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Spatiotemporal Change Study for High Altitudes of Pithoragarh District Uttarakhand as an Indicator of Climate Change?Spatiotemporal Change Study for High Altitudes of Pithoragarh District Uttarakhand as an Indicator of Climate Change?

Neelam Rawat, Rohini Gabriyal, Kishor Kandpal, Saurabh Purohit and Durgesh Pant

The spatiotemporal remotely sensed data are extremely valuable for detecting changes in vegetation cover, land use/cover classes, snow, water bodies and other terrestrial features. Mapping of tree line, vegetation line, Snow line and its shift analyses can help in better knowing the trend of climate change scenarios.

The present paper deals with a change analysis pattern in tree line, alpine pastures and snow line for a period of 1972 to 2016. The study was carried out in two block i.e., Munsiyari and Dharchula of Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand Himalaya using Landsat data of the listed years. The study showed that the from 1972 to 2016 there is mean increase in tree, grassland/pastures and snow line. The mean upward shift of the tree line was highest in Munsyari block (4504 m) and Dharcula block lowest (2856 m). Magnitude of upward shift in terms of elevation range showed that at many places in the Munsyari Block, the upward shift of the tree line crossed 419 m, during 44 years interval. Grassland are found at an elevation of 1400-5754 m interval during 1972, 1523-5780 m interval during 1998 and 1742-6090 m interval during 2016. This included great expanses of pure meadows (grasslands), flowering herbs and scattered miscellaneous vegetation. The vegetation near the snow line and in the proximity of the glaciers was rather thin, scattered, apart from the mosses and lichens. The snowline during 1972 is an elevation of 2939 m, 2991 m for 1998 and 3132 m for 2016.