Impact of Forest Degradation on the outbreak of Emerging Infectious Diseases in Wayanad, India.

Keywords: Land Use and Land Cover Change, India, Pandemic, Disease outbreak
Session Type: Virtual Lightning Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 78

Abstract

The world has been facing pandemic owing to Covid-19. We have also seen the geographic expansion and enhanced outbreaks of other Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) in recent years. Existing literatures have suggested that Land Use Land Cover Changes (LULCC) have led to the outbreak of EIDs. We investigate the direct and indirect impact of LULCC on EID outbreaks in the context of Wayanad district of Kerala, India. The focus of this project is mainly three EIDs prevalent in this region: Kyasanur forest disease, Dengue and leptospirosis. We will also discuss the causal pathway through which deforestation may lead to the outbreak of these three EIDs. Wayanad is located in a vulnerable tropical forested region and it is named as one of the four environmental change hotspots of Kerala. The analyses of LULC from 1950 to 2018 suggest a significant increase in plantation and a decrease in forest cover. More specifically, our analyses suggest that deforestation causes the human-animal conflict resulting into the outbreak of Kyasanur forest disease. This project employs an extensive use of GIS, field survey and interview based data sources.