"Everything is greener": A remote sensing analysis of, and oral history interviews of residents of Saperu panchayat, Himachal Pradesh, about change in tree cover and composition in and around afforestation projects.

Keywords: plantations, trees, India, afforestation, pastoralists, remote sensing, oral history, transhumance, trees outside forests
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

The Indian government has been implementing afforestation programs for decades. While the afforestation projects lead to tree composition and tree cover change within plantations, the concurrent impact on the agro-pastoral areas and perceptions of those changes around the plantations deserves greater attention. In this study, oral history interviews were conducted of approximately 100 residents of Saperu village, Himachal Pradesh, about changes within the landscape especially regarding trees, and a remote sensing analysis of the changes within the panchayat boundaries from 1990 to 2022. Our study shows that both oral history interviews and spatial data attests to the overarching increase in trees outside forests (TOF) cover in the Panchayat, and that the processes that have accelerated these changes are embedded within the dynamic socio-economic context of the region, and ecological changes through governmental interventions.