Pastoralism in Timberline Forests of Western Himalaya

Abstract

A landscape-level assessment on status of livestock population and impact of pastoral practices on timberline vegetation of the western Himalaya was conducted. We used a combination of field survey and remote sensing data (Landsat, Sentinal and Cartosat & LISS-IV merged) to quantify the cumulative impacts of livestock grazing, fuelwood extraction and other anthropogenic pressures on forest cover around tourist impacted and camping site areas. There are over 26,950 bovines, horses and mules of local and migratory communities graze across the timberline region >2700 masl in the western Himalaya. Grazing, fuelwood and fodder collection jointly have created about 4503.5 ha of artificial grasslands (kharak) in the timberline zone. The artificial grasslands are more in the enclosing or island timberline areas. The change analysis of artificial grasslands around the temporary huts where there is frequent grazing and tourist activities indicates a steady increase in the area of grazing land at the cost of forest cover around camping site. There was loss of forests about 30.3 ha during 1976-1990 (14 years), 53.67 ha during 1990-2005 (15 years) and 30.9 ha during 2005-2018 (13 years). It is also observed that many of the isolated camping sites are now connected due to loss of vegetation. Phytosociological analysis indicates that the conversion of regenerating individuals to mature tree around the cattle camping site is very low, leading to expanse in the gap areas at an alarming rate in the timberline ecotone.