Persistent negative changes in seasonal greenness over different forest types of India using MODIS time series NDVI data (2001-2014)

This study assessed the spatial patterns of significant negative trend of forest seasonal greenness over the different forest types of India using 8-day composite MODIS NDVI (500 m) time series data (2001-2014). It was further analyzed to quantify the negative changes in the core forest areas and to indentify hotspots of it over the large protected forest areas. Significant negative changes in the seasonal greenness were found to be highest over tropical moist deciduous forest (2067.35 thousand ha) followed by tropical dry deciduous (1407.73 thousand ha), tropical wet evergreen (577.43 thousand ha), tropical semi evergreen (442.58 thousand ha), subtropical broad leaved (321.13 thousand ha) and Himalayan moist temperate forest (293.80 thousand ha). Mangroves forest also showed decrease in its greenness over 15.6% of its total area. Interestingly, most of the observed negative changes of high to medium magnitude were found in the core areas of the forest types. Hotspots analysis revealed spatially coherent significant negative changes of seasonal greenness over the large protected areas i.e. Similipal wildlife sanctuary of Odisha, Rajaji national park of Uttarakhand, Achanakmar wildlife sanctuary of Chhattisgarh and Sundarban of West Bengal. The outcomes of the present study would help in the prioritization of the forest types and protected forest areas for biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation programmes.