Dr. Amit Kumar has been involved in interdisciplinary research with a focus to improve urban ecology through physio-socio-economic-hazard-risk investigations and methods to augment ecological quality and resilience primarily in the urban milieu using geoinformatics & machine learning techniques. He is engaged with various R&D projects including state-of-the-art NISAR, GISAT & AVIRIS-NG missions. He is member of various academic societies including IUCN CEM-SA, NAGI and GFBI-USA.
Deforestation is one of the most pressing environmental issues that the world is facing currently. It is the conversion of forested land to non-forested land by humans. Deforestation occurs when a land dominated by naturally occurring trees is converted to provide certain services in response to the human demand. The indiscriminate felling of trees has resulted in a reduction of 3.16% in the global forest cover from 1990 to 2015. Although India has seen an increment in the total forest cover of ca. 1%, still there are certain regions in the country that have sought a decrease in the forest cover. The main reasons attributed to the reduction in forest cover are shifting cultivation, rotational felling, other biotic pressures, diversion of forest lands for developmental activities, etc. Continuous illicit cutting of trees has impacted the microclimatic conditions, hydrological cycle, soil quality, biodiversity, etc. of the country, thereby making the country more vulnerable for any uneventful happening. Sustainable forest management practices, alternatives for shifting cultivation, promotion of plantation outside the forest and the usage of certified forest products, etc. are some of the measures that can be adopted to curb the rate of deforestation.
Part of the book: Forest Degradation Around the World