Bits and pieces: Forest fragmentation by linear intrusions in India

•There was a 6% increase in number of patches due to linear infrastructure.•60 % of India’s forest cover is represented by < 1% of the forest patches.•70 % of the assessed PAs had linear infrastructure passing through them.•Central India has more number of large patches (> 1000 km2) than the W...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Land use policy 2020-12, Vol.99, p.104619, Article 104619
Main Authors: Nayak, Rajat, Karanth, Krithi K., Dutta, Trishna, Defries, Ruth, Karanth, K. Ullas, Vaidyanathan, Srinivas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biodiversity
Biodiversity loss
Central India
Density
Forest ecosystems
Forest protection
Forests
Fragmentation
Habitat fragmentation
Information
Infrastructure
Inter-patch distance
Land use
Patch indices
Patch size
Perforation
Power lines
Protected areas
Routing
Transmission lines
Tropical forests
Western Ghats
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Summary:•There was a 6% increase in number of patches due to linear infrastructure.•60 % of India’s forest cover is represented by < 1% of the forest patches.•70 % of the assessed PAs had linear infrastructure passing through them.•Central India has more number of large patches (> 1000 km2) than the Western Ghats.•Patches in Central India are more isolated than patches in the Western Ghats. Linear infrastructure development is an important driver of forest fragmentation leading to habitat and biodiversity loss as well as disruption of critical ecosystem processes. The tropical forests of India are increasingly impacted by infrastructure development. Little quantitative information is available on the extent of fragmentation due to linear infrastructure on these habitats. Here, we quantified fragmentation due to linear infrastructure by studying forest structural connectivity. We compared the existing forest patch characteristics with a scenario that excluded all linear infrastructure. We classified forest patches into three different fragmentation categories that combined information on patch size, inter patch distance and percentage perforations. Results show that power-transmission lines and roads were the most common infrastructure features within forests. We found a 6% increase in the number of forest patches due to the construction of linear infrastructure. Forest patches >10,000 km2 in size were severely affected and there was a 71.5 % reduction in the number of such patches. We found that 86 % of the existing forest patches are in the small (median patch size
ISSN:0264-8377
1873-5754
DOI:10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104619