Abstract Forest ecosystem health is an important factor for forest ecosystem services as well as ... more Abstract Forest ecosystem health is an important factor for forest ecosystem services as well as bioproductivity and habitat quality. Vegetation is one of the most rolling components in forest ecosystem. Other ecosystem components like flora and fauna species diversity, temperature, moisture, visibility, and soil character affect and or affected vegetation characters. Panchet forest division (PFD) is characterized by both natural and planted forests. Hence the composition of vegetation is different in different pockets, hence there is a quality variation in terms of forest health found in different forest patches. Forest health signifies the carrying capacity of a forest for providing habitat for plants and animals. The present study concentrates on assessing spatial differences of vegetation health in PFD using profound field investigation at microlevel and GIS application. The entire study area has been divided into 332 grids using the Fishnet tool in ArcGIS 10.3. Ecological information was collected from 41 sampling grids using grid quadrat method. Collected information was rectified and analyzed in GIS platform. After analysis, these grid information were plotted in ArcGIS 10.3 software. The result represents that the sal (Shorea robusta) dominated forest grids portray better vegetation health quality than other forest grids in PFD, hence these patches are ecologically more sound to provide habitat for many animal species. Accordingly the present research helps to demarcate the reasons for wildlife concentration in PFD.
In a forest landscape, landuse pattern is changing due to intrusion of anthropogenic activities. ... more In a forest landscape, landuse pattern is changing due to intrusion of anthropogenic activities. Such kind of human necessities restructured the existing landscape pattern which brings imbalance in regional biodiversity. Radhanagar Forest Range (RFR) in Bankura district has been faced same kind of activates since 1960. As a result, forest patch becomes isolated and structurally complex in nature which is an important cause for extinction of wild animal. To control this damage forest department increased forest area through several plantation schemes in vacant or barren land. But plantation areas were not appropriate in the question of structural forest quality in this region. The present study seems that forest structural quality is a vital consideration for balancing biodiversity, in concern of several ecological processes like species movement, connectivity, colonization and edge contrast. Suitable forest patch structure may possible when appropriate areas i.e. forest encroached areas will be select for plantation. To prove this statement, study considers two types of landuse alteration into forest land i) all barren land altered into forest and ii) selected encroached areas altered into forest land in RFR. ArcGIS 10.3 version software is used for technical map editing and preparing these spatial alteration maps. After that several landscape ecological indexes like Total Core Area Index (TCAI), Mean Core Area (MCA) at 300 m specified edge depth, Total Edge (TE), Edge Density (ED), Area Weighted Mean Shape Index (AWMSI), Area Weighted Mean Patch Fractal Dimension (AWMPFD) and Mean Patch Size (MPS) are calculated using FragStat 4.2 version software to compare both spatial alteration forest qualities. Comparison analysis explains that encroached areas alteration into forest land is qualitative to improve forest structural quality. It is interesting to know that less area will be planted in encroached area to get utmost forest structural qualities.
Diversified landscape functions have deep connection with habitat preference of elephant in sever... more Diversified landscape functions have deep connection with habitat preference of elephant in several elephant habitats including Mayurjharna Elephant Reserve (MER). The main objective of the present study was to find out the elephant habitat suitability zone or areas considering geo-spatial components of landscape. For that reason, the study taken landuse factors, i.e. forest cover, forest core, forest fragmentation, forest edge, built-up area, agricultural land and road pattern, to fulfil the objective of the study. The selected landuse factors were separated from a classified landuse landcover (LULC) map of 2018 and intersected in a grid framework. From these grids, information factor density maps were prepared in ArcGIS 10.3 version software. Each factor has specific and different significance on habitat preference. After that, factors of significant level or percentage-wise ranks were calculated using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) on the basis of their ecological function. Chosen factors were categorized and placed according to their significant percentage in Weighted Overlay tool in ArcGIS 10.3 software for getting the final outcome. After the analysis, it was found that 87.18 sq.km areas out of total area in MER are very suitable for elephant habitat. Reasonably suitable areas are 306.74 sq.km and 228.27 sq.km areas, which are very less suitable for elephants in this reserve. 147.66 sq.km areas in MER are not suitable for elephant where basic habitat requirements are very insufficient. The well suitable areas are mostly covered with the high-density forest and large forest core areas in this reserve.
