CONCLUSIONS

Hydrological and land cover status investigations in select streams of Sagara taluk emphasise the role of native vegetation (in the respective watershed) has aided in ensuring sustainability of water, evident from the presence of perennial streams. While, streams with degraded watershed regions were predominantly seasonal with less quantity of water.  Temporal remote sensing data with GIS effectively aided in assessing the landscape structure. Land use changes during 1973 and 2012 show an increase in plantation from about 10.7% to 37.2% at cost of native forests (declined from 57.3% to 42.5%). Hydrological analysis in the catchments proved that presence of pristine forest cover in the catchment are responsible for streams being perennial and also higher water yield (> 5 times compared to degraded landscapes) even during the non-monsoon season. Similarly ground water table with lower deviations (< 1.2 metre deviation), were in case of wells with Lakes in the upstream, highlights the role of lakes in marinating ground water levels. This study emphasise the need for holistic approaches in monitoring as well as management of water bodies in the region.