PARK IN THE PERIPHERY: LAND USE AND LAND COVER CHANGE AND FOREST FRAGMENTATION IN AND AROUND YANGOUPOKPI LOKCHAO WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, MANIPUR, INDIA

This study documents the spatio-temporal land use and land cover dynamics of Yangoupokpi Lokchao Wildlife Sanctuary (YLWLS) in Manipur, India. Landsat imageries at three points of time spanning 38 years (1978, 2000 and 2016) were taken into account. Supervised image classification techniques were employed. Fragstats software was used to derive five landscape metrics, namely, class area (CA), number of patches (NP), largest patch index (LPI), percentage of landscape (PLAND) and mean patch size (MPS), to quantitatively assess the level of landscape fragmentation in the YLWLS. Dense and moderately dense forests decreased markedly during 1978-2000 from 46.5% to 40% and 38% to 28% of the total geographical area, respectively. However, between 2000 and 2016, the sanctuary managed to gain 840 ha of dense forest through various afforestation activities. The overall change in YLWLS during 1978-2016 indicates a substantial transition of dense and moderately dense forests.