Changes in Land Cover, Forest and Environmental Degradation and Sustainability in Manipur, India

Ecosystems play a prominent role in reducing the riskRisks of hazardsHazards and are of fundamental importance for our survival. Considering these aspects, the study focuses on the issues of regional environmental degradationEnvironmental degradation, land use changesLand use change, as well as their impacts carried out with satellite images, field and secondary data then integrated into the geo-informatics to analyses the various influencing parameters of environmental impacts. The study reveals that human actions account for most of the reduction of forests cover from 52.81% in 1995 to 41.96% in 2006 and the expansion of agriculture from 34.98% in 1995 to 45.57% in 2006. The “open forest cover” has increased in 2018 with 47.33%, yet the NDVI analysis shows a negative trend due to the massive reduction in dense vegetation from 28.57% in 1995 to 2.86% in 2018. The correlation analysis carried out between NDVI value (0.4–0.6), and area of coverage result shows a negative correlation with a root mean square value of 0.54, which indicates a decrease in “dense vegetation”. Further, the root means square values of “built-up” and “agricultural” areas are accounted to 0.8582 and 0.0061 respectively which indicates the increasing of built-up category. Variations in the agricultural land trends indicate the shifting cultivation practices in Manipur. The environmental impacts are subsequently increasing risksRisks among the local community, and therefore, the management of our resources is crucial to building the resilienceResilience of the ecology for long-term sustainabilitySustainability.