Assessing Vegetation Recovery and Water Stress in Semi-Arid Grasslands Using Multi-Index Remote Sensing: A Case study of Tal Chhapar Sanctuary

Abstract

Rajasthan Tal Chhapar Sanctuary is a delicate semi-arid grassland region that struggle with issues like excess grazing, anthropogenic activity and insufficient rainfall. We find out the 2020-2024 trend analysis using Sentinal-2 satellite imagery to understand local vegetation changes , to evaluate soil condition, plant health, water accessibility and ecosystem resilience, we used variety of vegetation indices such, NDVI, EVI, SAVI, MSAVI,NDWI and VCI in combination with Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation. The result of accuracy, which were validated using field data from 30 sites, was 82%.

Throughout four year period study, the vegetated area grew by 14.5%.the core and water adjacent area saw the most improvement, whereas the outside border close to village saw a decline in vegetation as result of intensive grazing and human activity improvement EVI,SAVI,MSAVI and VCI values indicate that vegetation has grown more and healthy, NDWI level decreased.

In summary, overall study demonstrates that monitoring delicate grassland may be accomplished successful by integrating spatial modeling satellite data. The result emphasizes the improved habitat restoration, managed grazing and water management to ensure sustainability for dry ecosystem.