Spatio-temporal changes in the Rishikesh agglomeration, Uttarakhand, India

Rishikesh is one of the fastest growing urban agglomerations in Uttarakhand state of India. Being a religious and historical city, it attracts millions of tourists across the globe, hence a huge pressure is created over the limited land space. To tackle the pressure of tourists and satisfying the increasing demand of the space resulted into the expansion of urban area of Rishikesh. The study deals with the spatio-temporal changes occurred in the city of Rishikesh. The urban land use and land cover changes are analysed with the help of geographic information system. The analysis of satellite data (Landsat series MSS, TM, ETM + and OLI science 1972-2020) reflects that the settlement growth was quite unplanned. The haphazard growth of city resulted into the reduction of agriculture land. Various hotspots of settlement growth were noticed in study region. The town has limitation to growth because the town is enclosed by forests and holy river Ganga. There is urgent need to check city’s carrying capacity, high concentration of settlements and to maintain the concept of sustainable development.