Introduction
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Introduction Introduction assessment, Forest Survey of India is also engaged in providing the services of training, Forests provide renewable raw material; research and extension. Established on June 1, and energy, maintain biological diversity, 1981, the Forest Survey of India succeeded the mitigate climate change, protect land and "Preinvestment Survey of Forest Resources" water resources, provide recreation facilities, (PISFR), a project initiated in 1965 by improve air quality and help alleviate poverty. Government of India with the sponsorship of At the same time forests are affected by fire, FAO and UNDP. The main objective of PISFR was grazing, pest and invasive species and are also to ascertain the availability of raw material for the primary targets for agricultural and urban establishment of wood based industries in expansion. selected areas of the country. In its report in The forest wealth in our country is 1976, the National Commission on Agriculture extremely diverse as a result of the huge (NCA) recommended the creation of a National variation in the topography of the country. Due Forest Survey Organization for collection of data to the impact of biotic pressure on our forests, on scientific lines through countrywide many forest areas spread across the country has comprehensive forest resources survey at been depleted and degraded which is a serious regular intervals. Consequently, PISFR was concern. reorganized into FSI in June 1981. After a The role of India’s forests in the national critical review of activities undertaken by FSI, economy and in ecology was further emphasized Government of India redefined the mandate of in the 1988 National Forest Policy, which FSI in 1986 in order to make it more relevant to focussed on ensuring environmental stability, the rapidly changing needs and aspirations of restoring the ecological balance, and preserving the country. The main objectives of FSI are as the remaining forests. Other objectives of the follows: policy were meeting the need for fuel wood, fodder and small timber for rural and tribal Objectives of FSI people while recognising the need to actively ¾ To prepare State of Forest Report involve local people in the management of biennially, providing assessment of latest forest resources. A new target was to increase forest cover in the country and the forest cover to 33 percent of India’s land monitoring changes in these. area. While adequate protection and afforestation activities has contributed to the ¾ To prepare thematic maps on 1:50,000 increase in the extent and quality of forest scale, using aerial photographs. cover in some parts of the country, it is ¾ To function as a nodal agency for extremely important that the spatial collection, compilation, storage and distribution of the changes in forest cover and dissemination of spatial database on growing stock be monitored on a regular basis forest resources. for effective planning. It is imperative for this ¾ To conduct training of forestry personnel purpose to conduct regular assessment of forest in application of technologies related to cover. resources survey, remote sensing, GIS, Forest Survey of India (FSI), is a premier etc. national organization for forest resource assessment working under the Ministry of ¾ To strengthen research & development Environment and Forests, Government of India. infrastructure in FSI and to conduct Besides, carrying out forest and tree cover research on applied forest survey f. Training and Extension techniques. g. Projects and Consultancies ¾ To support State/UT Forest Departments Organizational Set-up. (SFD) in forest resources survey, mapping The Forest Survey of India is and inventory. headquartered at Dehradun and has four zonal ¾ To undertake forestry related special offices located at Shimla, Kolkata, Nagpur and studies/consultancies and custom made Bangalore. The Forest Survey of India is headed training courses for SFD’s and other by a Director General who is assisted by two organisations on project basis. Joint Directors at headquarters who are looking Major activities after the National Forest Data Management The major activities of FSI are: Centre (NFDMC) and the Training & Forest a. Forest Cover Assessment Inventory (TFI) units. Each zonal office is b. Inventory of Forest areas headed by a Regional Director. The locations of c. Inventory of Trees Outside Forests (Rural the headquarters along with zonal offices is & Urban categories) depicted in Fig.1.1.The Headquarters as well as d. Inventory data processing the Zonal offices work in close coordination to e. Methodology Design carry out the various activities of FSI. Table 1- Jurisdiction of the Zonal Offices Sl. Name of the Zone Jurisdiction No. States Union Territories 1. Northern Zone, Jammu & Kashmir, Chandigarh Shimla Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan & Delhi. 2. Eastern Zone, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Andaman & Nicobar Kolkata Bengal, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Islands. Tripura, Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh & Orissa. 