Assessment of Land Use/Land Cover Change and NDVI Analysis in Wokha District, Nagaland, India

Shifting cultivation (Jhum) continues to be a dominant mode of food production in Northeast India, including the district of Wokha, Nagaland. Assessing how changes in shifting cultivation impact social, economic, and cultural advances is crucial for understanding the impact of modernization and development on traditional agricultural practices. Analysis of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) change is essential for creating policies to ensure the food security of the growing population in Wokha, especially for managing the usage and management of water assets in the region. We assess changes in LULC and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) over the last few decades in the Wokha district of Nagaland, India, using the Landsat images for 1993, 2003, 2013, and 2022. In order to detect LULC changes, we apply Supervised Classification using the Maximum Likelihood Classification (MLC) technique in ERDAS Imagine by classifying six major LULC types: Forest, Waterbodies, Built-up Areas, Barren Land, Cropland, and Grassland. Our results reveal that the Forests were reduced from 74.23% in 1993 before the construction of Doyang Dam to 66.28% in 2022 post dam construction, whereas Grassland significantly increased from 16.12% in 1993 to 26.56% in 2022. At the same time Built-up Areas, Barren Land, and Waterbodies also increased between 1993 and 2022. In NDVI analysis, high vegetation has significantly decreased from 26.94% in 1993 to 18.26% in 2022. At the same time, low vegetation has increased from 5.73% in 1993 to 13.43% in 2022. Our observations of alterations in LULC and Vegetation Mapping can provide the government and policymakers with valuable data for the formulation of effective policies focussing on land management development for Wokha district from a financial perspective that can enhance district-level engagement and increase both the quality and quantity of agricultural output.