CASE REPORT
Natural and Anthropogenic Impacts on Forest Structure: A Case Study of Uttarakhand State
Jaspal S. Chauhan1, Alok S. Gautam2, *, R.S. Negi3
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2018Volume: 11
First Page: 38
Last Page: 46
Publisher Id: TOECOLJ-11-38
DOI: 10.2174/1874213001811010038
Article History:
Received Date: 31/03/2018Revision Received Date: 09/05/2018
Acceptance Date: 12/6/2018
Electronic publication date: 13/08/2018
Collection year: 2018
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Forests are among the most important natural resources in Uttarakhand as they occupy 71% of the geographic area and contribute a good share in state economy. They are rich repositories of biodiversity and are providers of ecosystem goods and services to both regional and global community. People are dependent on forests for fuel wood, grass and other biomass. But unfortunately recent trend of data shows a huge degradation of forestland due to natural and anthropogenic activities. Variations in climatic condition and natural disasters are triggering rate of degradation of forests in Uttarakhand. The present paper reviews the status of forest in Uttarakhand and discusses the major natural and anthropogenic factors responsible for its degradation.