From 94% in 2000 to 83% in 2020: CEPT varsity study highlights decline in vegetation in Gujarat’s Girnar Wildlife Sanctuary over 2 decades

From 94 per cent vegetation of the full country successful 2000, the fig has dipped to 83 per cent successful 2020.

The survey covered the country of 182 sq km of Girnar Wildlife Sanctuary with an elevation ranging betwixt 197 and 1031 metre. This country has a quality colony wrong the reserved country with an estimated colonisation of 55 successful 1 village.

“The outcomes of the investigation conducted aboriginal this twelvemonth were that the settlements oregon buildings accrued from the twelvemonth 2000 to 2020 astatine oregon adjacent the temple area. Also, a ample country of dense wood got converted to unfastened wood portion determination was a precise small summation successful dense wood from unfastened forest,” Shende said.

The vegetation contiguous successful this wood mostly consists of deciduous and thorny scrubland. The deciduous benignant of vegetation sheds their leaves seasonally, usually successful the adust season. The thorny scrubland vegetation is mostly recovered successful areas with debased h2o availability. These plants person less leaves and the crushed country is disposable from these plants erstwhile seen from above; thus, these are classified nether unfastened forest.

Different information for the years 2000, 2010, and 2020 was utilized and investigation done by determining wood areas (dense and open), h2o bodies, and buildings during antithetic years.

On the reasons for these changes, Manushi Bhatt, the tutor for the study, told The Indian Express, “One of the reasons could beryllium that owed to the rocky aboveground with a precocious gradient astatine the foothill broadside of the sanctuary, the h2o does not enactment determination for a agelong time. Among different reasons, this could beryllium 1 crushed for the summation successful the unfastened wood (scrubland) connected the bottommost broadside of the sanctuary, which is nary longer seen arsenic dense vegetation.”

Looking astatine the outcomes, Bhatt said that CEPT is readying to instrumentality this survey further connected uncovering retired the imaginable technological reasons for these
changes.

“Using remote-sensing and GIS technology, the investigation has been carried retired for the wood screen of the sanctuary. The contiguous survey shows the decadal alteration (in area) of the wood cover, and imaginable factors liable for the change, either rainfall signifier oregon the topography, are being explored and studied by the students,” Bhatt added.