Human dimensions of forest degradation in the Sathyamangalam landscape

The report presents information pertaining to forest disturbance characteristics and the underlying causes of forest disturbance in the Satyamangalam landscape in southern India.  Data on forest disturbances were gathered from 60 transects that began randomly from the edge of the village and extended into the forest.  A disturbance index was developed for each sampled point.  A household semi-structured social survey was conducted in the local language in Tamil in the Sathyamangalam landscape. Twenty villages were randomly sampled from the different vegetation zones.  Our findings indicate that there is substantial dependence on forests in Sathyamangalam.  The disturbance index ranges from low to moderate in the landscape.  The mean family size, distance travelled to collect fire wood, and availability of wage labour are significant predictors of disturbance in the landscape.

The can be downloaded from Human dimensions of forest degradation in the Sathyamangalam landscape [1]