Summary of Important Reports

FSI strived to keep pace with technological advancements to meet the information needs of the forestry sector. New technology and advanced methodology have led to more accurate findings. Some of the new initiatives are given below:

• Trees Outside Forest Resources in India
  • A new methodology has been developed to estimate the TOF resources and the extent of the TOF area in the country. Moreover, the potential annual yield from timber from TOF has also been assessed.
  • This study provides an optimum sample size for different districts of the country for conducting inventories to estimate the growing stock. This will be of immense use to the State Forest Department, especially in the preparation of the Working Plan.
  • A new index called Grid Vegetation Change Index (GVCI) has been used to detect changes in the forests through a rapid, grid-based approach for operational use. GVCI helps in detecting a change in vegetation over an area of interest between the two time periods.
  • Since 2004, FSI has been monitoring forest fires using remote sensing techniques and has been issuing forest fire alerts to State Forest Departments.
  • Assessment of the fire-affected areas provides an estimate while planning for eco-restoration activities by the states.
  • Since fire burnt forest areas show the conspicuous signature on the satellite images, a cost-effective and time-efficient methodology has been developed for the rapid assessment of forest areas affected by the fire.