Ecological studies of the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve in the Western Ghats of India, using Remote Sensing and GIS Thesis submitted to Cochin University of Science and Technology for the award of degree of Doctor of Philosophy Under the faculty of Environmental Studies By MAGESH G. Under the guidance of Dr. A.R.R. Menon Dept. of GIS and Remote Sensing Forest Management and Information system Division KERALA FOREST RESEARCH INSTITUTE Peechi-680 653, Thrissur, Kerala, India 2014 DECLARATION I hereby declare that the work embodied in the thesis entitled ‘Ecological Studies of the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve in the Western Ghats of India, using Remote Sensing and GIS’ submitted to the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Cochin, Kerala, India for the award of Degree of Doctor of Philosophy is a record of work carried out by me under the guidance of Dr. A.R.R. Menon, Scientist F, Dept. of GIS and Remote Sensing, Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi and no part of the thesis has formed the basis for the award of any degree or diploma earlier. Peechi, Magesh G. 12/02/2014. Kerala Forest Research Institute (A institution of Kerala State council for Science, Technology & Environment ) Peechi - 680 653, Thrissur, Kerala, India Dr. A. R. R. Menon Scientist F (Retired), Dept. of GIS & Remote Sensing. Forest Management and Information System Division CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the thesis entitled ‘Ecological Studies of the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve in the Western Ghats of India, using Remote Sensing and GIS’ is a bonafide record of research work done by the candidate Mr. Magesh G. in the Dept. of GIS and Remote Sensing, Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi under my supervision and submitted to the Cochin University of Science and Technology for the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Studies and no part of the thesis has formed the basis for the award of any degree or diploma earlier. Peechi Dr. A. R. R. Menon 03-02-2014. (Supervising guide) Phone: 91-487-2690100, Fax: 91-487-2690111, 2690121 email: [email protected], Website: www.kfri.org Acknowledgement I am very grateful to Dr. A.R.R. Menon, Scientist F, Dept. of GIS and Remote Sensing, Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi for his valuable guidance, constant encouragement and providing me the opportunity to work under him for this Ph.D. dissertation. He played a major role in teaching the subject, developing the lateral thinking and broadening the viewpoints with his experience, knowledge, humbleness and nobility. He was instrumental in many of my achievements, which I gained during this period. It has been a privilege to work with and learn from him over the past six years. His guidance and expertise were highly beneficial for the study right from the inception to final stage. Dear Sir, words are not enough to express my gratitude and indebtedness to you. I am grateful to the Director of KFRI, Dr. K.V. Sankaran, Dr. R. Gnanaharan and Dr. J. K. Sharma (former Directors) who offered all support and facilities of the Institute. My research advisory committee members namely Dr. K. Swarupanandan and Dr. Jose Kallarackal offered critical comments, which helped to shape my thesis in a better way. I wish to express my sincere thanks towards all of them. I am thankful to Dr. E.A. Jayson, Ph.D Programme co-ordinator and Dr. R.V. Varma, (former Ph.D Programme co-ordinator) for helping with the official processes and for critical advice and support. Almost all staff of the Institute helped me in one or other way during this span of study. They include Dr. P. Vijayakumaran Nair, Dr. M. Sivaram, Dr. K. Jayaraman, Mrs. N. Sarojam (Librarian) etc. I like to express my special thanks to NRSC, Hyderabad for providing valuable data for the work. Also I wish to express my gratitude to the Faculties of training division at NRSC for the training and the NRSC Library for the help rendered. I would like to thank Dr. M.A. Suraj (Associate professor, SN College, Alathur), Mr. M. Anand (Assistant professor, CUSAT), and Dr. E.S. Abilash (Assistant professor, SN College, Nattika) for their encouragement and support during the study. My friends at KFRI were always hand with all sorts of help, advice and support. They include Dr. Roby T.J, Dr. Joyce Jose, Pramod C, Deepu Divakaran, Subin S, Lijesh A. Mere words are not enough to express my gratitude towards them. I also wish to express my