Conclusion

The conservation and sustainable management of ecosystems are the vital components in the pursuit of development goals that are eco-logically, economically and socially sustainable. The goods and services provided by forested landscapes are vital to the socioeconomic development of human populations. Regions with the geographically distinct assemblage of species, natural communities, and environmental conditions are referred as Ecologically Sensitive Regions (ESR) and delineated for appropriate conservation planning. The evergreen for-est cover in Kali Tiger reserve regions has declined from 61.79 to 38.5 percent (1973-2016), due to hydroelectric, infrastructure projects and monoculture plantations. KTR region is divided into 5’×5’ equal area grids (97) covering approximately 9 km2 to delineate ESR’s. 54 percent of the grids (47 grids) in KTR represents ESR 1, 10.34 percent of the area (9 grids) shows ESR 2, 9.19 percent of the area (8 grids) shows ESR 3 and 26.44 percent area (28 grids) covers ESR 4. Village wise analyses reveal that there are 524 villages in KTR and 203 falls in ESR-1, 76 falls under ESR-2, 77, in ESR 3 and 174 falls under ESR-4 respectively. ESR demarcation outcomes shows our estimation is robust concerning all the themes of expressive variables which will establishes the principle of ecological conservation that assist in maintaining landscape con- dition. These eco-sensitive regions needs to be enriched with native species to reduce further degradation while adopting sustainable conser-vation strategies. The approach proposed here can assist decision makers to consider commu-nity-based conservation programmes in the era of burgeoning population and the pressure on the forest ecosystem.