ABSTRACT
Land is a complex and dynamic combination of factors-geology, topography, hydrology, soils, microclimate and communities of plants and animals. They are continually interacting under the infl uence of climate and of people’s activities (Hudson 1995). Land-use/cover changes have recently become a major issue of research and a debate among academicians, researchers, policy makers and governments. Land use stands for the pattern of man’s activity or economic function on a piece of land and land cover changes relate to the type of feature changes on the surface of the Earth (Lillesand and Kiefer 1994). It is the result of anthropogenic interaction with the natural environment. Besides affecting the quality of life of the people living in the area, land-cover changes also affects surface run-off as also erosion intensity (Piyoosh 2002). With increase in population and thus, in human settlements, urbanization, and industrialization, the change in all categories of land use seems to have led to tremendous changes in landscape. Similar to the global scenario, mountain regions have also been characterized by land-cover changes. In many of the mountain areas,
expansion of human settlements and agricultural land over the marginal mountain niche is becoming very common which has resulted in shrinking of forestland. Population growth has forced the local people to bring more land under cultivation (Rawat et al. 1996). Depletion of forest from the fragile landscape of mountain has led to environmental hazards in the forms of landslides, debris fl ow, mass movement and fl ash fl ood. Musudiar (1993), Ukhimath [(Chamoli District), and Mapla (Pithoragarh District) (both in 1998)] landslides were the consequences of forest depletion which resulted in heavy damage to the property and loss of life. In the Central Himalaya, existing land-use pattern is a result of centuries old practices. Forestland occupies the highest geographical area (above 65%) while agricultural land is limited (12%). Cropping pattern is dominated by the practices of traditional subsistence cereal farming mainly millets. Currently, this pattern has changed as the populace of the region has largely migrated to the urban areas in search of better livelihood. Non-availability of agricultural land, unsuitability, and instability of terrain, harsh environmental conditions and inaccessibility of forestland are other aspects, which affect the landuse/cover changes (Sati and Kumar 2004). This study reveals that high population growth rate was observed in the Kewer Gadhera sub-watershed, increase in forestland and decrease in agricultural land was also observed during the last four decades. It was mainly due to the large-scale emigration on the one hand and land abandonment on the other. The main objective of this chapter is to examine land-use/cover changes during the last four decades in the Kewer Gadhera.