special thanks to Robi A.J, who helped me for the taxonomic identification of plants and was with me during the field trips. Help rendered by Forest Department officials at Parambikulam Tiger Reserve deserve special mention. They include Mr. Sanjayan Kumar (IFS), former Wildlife Warden of PKTR and former Range Officers. My dedicated and truthful field tracker Mr. Raveendran, Kuriarkutty made my field works interesting, easy and helped me to escape from several dangerous situations. It was with the financial support of Dept. of Biotechnology (DBT), I laid the foundation stone for this piece of work. I wish to wholeheartedly thank DBT for their financial assistance without which this work would not have been successfully fulfilled. Among the drivers of the institute, Mr. P.K. Rajendran was my favorite, truthful and reliable companion. He often changed his roles to a guardian, field assistant, field tracker etc. My heartfelt thanks are due to my in-laws family for the support and encouragement provided. Last but not least, my thanks go to my family (chachans, cheriyammas, brothers and sisters) for the support and encouragement provided. The immense support provided by my Mummy empowered me to work hard and achieve the target. In all these, I keep my head down in front of my beloved wife, Divya K. Das and my son, Ananthu (Ananthakrishnan) for their patience, support, love and sacrifice. I acknowledge all those who helped me in various ways for the successful completion of this work. Magesh G. Dedicated to my Grand father ….. CONTENTS CHAPTER Page CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION 1-15 1.1.General 1 1.2. Research Background 3 1.3. Tropical Rainforest 4 1.4. Geospatial assessment of tropical forest 6 1.5. Western Ghats 6 1.6. Biodiversity Assessment 7 1.7. Land Use Land Cover 8 1.8. Vegetation Mapping 9 1.9. Application of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information 11 System for studying vegetation cover 1.10. Need of the study 13 1.11. Objectives 15 CHAPTER 2 - REVIEW OF LITERATURE 16-21 2.1. Forest Ecology 16 2.2. Vegetation Mapping 17 2.2.1. Relevance of Remote Sensing and GIS in Vegetation 10 mapping 2.3. Phytosociological Studies 20 CHAPTER 3 - STUDY AREA 22-39 3.1. Location 22 3.2. Topography OPOGRAPHY 27 3.3. Rainfall 27 3.4. Temperature 29 3.5. Climate 29 3.6. Soil 29 3.7. Hydrology 29 3.8. Geology 32 3.9. Geography 34 3.10. Forest Types 34 3.11. Statement of Significance 37 CHAPTER 4 - MATERIALS AND METHODS 40-60 4.1. Data and Software used 40 4.1.1. Remote sensing data 40 4.1.2. IRS imageries 40 4.1.3. Technical Specification of IRS P6 LISS-3 image 40 4.1.4. Technical Specification of IRS ID LISS-3 image 41 4.1.5. Landsat imageries 41 4.1.6. Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) 42 4.1.7. Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) 42 CHAPTER Page 4.1.8. Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) 42 4.1.9. Toposheet 48 4.1.10. Ground Truth Data 48 4.1.11. Ancillary data used 48 4.1.12. Softwares used 48 4.2. Digitization 49 4.3. Digital Image Processing 49 4.3.1 Geometric correction (Image rectification) of satellite image 49 4.3.2. Image enhancement and transformation 50 4.3.3. Land use land cover mapping 50 4.3.4. Ground truthing 50 4.4. Forest cover density 51 4.5. Phytosociology 51 4.5.1. Data Analysis 55 4.5.2. Regeneration Studies 60 CHAPTER 5 - RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 61-126 5.1. LAND COVER MAPPING 61-79 5.1.1. Land Cover mapping for the year 1973 61 5.1.2. Land Cover mapping for the year 1990 63 5.1.3. Land Cover mapping for the year 2005 64 5.1.4. Accuracy assessment 66 5.1.5. Comparison of Land cover change assessment for the year 67 1973 and 2005 5.1.6. Time series analysis of Land cover change during the year 68 1973 to 1990 and 1990 to 2005 5.1.6.1. Change matrix for PKTR during 1973 to 1990 68 5.1.6.2. Change matrix for PKTR during 1990 to 2005 69 5.1.7. Forest cover density during the year 1973-2005 70 5.1.8. Forest cover density change during the year 1973-2005 74 5.1.9. Discussion 75 5.2. VEGETATION 80-119 5.2.1. Vegetation analysis of PKTR 80 5.2.1.1. Species diversity 80 5.2.1.2. Family composition 81 5.2.1.3. Endemicity and RET (IUCN) status 82 5.2.1.4. Epiphytes and Pteridophytes 84 5.2.1.5. Tree diversity 85 5.2.1.6. Density, Frequency, Basal area and IVI 86 5.2.1.7. Girth Class distribution of trees in PKTR 87 5.2.1.8. Status of shrub, herb and climber 89 CHAPTER Page 5.2.2. West coast Tropical Evergreen forest 93 5.2.3. West Coast Semi Evergreen forest.