Forest land cover changes and its socio-economic consequences on south-eastern part of Bangladesh

Hill forest vegetation cover in the southeastern part of Bangladesh has been facing degradation and depletion over a few decades. The forest estimation and mapping of this country are well documented and mainly restricted to the mangrove extent. However, the monitoring of the hill forest vegetation of Bangladesh is limited till now. This study monitor and analyzes the forest vegetation cover changes using Landsat imagery from 1974 to 2020, specifically in Khagrachari and Rangamati hill district, Bangladesh. We preprocess the satellite imagery and then perform a decision tree classification algorithm based on the spectral indexes derived from the imagery. The initial assessment indicates the negative change of dense vegetation/forest vegetation cover (FVC) in most parts of the study area since 1974. Further results show that ~57.17%, ~39.3%, ~31.27%, and ~24.97% of the total area were classified as FVC type in 1989,1999, 2010 and 2020, respectively. Besides, this study briefly discusses how the change of FVC impacts the life of the local indigenous community living around the area. This preliminary investigation highlights deforestation over the ~46 years around the study area, which could be beneficial for planning to manage and conserve forest resources, and protect the local indigenous community.