Shifting cultivation (Jhum) has been a threat to the rich biodiversity of Northeastern India (NEI). Here, we applied an integrated spectral enhancement technique to map the shifting cultivation fallow/ current jhum area in NEI for 2014, 2016 and 2018 using Landsat-8 data. The natural vegetation in shifting cultivation fallow land was analyzed through field sampling. Manipur state occupied the highest shifting cultivation fallow area of 1528.5 km² (2014), and it was minimum in Tripura state with 178.3 km² (2018). The shifting cultivation fallow hotspot map was derived to identify the repetitive patches, in which the state of Arunachal Pradesh topped with 24.9% and Tripura with lowest 3.6%. Field sampling revealed dominance of four invasive species viz., Mikania micrantha, Ageratum houstonianum, Chromolaena odorata and Ageratina adenophora. We provided an insight into shifting cultivation fallow dynamics and vegetation composition in less than 3 year old shifting cultivation fallow lands. The study using remote sensing approach revealed that the fragile ecosystems of NEI are still facing the threat from shifting cultivation, though the trend has started declining. The generated database can be regularly updated in future using recent Sentinel-2 data with higher spatial and temporal resolution that would enhance the quality of land use management plans.

中文翻译：

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利用Landsat影像评估印度东北地区的耕作休耕

轮耕（Jhum）已经威胁到印度东北部（NEI）丰富的生物多样性。在这里，我们使用整合的光谱增强技术，使用Landsat-8数据绘制了2014、2016和2018年NEI的变迁耕作休耕/当前枯草面积。通过田间采样分析了耕作休耕地的天然植被。曼尼普尔邦最大的轮耕休耕面积为1528.5 km ²（2014），而在Tripura州最小，为178.3 km ²（2018）。推导了不断变化的耕作休憩区热点图，以识别重复斑块，其中阿鲁纳恰尔邦的州最高，为24.9％，特里普拉邦的最低，为3.6％。野外采样显示了四种入侵物种的优势，即薇甘菊（Mikania micrantha），A香（Ageratum houstonianum），香樟（Chromolaena odorata）和紫茎泽兰（Ageratina adenophora）。我们对不足3年的轮换休耕地的轮作休耕动态和植被组成提供了见解。使用遥感方法进行的研究表明，尽管趋势已经开始下降，但NEI脆弱的生态系统仍面临着种植转移的威胁。将来可以使用具有更高时空分辨率的最新Sentinel-2数据定期更新生成的数据库，这将提高土地使用管理计划的质量。