Abstract Landscape conversion becomes a continuous process in a natural landscape for any strateg... more Abstract Landscape conversion becomes a continuous process in a natural landscape for any strategic development. In a forest landscape mosaic, the conversion from non-forest land to forest land implies a constructive approach. Various bio-geographic processes are enriched and developed when the land was converted to forest land in a given landscape matrix. The present study evaluated how the increased forest cover improves the ecological quality of forest in Jhargram District of West Bengal State, India, from 1985 to 2015. The quality of forests includes dominance, fragmentation and connectivity, which are the basis ecological indicators of habitat structure. To address this issue, we extracted forest cover maps of 1985 and 2015 from land use/land cover classification. A grid framework was overlaid on these forest cover maps for patch-matrix model analysis. Reliable landscape ecological indices were used for the measurements of forest landscape quality in 1985 and 2015. Then a simple linear regression model was used to compare the results. Temporally, forest cover increased in Jhargram District from 1985 to 2015. The comparison of measurement indices depicts that although only a small amount of land was changed into forest land in the study area, this small change has greatly improved the structural compositional quality of the forest land. Compared with 1985, the forest land area increased by about 6930.56 hm2 in 2015. This increased forest cover improved the basic landscape ecological characters, such as inter patch connectivity, forest core area, forest habitat dependence, forest habitat dominance and forest edge effect. As a result, the ecosystem function in Jhargram District has been improved, which again attracts wildlife and enriches biodiversity.
Anthropogenic pressures create a complex pattern of forest habitat shape structure in Radhanagar ... more Anthropogenic pressures create a complex pattern of forest habitat shape structure in Radhanagar Forest Range (RFR) in Bankura district. Habitat landscape design controls existing bio-geographical process. High fragmented and more complex habitat make imbalance in ecological process in the study area. Therefore, a measure is very urgent to control fragmentation process. Spatial alteration is one of the best methods to improve habitat quality which reduces habitat shape complexity. Fragmentation and structural composition of habitat will be understood through the interpretation of several geometric indices like perimeter area ratio (PAR), shape index (SI), and fractal dimension (FD). These indices are used to know the nature of habitat fragmentation in Radhanagar Forest range. The main objective of the study is to reduce habitat shape complexity by spatial alteration. Therefore, two types of map, one is existing forest land cover and another is selected areas altered forest land cover of Radhanagar Forest Range are prepared using ERDAS 9.3 and ArcGIS 10.3 version software. Then these maps are analyzed through FragStat 4.2 version software to get above mentioned indices. The study compares the indices values to know the structural quality of forest shape from both maps. The comparison address that altered forest habitat structural quality is better than existing forest landscape habitat quality. Therefore, landuse alteration in a forest matrix is obviously area specific in respect of its shape structure.
Anthropogenic perturbation in the form of agriculture and settlement expansion results in loss of... more Anthropogenic perturbation in the form of agriculture and settlement expansion results in loss of natural forest habitat, biodiversity and fragmentation of corridors. The disproportionate sharing of forest resource and shrinkage of the sojourn ground creates food scarcity for wild animals and forces them to move to a new habitat. During this migration human-animal conflict becomes a common issue in the corridors and edges in between. Such a typical situation of human-elephant conflict has been happening in the Panchet Forest Division of Bankura District, West Bengal, India. This paper aims to assess the causes and consequences arising from this elephant migration event.
Aquatic freshwater fish diversity immensely declines from several native places in West Bengal. L... more Aquatic freshwater fish diversity immensely declines from several native places in West Bengal. Lots of freshwater fish have been extricated and some become endangered or vulnerable in condition as well as in Keleghai river. Aquatic ecosystem meltdown or crisis due to anthropogenic intervention resulted disappearance of eco-sensitive species. Such, appearance of Boal (Wallago attu) fish in this river was very common but now it’s very amazing to see or to catch it. The number of this species decreased radically before some decades. The present study conducts an empirical investigation to find out the reasons are behind it. Lacking of printed information, the work concentrated on knowledge and perception of experienced fisherman for understanding the fact by interviewing method. After qualitative investigation, the study recommends that simplification of food web in this aquatic ecosystem is the major cause of abandonment of Attu fish in this river. Other important causes are advance ...
