CONCLUSION

Development considering social, ecological, psychological and political processes aids in improving the quality of human lives with economic advancement. Burgeoning human population, lopsided economic policies at local and global scales have been imposing pressures on forest and other natural resources affecting people’s livelihood. The dominant unsustainable developmental thrust in Uttara Kannada region during the last six decades offered essential traditionally protected resources of forest, land, and water at free of cost leading to habitat destruction in ecologically sensitive region, which are long-term and unsustainable. The land use analysis shows major loss of evergreen to semi evergreen forests from 67.73 to 32.08 % by 2013. The WCPM shows increase in built-up area from 39.6 (2013) to 83.9 % (2022) due to the influence of Dandeli town located within the project region. The forest area encroachment of 7071.69 Ha not only caused the habitat loss of species but also affected people’s livelihood due to the devastating effects of forest and habitat fragmentation, alterations in hydrologic regime, etc. Maximum encroachments of forest lands are in Sirsi, Honnavar forest divisions i.e., 3641.66 Ha and 1851.93 Ha respectively. Unplanned developmental activities have given impetus to deforestation resulting in global problems (such as global warming, climate changes, etc.). Other cascaded effects are erosion of productive top soil, enhanced instances of human-animal conflicts, forest fires, declined sustained flow of water in streams. This emphasises the need for ecosystem approach in the implementation of developmental projects through environmentally sound development. Mitigation measures for ecological impacts are to be considered throughout the project period i.e. planning, designing, construction and operation phase. Land use change monitoring, visualization and forecasting the growth pattern presented here will help the regional administrators to plan future developmental activities more sustainably and cautiously. Ecologically sound developmental projects ensures people’s livelihood apart from aiding in the economic development while ensuring sustainability of natural resources and intergeneration equity.