Deforestation and land use changes in Western Ghats, India

We estimated changes in forest cover between 1973 and 1995 in the southern part of the Western Ghats using satellite data, The study area of approxima tely 40,000 km(2) showed a loss of 25.6% in forest cover over 22 years. The dense forest was reduced by 19.5% and open forest decreased by 33.2%. As a consequence, degraded forest increased by 26.64%. There has been a great d eal of spatial variability in the pattern of forest loss and land use chang e throughout the region. Our estimates of deforestation in the region for t he contemporary period are the highest reported so far.