Purpose Ecologically habitat is an area of a particular species wherefrom its play every relation... more Purpose Ecologically habitat is an area of a particular species wherefrom its play every relationship with the surrounding. Therefore, every species hold habitat that supports to survive its life. The large terrestrial herbivore animal elephant (Elephas maximus) requires deferent kind of habitat for their biological behaviour. Forest habitat one of the landscapes entire their home range is very much responsible for selecting suitable habitat. The nature of habitat selection by an elephant is deeply concerned with landscape attributes. Design/methodology/approach The present study started in this opinion. The study area Panchet Forest Division (PFD) has 28 forest patches are not in same size. Generally, forest patches are the most suitable habitat for elephant in every forest landscape as well as in PFD. But which forest patch will be highly suitable that depends on ecological function of other geospatial attributes like patch shape complexity, patch core, road intervention intensity...
Landscape consists of different landuse and land cover whatever it natural or queasy-natural. Eac... more Landscape consists of different landuse and land cover whatever it natural or queasy-natural. Each and every unit of landscape plays a considerable role in ecosystem ecology. When forest cover habitat considered as an unite of landscape, the entire ecological system being reciprocal with it. Spatial attributes of the landscape, landuse and land cover's structure and composition directly related with quality of the habitat. Habitat shape is one of the unique characters of the landscape which is regulating many ecological processes. Habitat fragmentation and loss of habitat, these two important ecological processes of the landscape equivalently connected with habitat shape complexity. In Panchet forest division forest patches are structurally fragmented due to complex shape. For the purpose of the study 27 forest patches are digitized from the map of Panchet forest division by using ArcGIS 10.3 version software. Study tries to investigate the habitat quality through habitat shape analysis. To know the nature of shape complexity and habitat loss of these forest patches three indices (SI, ERI and PPACI) have been taken. These indices results represent that
Abstract Forest ecosystem health is an important factor for forest ecosystem services as well as ... more Abstract Forest ecosystem health is an important factor for forest ecosystem services as well as bioproductivity and habitat quality. Vegetation is one of the most rolling components in forest ecosystem. Other ecosystem components like flora and fauna species diversity, temperature, moisture, visibility, and soil character affect and or affected vegetation characters. Panchet forest division (PFD) is characterized by both natural and planted forests. Hence the composition of vegetation is different in different pockets, hence there is a quality variation in terms of forest health found in different forest patches. Forest health signifies the carrying capacity of a forest for providing habitat for plants and animals. The present study concentrates on assessing spatial differences of vegetation health in PFD using profound field investigation at microlevel and GIS application. The entire study area has been divided into 332 grids using the Fishnet tool in ArcGIS 10.3. Ecological information was collected from 41 sampling grids using grid quadrat method. Collected information was rectified and analyzed in GIS platform. After analysis, these grid information were plotted in ArcGIS 10.3 software. The result represents that the sal (Shorea robusta) dominated forest grids portray better vegetation health quality than other forest grids in PFD, hence these patches are ecologically more sound to provide habitat for many animal species. Accordingly the present research helps to demarcate the reasons for wildlife concentration in PFD.
