Land use/Land cover Mapping of IGNP Command Area in Bikaner District

The pressures on the natural resources have tremendously increased over years by man’s greed for commercialization and livelihood of local people. Devoid of regeneration, population and wide scale tree felling depleted the natural re-sources to a level, which posed a problem for the very sustenance of man. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the consequences of manmade initiatives and to devise proper strategies to counteract these detrimental effects to keep a balance of the environment, ecology, green cover, and human livelihood. Since time immemorial Environment and Development are going toget determinants of human welfare and prosperity. The present study demonstrates the scope, methodology and outcomes of land use/land cover mapping of IGNP command area in Bikaner district. IRS interpretated using hybrid approach for the mapping of various land use/land cover categories on1: 50,000 scale. IGNP Command area land use/land cover map will prepare. The overall land use/land cover classes in the study area are divided into six categories. The category wise wastelands in the study area are built up land (0.62322), agriculture land (19.3447), forest land (0.0650), Wasteland land (78.1550), water bodies (1.7264), and wetland (0.0857). These maps are very useful for command ar measures like plantations, afforestation etc