Important interventions which had a damaging impact on riparian environment were silvliculture, damming of river, urbanisation, mining etc. The major interventions which had an everlasting impact on the Narmada river ecosystem included
Silviculture: Silviculture interventions to promote trees such as Teak and Sal over other species by forest Department in the late Nineties and early twentieth century (Buch, 1991) The conversion of forests to monoculture rendered the forests more vulnerable to fire, drought, diseases and pests. Minerals and mining: The forests are under immense pressure, for wealth of timber and bamboo that they contain the minerals that lie underfoot and invite exploitation, pressure of grazing, nistar and encroachment and need of more land for development process. (Buch, 1991). The rich minerals lying beneath the forest soils further led to their casues of degradation. Forest conversion: Even as early as 1889 Forsyth remarked that the extension of revenue settlement, which gave value to property in land, resulted in vast forests tracts being brought under the plough. The expansion of railways in this region exterminated both Sal and Teak from huge areas. Prior to British rule the forests were not looked upon as sources of revenue for the state.During the Moghul rule Foryth says the the valleys of Narmada and Tapi were brought under plough.As the Government undertaking of revenue settlements the forests in the plain disappeared as people took possession and claimed title. In Mp between 1956 and 1981, 1.87 million hectares of forest land has been diverted to non forest uses.
1.6 million hectare out of this was transferred to the revenue department for allotment to encroachers and for use as village commons.
Irrigation projects: The irrigation department so far had taken 57,000 hectares of land for various projects and in addition in between 1981 and 1987another 50,000 hectares have been cleared under the Forest conservation Act to transfer to irrigation department. One single irrigation project Tawa resulted in deforestation of 24,000 hectares between 1964-1966, whilst a single mining project Bailadila has already deforested 8500 hectares of land. Grazing: Biotic interference is believed to be another cause of degradation of riparian vegetation. the livestock population increased in the years from 1951 (32.6million) to 1981(42.5 million). Seasonal migration of cattle (cows, buffaloes, sheep, goats and camels) from Rajasthan and Gujarat further stressed the grasslands and natural regeneration. Foraging for fuel wood led to further degradation. The non rational nistar policies also led to intervention neighbourhood villagers into forests. Yet another crisis beyond the gigantic dams, which has arisen is due to the huge canal network of the Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar canals. (network, 2010). Tourism: Scenic spots along the river are developed intensively with development of ropeways, tourism activities on bank, small hotels on river banks etc. Dams: Numerous dams have altered the ecology from a riverine ecosystem to lotic ecosystem. Illegal sand mining and stone crushing: Sand mining is done for river sand for construction purpose. The severe dredging of river bank has led to severe erosion of river bank. Stone crushing: The southern bank or riparian zone has extensive Basalt formations which are mined to make aggregates.
Riparian buffer delineation and extraction:
Riparian buffer zone has been delineated on the River Narmada based on flood plain and adjoining village boundaries. Adjoining village boundaries and areas within 500 m from both the edges are delineated. A mask is created of the Riparian boundary which is used to clip raster images of the given years. Riparian buffer zone area was clipped from the Land use land cover raster of the mentioned years