Implications of Rapid Land use/land Cover Changes upon the Environment of the Area Around Nainital in Uttarakhand, India

Piyoosh Rautela^a, Sushil Khanduri^b, Bhupendra Bhaisora^c, K. N. Pande^d, Suman Ghildiyal^e, Chanderkala^f, Sunil Badoni^g and Ashish Rawat^h Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre, Department of Disaster Management,
Government of Uttarakhand, Uttrakhand Secretariat, Rajpur Road, Dehradun - 248 001, Uttarakhand, India. ^apiyooshrautela@gmail.com ^bSushil.khanduri@gmail.com ^cbhupendra_b1@rediffmail.com ^dknpande@rediffmail.com ^esuman.ghildiyal.7@gmail.com ^fchanderkala.sweet.18@gmail.com ^g, sunilbadonidmmc@gmail.com ^hashishrawat_27ddun@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Unplanned anthropogenic intervention in the area around the lake city of Nainital in Uttarakhand is observed to have adverse impact upon the environmental stability. Effects of this are clearly visible in the land use/land cover change that the area has undergone in the previous six years alone. Vegetation cover around the lake is observed to be dwindling and most of these changes are driven largely by infrastructure development to sustain the growth of tourism and these have not even spared the recharge zone of the lake. The changes introduced by the anthropogenic intervention have already started to have adverse impact upon the recharge of the lake and pose the threat of mass movement in many areas.

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