In a forest landscape, landuse pattern is changing due to intrusion of anthropogenic activities. ... more In a forest landscape, landuse pattern is changing due to intrusion of anthropogenic activities. Such kind of human necessities restructured the existing landscape pattern which brings imbalance in regional biodiversity. Radhanagar Forest Range (RFR) in Bankura district has been faced same kind of activates since 1960. As a result, forest patch becomes isolated and structurally complex in nature which is an important cause for extinction of wild animal. To control this damage forest department increased forest area through several plantation schemes in vacant or barren land. But plantation areas were not appropriate in the question of structural forest quality in this region. The present study seems that forest structural quality is a vital consideration for balancing biodiversity, in concern of several ecological processes like species movement, connectivity, colonization and edge contrast. Suitable forest patch structure may possible when appropriate areas i.e. forest encroached areas will be select for plantation. To prove this statement, study considers two types of landuse alteration into forest land i) all barren land altered into forest and ii) selected encroached areas altered into forest land in RFR. ArcGIS 10.3 version software is used for technical map editing and preparing these spatial alteration maps. After that several landscape ecological indexes like Total Core Area Index (TCAI), Mean Core Area (MCA) at 300 m specified edge depth, Total Edge (TE), Edge Density (ED), Area Weighted Mean Shape Index (AWMSI), Area Weighted Mean Patch Fractal Dimension (AWMPFD) and Mean Patch Size (MPS) are calculated using FragStat 4.2 version software to compare both spatial alteration forest qualities. Comparison analysis explains that encroached areas alteration into forest land is qualitative to improve forest structural quality. It is interesting to know that less area will be planted in encroached area to get utmost forest structural qualities.
Diversified landscape functions have deep connection with habitat preference of elephant in sever... more Diversified landscape functions have deep connection with habitat preference of elephant in several elephant habitats including Mayurjharna Elephant Reserve (MER). The main objective of the present study was to find out the elephant habitat suitability zone or areas considering geo-spatial components of landscape. For that reason, the study taken landuse factors, i.e. forest cover, forest core, forest fragmentation, forest edge, built-up area, agricultural land and road pattern, to fulfil the objective of the study. The selected landuse factors were separated from a classified landuse landcover (LULC) map of 2018 and intersected in a grid framework. From these grids, information factor density maps were prepared in ArcGIS 10.3 version software. Each factor has specific and different significance on habitat preference. After that, factors of significant level or percentage-wise ranks were calculated using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) on the basis of their ecological function. Chosen factors were categorized and placed according to their significant percentage in Weighted Overlay tool in ArcGIS 10.3 software for getting the final outcome. After the analysis, it was found that 87.18 sq.km areas out of total area in MER are very suitable for elephant habitat. Reasonably suitable areas are 306.74 sq.km and 228.27 sq.km areas, which are very less suitable for elephants in this reserve. 147.66 sq.km areas in MER are not suitable for elephant where basic habitat requirements are very insufficient. The well suitable areas are mostly covered with the high-density forest and large forest core areas in this reserve.
Abstract Landscape conversion becomes a continuous process in a natural landscape for any strateg... more Abstract Landscape conversion becomes a continuous process in a natural landscape for any strategic development. In a forest landscape mosaic, the conversion from non-forest land to forest land implies a constructive approach. Various bio-geographic processes are enriched and developed when the land was converted to forest land in a given landscape matrix. The present study evaluated how the increased forest cover improves the ecological quality of forest in Jhargram District of West Bengal State, India, from 1985 to 2015. The quality of forests includes dominance, fragmentation and connectivity, which are the basis ecological indicators of habitat structure. To address this issue, we extracted forest cover maps of 1985 and 2015 from land use/land cover classification. A grid framework was overlaid on these forest cover maps for patch-matrix model analysis. Reliable landscape ecological indices were used for the measurements of forest landscape quality in 1985 and 2015. Then a simple linear regression model was used to compare the results. Temporally, forest cover increased in Jhargram District from 1985 to 2015. The comparison of measurement indices depicts that although only a small amount of land was changed into forest land in the study area, this small change has greatly improved the structural compositional quality of the forest land. Compared with 1985, the forest land area increased by about 6930.56 hm2 in 2015. This increased forest cover improved the basic landscape ecological characters, such as inter patch connectivity, forest core area, forest habitat dependence, forest habitat dominance and forest edge effect. As a result, the ecosystem function in Jhargram District has been improved, which again attracts wildlife and enriches biodiversity.
