Tourism is one of the major driving forces behind land use and landscape changes in the mountainous areas. Land use land cover change is an important component in understanding the interaction of human activity with the environment and thus it is necessary to be able to simulate changes. Empirical observation revealed a change in land use land cover classification in the tourist town of Leh of Ladakh region in Jammu and Kashmir State. In this paper, an attempt is made to study the change in land use land cover in Leh town over the period of last ten years (2001-2011) due to increase in the tourist activities. The study has been done through remote approach using Survey of India Toposheet of Leh Town (1977), and Land set imageries of June 2001 and July 2011. GIS software used to prepare the thematic maps. These maps were taken into the field of study for ground truth. Ground truth observations performed to check the accuracy of the classification. The present study has brought to light that during the last ten years (2001-2011) the barren or wasteland reduced from 283 hectares to 196 hectares. The agriculture land during the year 2001 was 184 hectare it has reduced up to 152 hectares from the last ten years. The land under plantation (willow and popular) has also been reduced from 265 hectares to 258 hectares. The overall increase has been in the land under built up class as it has increased from 168 hectares to 294 hectares at the same time the growth rate of only accommodation observed as 74% during the 2001 -2011. The increase in accommodation sector is the biggest cause of land use land cover.
