RESEARCH ARTICLE Forest Fire Burnt Area Assessment in the Biodiversity Rich Regions Using Geospatial Technology: Uttarakhand Forest Fire Event 2016 Stutee Gupta 1 • Arijit Roy 1 • Dhruval Bhavsar 1 • Rajkanti Kala 1 • Sarnam Singh 1 • A. Senthil Kumar 1 Received: 29 July 2017 / Accepted: 5 February 2018 Ó Indian Society of Remote Sensing 2018 Abstract The hills of Uttarakhand witness forest fire every year during the summer season and the number of these fire events is reported to have increased due to increased anthropogenic disturbances as well as changes in climate. These fires cause significant damage to the natural resources which can be mapped and monitored using satellite images by virtue of its synoptic coverage of the landscape and near real time monitoring. This study presents burnt area assessment caused by the fire episode of April 2016 to the forest vegetation. Digital classification of satellite images was done to extract the burnt area which was found to be 3774.14 km 2 , representing 15.28% of the total forest area of the state. It also gives an account of cumulative progression of forest fire in Uttarakhand using satellite images of three dates viz. 23rd, 27th May and 2nd June, 2016. Results were analyzed at district, administrative and forest division level using overlay analysis. Separate area statistics were given for different categories of biological richness, forest types and protected areas affected by forest fire. The burnt area assessment can be used in mitigation planning to prevent drastic ecological impacts of the forest fire on the landscape. Keywords Forest fire Á Uttarakhand Á Remote sensing Á Burnt area assessment Introduction Forest fire is one of the most significant hazard in the forested landscapes. Steep terrain, high summer tempera- ture, high wind velocity and the availability of inflammable material in the forest account for major damage and extensive spread of forest fire (Rothermel 1983; Roy 2003). Forest fire in a mountainous terrain spreads uphill very rapidly. This is caused by the upward flowing hot air resulting in loss of moisture and high temperature in the upper region. Further, Isolated trees at higher altitudes and scrubs at lower altitudes readily catch fire due to less moisture content and presence of high flammability of the coniferous vegetation. Furthermore, rolling and burning forest material promote and reignite fire at new locations down the slopes (Landmann et al. 2015). Pine forests having high content of inflammable resin are also highly susceptible to forest fires. Most of the forest fires are caused by human activities (Bahuguna and Singh 2002). Some fires are accidental but most of the fires are initiated deliberately for some purpose such as to collect Sal seeds left after the forest is burnt, to conceal illegal timber extraction, to improve grass growth, to scare away wild animals, to collect honey or some other reasons including political agitations and community conflicts (Bhandari et al. 2012). The purpose of intentional forest burning differs from region to region in the Indian subcontinent. In north eastern Himalaya, forests are burnt for shifting cul- tivation. In western Himalaya, forests are burnt to promote fresh fodder growth whereas central Indian forests are burnt to facilitate the collection of non-timber forest products. Fire, whether natural or anthropogenic, is a widespread and a recurring phenomenon in Indian forests (Ankila 2007). Damage due to forest fire is more severe in logged areas (Rowell and Moore 2000). Repeated burning in for- ests results in destruction of the ground flora and reduced vegetative growth rate leading to change in plant com- munity structure (Spanos et al. 2010), changes in soil & Arijit Roy arijitroy@iirs.gov.in 1 Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Indian Space Research Organisation, 4 – Kalidas Road, Dehradun 248001, India 123 Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing https://doi.org/10.1007/s12524-018-0757-3