Anthropogenic pressures create a complex pattern of forest habitat shape structure in Radhanagar ... more Anthropogenic pressures create a complex pattern of forest habitat shape structure in Radhanagar Forest Range (RFR) in Bankura district. Habitat landscape design controls existing bio-geographical process. High fragmented and more complex habitat make imbalance in ecological process in the study area. Therefore, a measure is very urgent to control fragmentation process. Spatial alteration is one of the best methods to improve habitat quality which reduces habitat shape complexity. Fragmentation and structural composition of habitat will be understood through the interpretation of several geometric indices like perimeter area ratio (PAR), shape index (SI), and fractal dimension (FD). These indices are used to know the nature of habitat fragmentation in Radhanagar Forest range. The main objective of the study is to reduce habitat shape complexity by spatial alteration. Therefore, two types of map, one is existing forest land cover and another is selected areas altered forest land cover of Radhanagar Forest Range are prepared using ERDAS 9.3 and ArcGIS 10.3 version software. Then these maps are analyzed through FragStat 4.2 version software to get above mentioned indices. The study compares the indices values to know the structural quality of forest shape from both maps. The comparison address that altered forest habitat structural quality is better than existing forest landscape habitat quality. Therefore, landuse alteration in a forest matrix is obviously area specific in respect of its shape structure.
Anthropogenic perturbation in the form of agriculture and settlement expansion results in loss of... more Anthropogenic perturbation in the form of agriculture and settlement expansion results in loss of natural forest habitat, biodiversity and fragmentation of corridors. The disproportionate sharing of forest resource and shrinkage of the sojourn ground creates food scarcity for wild animals and forces them to move to a new habitat. During this migration human-animal conflict becomes a common issue in the corridors and edges in between. Such a typical situation of human-elephant conflict has been happening in the Panchet Forest Division of Bankura District, West Bengal, India. This paper aims to assess the causes and consequences arising from this elephant migration event.
Aquatic freshwater fish diversity immensely declines from several native places in West Bengal. L... more Aquatic freshwater fish diversity immensely declines from several native places in West Bengal. Lots of freshwater fish have been extricated and some become endangered or vulnerable in condition as well as in Keleghai river. Aquatic ecosystem meltdown or crisis due to anthropogenic intervention resulted disappearance of eco-sensitive species. Such, appearance of Boal (Wallago attu) fish in this river was very common but now it’s very amazing to see or to catch it. The number of this species decreased radically before some decades. The present study conducts an empirical investigation to find out the reasons are behind it. Lacking of printed information, the work concentrated on knowledge and perception of experienced fisherman for understanding the fact by interviewing method. After qualitative investigation, the study recommends that simplification of food web in this aquatic ecosystem is the major cause of abandonment of Attu fish in this river. Other important causes are advance ...
Purpose Ecologically habitat is an area of a particular species wherefrom its play every relation... more Purpose Ecologically habitat is an area of a particular species wherefrom its play every relationship with the surrounding. Therefore, every species hold habitat that supports to survive its life. The large terrestrial herbivore animal elephant (Elephas maximus) requires deferent kind of habitat for their biological behaviour. Forest habitat one of the landscapes entire their home range is very much responsible for selecting suitable habitat. The nature of habitat selection by an elephant is deeply concerned with landscape attributes. Design/methodology/approach The present study started in this opinion. The study area Panchet Forest Division (PFD) has 28 forest patches are not in same size. Generally, forest patches are the most suitable habitat for elephant in every forest landscape as well as in PFD. But which forest patch will be highly suitable that depends on ecological function of other geospatial attributes like patch shape complexity, patch core, road intervention intensity...
Landscape consists of different landuse and land cover whatever it natural or queasy-natural. Eac... more Landscape consists of different landuse and land cover whatever it natural or queasy-natural. Each and every unit of landscape plays a considerable role in ecosystem ecology. When forest cover habitat considered as an unite of landscape, the entire ecological system being reciprocal with it. Spatial attributes of the landscape, landuse and land cover's structure and composition directly related with quality of the habitat. Habitat shape is one of the unique characters of the landscape which is regulating many ecological processes. Habitat fragmentation and loss of habitat, these two important ecological processes of the landscape equivalently connected with habitat shape complexity. In Panchet forest division forest patches are structurally fragmented due to complex shape. For the purpose of the study 27 forest patches are digitized from the map of Panchet forest division by using ArcGIS 10.3 version software. Study tries to investigate the habitat quality through habitat shape analysis. To know the nature of shape complexity and habitat loss of these forest patches three indices (SI, ERI and PPACI) have been taken. These indices results represent that
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