Data from: Critical analysis of forest degradation in the southern Eastern Ghats of India: comparison of satellite imagery and soil quality index

India has one of the largest assemblages of tropical biodiversity, with
its unique floristic composition of endemic species. However, current
forest cover assessment is performed via satellite-based forest surveys,
which have many limitations. The present study, which was performed in the
Eastern Ghats, analysed the satellite-based inventory provided by forest
surveys and inferred from the results that this process no longer provides
adequate information for quantifying forest degradation in an empirical
manner. The study analysed 21 soil properties and generated a forest soil
quality index of the Eastern Ghats, using principal component analysis.
Using matrix modules and geospatial technology, we compared the forest
degradation status calculated from satellite-based forest surveys with the
degradation status calculated from the forest soil quality index. The
Forest Survey of India classified about 1.8% of the Eastern Ghats’ total
area as degraded forests and the remainder (98.2%) as open, dense, and
very dense forests, whereas the soil quality index results found that
about 42.4% of the total area is degraded, with the remainder (57.6%)
being non-degraded. Our ground truth verification analyses indicate that
the forest soil quality index along with the forest cover density data
from the Forest Survey of India are ideal tools for evaluating forest
degradation.