A land resource plays a significant role to understand the interactions between human activities and environmental sustainability. This study was investigated to assess the land use /land cover changes in Pachamalai reserved forest, a part of Eastern Ghats situated in Tamil Nadu. To solve the purpose multi-dated satellite images were used for analysis during the period of 15 years (1998–2012). Different types of thematic layers were generated using visual image interpretation techniques using ERDAS imagine and thematic maps were prepared at ArcGIS environment. Accuracy assessment was made using GPS data and ground truth verifications. Land use/land cover changes were observed that the forest area (5.56 km²) settlement (7.94 km²) and crop land (12.76 km²) increased, while area under waste land decreases by 26.26 km². Waste land has been converted into forest, settlement, crop land and was inversely proportional with other LU/LC classes. The conversion of wasteland to forest land shows the positive impact of forest management planning strategies taken up by the government and NGOs. Forest department plays a crucial role in maintaining forest ecosystem health during the past decade.
