Trend of Changes in Annual Forest Cover of South West Bengal, India

With 21% of India's area under forests, and regular biennial satellite remote monitoring, there is an urgent need for rapid automated detection of forest loss locations. There have been numerous studies monitoring forest health but no single source of reporting data is completely adequate. Currently many state and private forestry agencies and government are implementing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) for monitoring the changing pattern of vegetation. The area of focus in this paper is south West Bengal covering 6 districts: Bankura, Burdwan, Birbhum, Midnapore (East and West) and Puruliya during 2001-2007. The study reveals that differential change in forest cover of the said districts ranged from unchanged to gradual increase. A substantial forest prevailing in this region vouches for sufficient shelter for the inhabiting animals too.