Biodiversity Status and Climate Change
Scenario in Northeast India
P. Saikia, A. Kumar and M.L. Khan
Abstract Conservation of biodiversity and impacts of climate change are perhaps
the most critical challenges faced by all sectors of the society. The patterns and
processes related to climate change and biodiversity are so complex that corrective
measures are often taken with an imperfect scientific knowledge base. This article
addresses the biodiversity status and climate change scenario in Northeast India.
The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is used to explain the vegetation pattern of Northeast India and majority of area (58 %) are under tropical
climatic zone, followed by subtropical (23 %), alpine (10 %), and temperate (9 %)
zones. Although the Northeastern India is very susceptible to climate change
because of its ecological fragility, the forest cover is reported increasing in the past
few years because of the successful implementation of the different plantation and
community development schemes. In order to avoid rapid and irreversible change
in biodiversity, conservation strategies needed to focus on supporting the species’
natural capacity to adapt to climate change.
Keywords Biodiversity Á Climate change Á Mitigation Á NDVI Á Northeast India
1 Introduction
Climate change, global warming, and biodiversity depletion are considered as the
most critical challenges for sustainable development worldwide. Environmental
conditions in combination with other factors play a key role in spatial distribution of biodiversity. Climate change is recognized as a significant manmade global
P. Saikia Á A. Kumar (&)
School of Natural Resource Management, Central University of Jharkhand,
Brambe, Ranchi 835205, Jharkhand, India
e-mail: amit.kumar@cuj.ac.in; amit.iirs@gmail.com
M.L. Khan
Department of Botany, Dr. Hari Singh Gour Central University, Sagar 470003,
Madhya Pradesh, India
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
S. Nautiyal et al. (eds.), Climate Change Challenge (3C)
and Social-Economic-Ecological Interface-Building, Environmental Science,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31014-5_8
107
Scenario in Northeast India
P. Saikia, A. Kumar and M.L. Khan
Abstract Conservation of biodiversity and impacts of climate change are perhaps
the most critical challenges faced by all sectors of the society. The patterns and
processes related to climate change and biodiversity are so complex that corrective
measures are often taken with an imperfect scientific knowledge base. This article
addresses the biodiversity status and climate change scenario in Northeast India.
The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is used to explain the vegetation pattern of Northeast India and majority of area (58 %) are under tropical
climatic zone, followed by subtropical (23 %), alpine (10 %), and temperate (9 %)
zones. Although the Northeastern India is very susceptible to climate change
because of its ecological fragility, the forest cover is reported increasing in the past
few years because of the successful implementation of the different plantation and
community development schemes. In order to avoid rapid and irreversible change
in biodiversity, conservation strategies needed to focus on supporting the species’
natural capacity to adapt to climate change.
Keywords Biodiversity Á Climate change Á Mitigation Á NDVI Á Northeast India
1 Introduction
Climate change, global warming, and biodiversity depletion are considered as the
most critical challenges for sustainable development worldwide. Environmental
conditions in combination with other factors play a key role in spatial distribution of biodiversity. Climate change is recognized as a significant manmade global
P. Saikia Á A. Kumar (&)
School of Natural Resource Management, Central University of Jharkhand,
Brambe, Ranchi 835205, Jharkhand, India
e-mail: amit.kumar@cuj.ac.in; amit.iirs@gmail.com
M.L. Khan
Department of Botany, Dr. Hari Singh Gour Central University, Sagar 470003,
Madhya Pradesh, India
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
S. Nautiyal et al. (eds.), Climate Change Challenge (3C)
and Social-Economic-Ecological Interface-Building, Environmental Science,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31014-5_8
107