Uttarakhand’s Green Cover Threatened by Climate Change, Says Report

Uttarakhand’s green cover is in danger based on the analysis of two-decade data of the state’s vegetation indicating the region’s horrific response to climate change, according to a news release by the Ministry of Science & Technology.

Mountain ecosystems are particularly sensitive to climate change, which exacerbates global risks and disasters. Climate change significantly affects global average surface temperatures, alters precipitation patterns, and influences vegetation dynamics, underscoring the importance of localised monitoring at various spatial and temporal scales.

Google Earth Engine (GEE)¸ a global platform that processes vast amounts of satellite data, is widely used for environmental monitoring and Earth observation, including studies of land degradation, soil and dust dynamics, urban growth, temperature changes and health. It simplifies large-scale analysis by reducing data preprocessing and storage needs.

Researchers from the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), along with collaborators from India and abroad, turned to GEE to track Uttarakhand’s vegetation from 2001 to 2022, along with pollution and climate responses.

They used a deceptively simple measurement, the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), to analyse changes in vegetation.

The results of the research by the team led by Dr Umesh Dumka from ARIES, along with international collaborators, published in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (a Springer Nature Publication), revealed a story of climate sensitivity, seasonal resilience, and growing concern.

The researchers attributed the declining vegetation trends to deforestation, agricultural expansion, illegal logging and increasing pollution from urban and industrial sources. The news release further stated that pollution doesn’t affect vegetation uniformly—it hits certain locations harder, compounding the stress caused by climate change

These changes threaten biodiversity, water resources, and the natural balance that millions of people downstream depend on.

The study shows that modern satellite science can act as an early-warning system, helping policymakers and communities understand where intervention is most urgently needed.

Impact in Uttarakhand

According to remote sensing studies published by the US National Library of Medicine, Uttarakhand's vegetation dynamics have been greatly impacted by long-term climate variability as well as changing patterns of rainfall and temperature.

Targeted climate adaptation strategies are necessary to address the region's ecological vulnerability. Research employing NDVI and other factors over multi-decadal periods found that vegetation responses are linked to changing climate factors. These other factors include evapotranspiration, soil moisture, precipitation, land surface temperature, number of forest fires, aerosols, Black Carbon, ozone, sulfur oxides and land use-land cover.

The study indicated that Uttarakhand's vegetation is healthiest after the monsoon and lowest before it. Clear monthly, seasonal and annual variations were seen in the NDVI and EVI, demonstrating how climate affects plant growth differently in different districts. The effects of man-made pollutants such as aerosols, black carbon, sulphates and ozone were less pronounced depending on location and altitude. The majority of districts displayed a general increase in these vegetation indicators over several decades, suggesting that the state's green cover has been gradually improving in certain areas.