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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
Government has taken up Integrated Watershed Development Program (IWMP now PMKSY Watershed) to restore the ecological balance by harnessing, conserving and developing degraded natural resources such as soil, vegetative cover and water in degraded rain fed areas of the country. In Tarlakota Project of Palasa Mandal, Srikakulam District, Andhra Pradesh, the watershed program was started during 2012 and completed in 2018). Several NRM and PSI activities were taken up over the five years period (2012 to 2018) in the project area. The present study was taken up to assess the impact of watershed activities taken up in Tarlakota Project on LULC and NDVI using remote sensing and GIS techniques (2011-2012 to 2018-2019). IRS Resourcessat-2 LISS-IV satellite imageries data of 2012 (Pre 11th October, 2012) and 2018 (Post 4th October, 2018) covering the watershed were used to assess the changes in land use/land cover and NDVI over a period of five years. The images were classified into different land use/land cover categories using supervised classification by maximum likelihood algorithm. They were also classified into different vegetation levels using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) approach. Significant changes were observed in LULC over the five years period due to project implementation. The area under crop land and plantation were increased by 322.93 ha (13.80%) and 173.32 ha (19%) respectively during the project period. This was due to conversion of waste lands and fallow lands into crop lands which may be attributed to better utilization of surface and ground water resources created, adoption of soil and water conservation practices and capacity building of the watershed community. The area under current fallow decreased by 202.20 ha (56.18%) and waste lands by 368.59 ha (65.43%). Substantial increase in the area under dense vegetation 270.95 ha (21.57%) and open vegetation 153.10 ha (8.70%) was observed. The water body area also increased from 128.83 ha to 157.72 ha which might be due to rain water conservation activities taken up in the project area.