Assessment of Tree Volume and Growing Stock in Kharagpur Forest Range of Bhimbandh Wildlife Sanctuary in Bihar - An Integrated Geospatial Approach

Planners and policy makers need information about availability of wood from important tree species growing inside and outside forest areas. In recent years, satellite remote sensing has emerged as one of the powerful technologies for generation of spatial information due to repetitive, synoptic view, availability of data in inaccessible areas, and digital nature of data. In the present study, IRS LISS-III satellite data of November 2006 has been digitally interpreted and forests have been classified into different forest types on the basis of density classes. With the help of GIS, different layers have been digitized and maps were produced. Using general volume equations and specific gravity of different species from FSI publications, the volume per hectare and growing stock per hectare of individual forest cover types for the whole forest area were estimated. The study revealed that pure Sal forest has maximum volume content followed by bamboo-mixed forests, Sal-mixed and miscellaneous forests. This is probably first attempt for detailed survey of remote and inhospitable areas of Kharagpur forest range of Bhimbandh Wildlife Sanctuary in Bihar, which has accessed detailed ground truth collection for tree volume mapping and growing stock estimation.