions and poor understanding of what constitutes shifting cultivation and forest. Our results call for an attentive revision of India’s official land-use mapping protocols, and have wider significance for remote sensing-based mapping in other shifting cultivation landscapes.

Ecosystem services of fast-growing tree plantations: A case study on integrating social valuations with land-use changes in Uruguay

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Vihervaara ◽  
A. Marjokorpi ◽  
T. Kumpula ◽  
M. Walls ◽  
M. Kamppinen
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Tree Plantations ◽  
Fast Growing

scholarly journals Geospatial Modeling To Assess Geomorphological Risk For Relentless Shifting Cultivation In Garo Hills Of Meghalaya, North East India

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pramod Kumar Yadav ◽  
Kiranmay Sarma ◽  
Ashish Kumar Mishra
Keyword(s):  
Shifting Cultivation ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Northeast India ◽  
Ecological Condition ◽  
North East India ◽  
North East ◽  
Dense Forest ◽  
Open Forest ◽  
Garo Hills

Due to shifting cultivation, the overall structure and composition of ecological condition is affected, hence landscape study becomes important for maintaining ecological diversity and appropriate scientific planning of any area. Garo hills region of northeast India is suffering from Geomorphological risk like sheet erosion, landslide etc. due to the age old tradition of shifting cultivation in the fragile hill slopes aided by other anthropogenic activities. The present study was conducted to examine the role of shifting cultivation for deforestation and degradation with variant of slope and elevation to relate vegetation cover with slope and elevation in the Garo Hills landscape of Meghalaya using temporal remote sensing data of 1991, 2001 and 2010. It revealed that there is decrease in dense forest and open forest during the 1st decade while areas under dense forest and non-forest increased in 2nd decade. This increased forest area is confined in the high slopes, which are inaccessible. The study shows increase in shifting cultivation near-about double fold in high slope and more than a double fold in the high altitudinal area in last decade, which is negative sign in terms of Geomorphological protection. International Journal of Environment, Volume-2, Issue-1, Sep-Nov 2013, Pages 91-104 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ije.v2i1.9212

scholarly journals Implications of Land Use Dynamics on Ecosystem Service Value: A Case Study from Goalpara District of Assam, Northeast India

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (04) ◽  
pp. 270-277
Author(s):  
Sangeeta Deka ◽  
Lal Bihari Singha ◽  
Om Prakash Tripathi
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Northeast India ◽  
Tropical Deciduous Forest ◽  
Ecosystem Service Value ◽  
Service Value

Systematic studies on implications of land use change on ecosystem service value (ESV) at landscape level are scarce in Northeast India hence, a case study was undertaken in the vicinity of Ghagra Pahar Forest (GPF) predominated by tropical deciduous forest in Goalpara district of Assam. Study aims to assess the ecosystem services (ES) provided by the forest ecosystem. Altogether 23 ES were identified and grouped based on peoples’ knowledge and perceptions. Study area has been categorized in to six land use types. Temporal change analysis revealed that the area coverage under plantation, agriculture and settlement expanded, on the contrary, forest cover, water bodies and grassland decreased remarkably within a time gap of 20 years. The total ESV for the study area was disproportionately distributed among the different functions of ecosystem. Agricultural land contributed the maximum ESV. The total ESV declined at a rate of 0.64 percent per year with a net decrease of 12.7 percent. Sensitivity analysis shows that the values were less than unity indicating that total ecosystem service values would fluctuate only by 0.03-0.42 percent. Results of this study would be useful to the land use planners and policy makers to prioritise conservation efforts for sustainable resource management.

scholarly journals Diversity of soil macroarthropods in shifting cultivation and forest ecosystem of Mizoram, Northeast India

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 601-611
Author(s):  
Betsy Zodinpuii ◽  
Lalnuntluanga ◽  
H Lalthanzara
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Forest Ecosystem ◽  
Shifting Cultivation ◽  
Diversity Index ◽  
Northeast India ◽  
Soil Arthropods ◽  
Soil Organisms ◽  
Cultivation System ◽  
Agricultural Ecosystems ◽  
The Impact

Soil organisms are an integral part of agricultural ecosystems and are essential for the maintenance of healthy productive soils. Little is known about soil arthropods assemblages in shifting cultivation system. Therefore, we compared the diversity of soil macroarthropods in shifting cultivation (EXPTL) system and its adjacent natural forest (CTRL) ecosystem in Mizoram, northeast India and assessed the impact of shifting cultivation on the diversity. The study was conducted from 2013 to 2015, and the period was divided as pre-cultivation, cultivation and post-cultivation phases. Traditional shifting cultivation was practised in EXPTL site in the year 2014. Sampling was done by handpicking and digging from a quadrat (25×25×30 cm) located at least 10 m apart at monthly intervals. Specimens were preserved in 4% formalin and were identified up to the lowest possible taxa. A total of 97 taxa of arthropods belonging to five classes were recorded. 88 taxa and 48 taxa were recorded in CTRL and EXPTL respectively. Order-wise Shannon diversity index was significantly higher (p < .001) in CTRL as compared to EXPTL site. There were significant differences in both cultivation (p <.001) and post-cultivation (p <.001) phases between CTRL and EXPTL sites. There was a significant effect of shifting cultivation on the diversity of soil macroarthropods at the p <.05 level for the three cultivation phases in EXPTL site. Therefore, it was concluded that shifting cultivation system negatively affected soil macroarthropod diversity at least for a short duration. This study provided the first baseline data of soil macroarthropod diversity and its interaction with land-use system from Mizoram, northeast India.

Varied Responses to Human-Induced Seismicity in the City of Azle, Texas

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Sarmistha R. Majumdar
Keyword(s):  
State Government ◽  
Induced Seismicity ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Prior History ◽  
Small Community ◽  
Regulatory Policies ◽  
The Status

Fracking has helped to usher in an era of energy abundance in the United States. This advanced drilling procedure has helped the nation to attain the status of the largest producer of crude oil and natural gas in the world, but some of its negative externalities, such as human-induced seismicity, can no longer be ignored. The occurrence of earthquakes in communities located at proximity to disposal wells with no prior history of seismicity has shocked residents and have caused damages to properties. It has evoked individuals’ resentment against the practice of injection of fracking’s wastewater under pressure into underground disposal wells. Though the oil and gas companies have denied the existence of a link between such a practice and earthquakes and the local and state governments have delayed their responses to the unforeseen seismic events, the issue has gained in prominence among researchers, affected community residents, and the media. This case study has offered a glimpse into the varied responses of stakeholders to human-induced seismicity in a small city in the state of Texas. It is evident from this case study that although individuals’ complaints and protests from a small community may not be successful in bringing about statewide changes in regulatory policies on disposal of fracking’s wastewater, they can add to the public pressure on the state government to do something to address the problem in a state that supports fracking.

Impact of Urbanization on Land Use/Land Cover — Case Study: The Western Part of Khartoum State, Sudan

2017 ◽  
Vol 04 (03) ◽  
pp. 272-277
Author(s):  
Tawhida A. Yousif ◽  
Nancy I. Abdalla ◽  
El-Mugheira M. Ibrahim ◽  
Afraa M. E. Adam
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Land Use Land Cover ◽  
Impact Of Urbanization
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