3. Central Zone, Madhya Pradesh, Daman & Diu. Nagpur Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Dadara and Nagar Gujarat & Goa. Haveli 4. Southern Zone, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka Lakshadweep, Bangalore Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Pondicherry Forest Cover Assessment Forest Survey of India (FSI) assesses forest acquired. Besides some scenes of LISS IV MX cover of the country by interpretation of remote (multi spectral) of the same satellite were also sensing satellite data and publishes the results in acquired for selected areas which are to be used a biennial report called ‘State of Forest Report’ as proxy for ground verification in such areas (SFR). Beginning in 1987, nine SFRs have been which are inaccessible or extremist prone. brought out so far. Starting with data of US Remote Sensing Satellite Landsat for SFR 1987, The satellite scenes are interpreted in FSI FSI shifted over to the use of data of the by a group of about 30 technical staff using indigenous satellite Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) Digital Image Processing (DIP) software. Digital LISS III sensor since 1995 till 2003. In the current data from satellite is downloaded from CDs onto cycle (i.e. for SFR 2005) FSI is using satellite data the Workstation and radiometric and contrast for IRS P6 Resourcesat LISS III. The technological corrections are applied for removing radiometric advancement in scale of interpretation, defects and for improving visual impact of the resolution of sensor, mode of interpretation and False Colour Composites (FCC). Geometric data freshness is indicated in table no. 3. rectification of the data is carried out with the help of scanned SOI toposheets. Based on tone The scale of interpretation has improved and texture the forest cover areas are from 1:1 million (SFR 1987) to 1:50,000 bringing delineated. Interpretation of forest cover for the down the minimum mappable area to 1 ha. from whole country is done at 1:50,000 scale using 400 ha. The spatial resolution of the sensor has polyconic projection. Normalized Difference come down from the course resolution of 80 m x Vegetation Index (NDVI) transformation is also 80 m to a fine resolution of 23.5 m x 23.5 m. used for density classification of forest cover. This improvement of scale of interpretation and Areas of less than one hectare, whether classified sensor resolution on one hand means increased as forest within non-forest areas or blanks within capability of FSI in delineating smaller and forested areas, are excluded by clustering pixels smaller areas of forests (and blanks inside and merged with the surrounding class. The forests) and consequently on the other hand, a methodology has been shown schematically in the multiplication of work load for the technical figure 3. personnel of FSI. Starting with 363 Survey of The details of satellite data procured from India toposheets of 1:250,000 scale to nearly NRSA during 2005-06 is given below in table 2. 5,200 SOI toposheets of 1:50,000 scale; the forest Table 2 - Details of Satellite data procured from NRSA cover assessment exercise has become a huge 1. SFR-10th cycle task in terms of resources, man hours, and time. Resourcesat-1 IRS-P6 LISS III, Resolution 23.5m. However, shift from visual interpretation of Date No. of Scenes Rate satellite imagery in hard copy to the digital 25.04.05 45 20000 each interpretation of satellite data in soft copy has 25.05.06 01 20000 each made this possible. 09.08.05 21 20000 each 17.11.05 01 20000 each These days the satellite data for the forest Total Sheets 68 13,60,000 cover assessment is obtained in digital form from 2. High Resolution Data for Delhi area the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) – the Resourcesat-1 IRS-P6 LISS IV, MX, Multispectral. sole authorized Govt. agency in India to Date No. of Scenes Rate download and disseminate the satellite data. For 24.04.06 4 42,750 the tenth forest cover assessment, in the year 2005-06, 68 scenes of Resourcesat–1 (IRS-P6) LISS Total Sheets 4 42,750 III data of resolution 23.5 m x 23.5 m were Table 3 : Satellite Data for Forest Cover Assessments from 1987 to 2003 Assessment Data Period Sensor Data Form Spatial Spectral Scale of and Year Resolution Resolution Interpretation I 1987 1981-83 Landsat– MSS Hard Copy FCC 80 m 4 Bands 1:1million II 1989 1985-87 Landsat– TM Hard Copy FCC 30 m 7 Bands 1:250,000 III 1991 1987-89 Landsat– TM Hard Copy FCC 30 m 7 Bands 1:250,000 IV 1993 1989-91 Landsat– TM Hard Copy FCC 30 m 7 Bands 1:250,000 V 1995 1991-93 IRS-1B LISS II Hard Copy FCC & Digital* 36.25 m 4 Bands 1:250,000 VI 1997 1993-95 IRS-1B LISS II Hard Copy FCC & Digital* 36.25 m 4 Bands 1:250,000 VII 1999 1996-98 IRS-1C/1D LISS III Hard Copy FCC & Digital** 23.5 m 4 Bands 1:250,000 VIII 2001 2000 IRS-1C/1D LISS III Digital 23.5 m 4 Bands 1:50,000 IX 2003 2002 IRS-1D LISS III Digital 23.5 m 4 Bands 1:50,000 * Digital data used for two states ** Digital data used for 14 states Figure 3: Flow Chart Showing Methodology of Forest Cover Mapping The total forest cover of the country as per State of Forest Report 2003 is 678,333 km², which constitutes 20.64 percent of the geographic area of the country.