Assessing forest cover vulnerability in Uttarakhand, India using analytical hierarchy process

Forests are the most important terrestrial ecosystems providing sustenance not only to biodiversity but also to the rural communities. These resources are subjected to constant degradation and exploitation due to anthropogenic activities and changes in the climatic phenomena. Thus, present study examined the inherent forest vulnerability in one of the important Himalayan state, Uttarakhand in India. Site specific landscape parameters were chosen to analyze the vulnerability. GIS based analytical hierarchy process (AHP) was utilized to identify the important drivers of forest vulnerability in the study area. Findings revealed that of the total forested area, most of the area (61%) was under very high vulnerability followed by high vulnerability (36%). AHP analysis revealed that the main drivers of the inherent forest vulnerability were open forest cover, high disturbance in the forested areas, low biological richness and high road density. Findings of this study may help in understanding of the inherent forest vulnerability and adapting sustainable forest management strategies to control further forest degradation in the study area.