Forests to be conserved with ‘Bhuvan’ portal help

Pilot project is being implemented with National Remote Sensing Centre in Kothagudem to identify the dynamic

The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) and the Telangana State Forest Department (TSFD) are working jointly for the conservation of the forest. Their joint effort will lead to Bhuvan-based web portal services that would provide a framework for hosting a wide range of spatial data, satellite derived products and a suitable software environment to analyse satellite images, GIS tools and other modern technologies.

“Bhuvan” is the ISRO’s geo-visualisation portal

that enables interactive and online access to multi sensor, multi-platform content for natural resource management.

With the implementation of these technologies, a virtual GIS laboratory — Forest Geospatial Query System (ForestGSQS) would be made available to TSFD over public domain. Bhuvan services can be accessed through a range of computing

devices and also on mobile phones. The technology has the potential for vastly enhancing the management of natural resources with greater transparency and more effective planning and monitoring possibilities.

According to the MoU between NRSC and TSFD signed in June 2018, some applications and projects have to be developed initially. The applications include automated forest loss alert system, Forest Fire and Burned Area Information System, User-specific Geospatial Query System, Web and mobile GIS applications for forest management, etc.,