ANNOUNCEMENTS
Technology has proved to be a boon for analysing, planning and managing natural resources. To analyse an area and the associated trends regarding its natural resources, numerous satellite imageries are available which can be analysed with the help of GIS software.
Grasslands are one of the most important bio-geographic regions on the earth providing habitats to many creatures playing a major role in balancing the ecosystem.
A large area of world’s land surface is covered with Grasslands and this most prominent bio-geographic regions on the earth is very important for the human welfare and economic development. It is the need of the hour to manage our natural resources judiciously in India more than in other part of the world due to unprecedented increase in human population in the recent years. Grasslands are important part of the ecosystems for supporting biodiversity and providing food security. There is pressing need for proper identification of the grasslands and take necessary measures to preserve the ecosystems.
Grasslands are the major ecosystem of Kachchh, Gujarat which support unique biodiversity and provide fodder security to thousands of livestock which are the major occupation for local communities.
The district of Kachchh consists of large number of grasslands varying from small to large sized grasslands distributed across the region. Banni and Naliya are the most important grasslands, supporting large number of livestock and playing a major role in protecting the threatened biodiversity. In recent pasts, extreme weather conditions like floods and droughts have resulted into major challenge for feeding the growing number of livestock in the district. Also, mining, encroachment, industrialization etc. are emerging as major threats to the grasslands.
The study is proposed to assess the change in greenness status of Banni grassland ecosystem using GIS techniques and associated tools as greenness is widely accepted as an indicator of the health of a terrestrial ecosystem. The study uses the satellite imageries over a period of last 30 years to assess the change in greenness in Banni Grasslands and highlighting the changes faced by the system over the past years. The study also discussed different indices used for assessing health of vegetation and their effectiveness in analysing the green cover of grasslands.
The study applied GIS software and techniques to analyze the geographical region and the changes in it over time for Banni grassland.
