VOLUME 1, ISSUE 4 JANUARY, 2017 - APRIL, 2017

FROM THE DIRECTOR GENERAL’S PEN….

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

I am happy to welcome you to the fourth issue of the Newsletter of Forest Survey of India. The first four months of the year witnessed a spate of activities in FSI which are encapsulated in the following pages. We received Shri Siddhanta Das, Director General Forests and Special Secretary to the Government of India on our premises and showed him the facilities at FSI Headquarters. Shri Das expressed satisfaction over the evolution of FSI over the years. We expanded our collaboration with the Space Application Center, Ahmedabad in a joint venture aimed at utilization of SAR data. The officers and staff of FSI also demonstrated their skills at the 23rd All India Forest Sports Meet held in Hyderabad. Technology offers a powerful tool to come to grips with powerful forces of nature. Among the most powerful forces affecting forests are fires that frequently strike and cause incalculable damage before their advance is stopped. In trying to get control over the prediction and control of forest fires, the Forest Fire Alert System 2.0 represents a significant leap forward. We are trying to strengthen the system through close and active collaboration with State Forest Departments. The success of the venture will go a long way in addressing the threat to forests. Your suggestions are invited for further improvement of the Newsletter.

(Saibal Dasgupta)

Visit of Director General of Forests & Special Secretary, MOEF & CC to FSI, Dehradun

One Day Pre fire Season Meeting of State Nodal Officers at FSI Dehradun

FAO – TCP Workshop

Forest Cover Mapping

FSI – SAC Collaboration

Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) Meeting

Sri Lanka project

Visit Abroad

Republic Day Celebration

23rd All India Forest Sports Meet

Training Courses Visitors to FSI Promotion of Hindi News From Zones Repatriation/Retirement/ Joining

2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 6 6 6 7 9

Visit of Director General of Forests & Special Secretary, MOEF & CC to FSI, Dehradun Shri Siddhanta Das, Director General of Forests and Special Secretary to the Government of India visited FSI on 26th April, 2017. On this occasion, the Director General of Forests was warmly felicitated by Shri Saibal Dasgupta, Director General, FSI along with the officers and staff of the organization. During his discussion with the officers, Shri Das was apprised of the progress made in the implementation of key projects. Shri Das also inspected the labs and facilities at FSI. He expressed satisfaction at the evolution of FSI over the decades and exhorted the staff to rededicate themselves to achieve higher goals in tune with the needs of the forestry sector in India. One Day Pre fire Season Meeting of State Nodal Officers at FSI Dehradun A meeting of the nodal officers of various state Governments was carried out in Forest Survey of India on 23rd January, 2017 to review the preparedness for the Forest Fire Season starting in February. State nodal Officers of 20 states attended the meeting chaired by Shri Saibal Dasgupta, IFS, Director General, Forest Survey of India. Shri A.K.Mohanty, DIGF (Forest Protection Division), MoEF&CC represented the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in the meeting and sensitized the nodal officers on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science, Technology and Environment which recently reviewed the status of forest fire mitigation in the Western Himalayas. Sh.Mukul Trivedi, Joint Director, FSI

delivered the welcome address. The launch of Forest Fire Alert System version 2.0 was done.

Salient features of Forest Fire Alert System 2.0 Improved Resolution of Alerts: Inclusion of Forest Fire Alerts from SNPP-VIIRS Sensor with higher resolution of 375 m X 375 m along with MODIS sensor which has a resolution of 1km X 1km. Customized Alerts: SMS and email alerts are provided as per requirement of users even up to beat level in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Punjab, Tripura, Tamilnadu,

Odisha, Uttarakhand and up to Range level in Kerala, Meghalaya, and Chhattisgarh. In case of all other States and UTs, alerts upto district level only are provided in the absence of Administration Boundary details. Improved users experience: Users now have the option of registering their details, modifying as well as deleting their profiles from the Forest Survey of India Website. Also users receive all alerts on their email in

Director General, FSI welcoming Shri A.K.Mohanty, DIGF (FP Division), MoEF&CC

addition to SMS alerts. Feedback link is included in all alerts to enable users to provide feedback in a timely manner.

State-wise issues were discussed with the nodal officers to sort out pending issues. All nodal officers were requested to provide the latest Administrative and Recorded Forest Area boundary information for

incorporating in the new system. During the meeting, it was decided that the nodal officers would meet once again at the end of the fire season for a review and decide the course of action for the next year.

Joint Director, TFI, Sh.RS Gill proposed the vote of thanks.

FAO – TCP Workshop FSI has initiated a Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) for Strengthening National Forest Inventory and Monitoring Protocols and Capacities in India with the technical assistance of FAO. The main objectives of the project would be to develop and set up a new integrated National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS), to build national capacities on forest monitoring and to pilot test implementation in selected states. It also includes linkage of NFMS with working plan, integration of RS/GIS with inventory and laying out permanent sample plots etc. FSI conducted a workshop on 2nd March, 2017 at Bengaluru with an objective to prepare a road map for developing forest monitoring system at the state level.

During the workshop, FSI gave a general presentation on framework of TCP and how to carry forward in the selected pilot states. An example of a district from Karnataka, which has been inventoried twice by FSI under its National Inventory Programme, was demonstrated to explain how the National Forest Monitoring System can help in programme planning and development of an efficient NFMS at the State level. In addition, Nodal officers from six pilot states of TCP project gave presentations about status of Forest monitoring system in their states, list of variables of interest etc. It was decided that all Nodal Officers will select a district in their respective state in consultation with FSI and pilot test the project.

Forest Cover Mapping The FCM 15th cycle work progressed as per the scheduled timeline during this period. The work of ground truthing for the entire country was completed by the field parties. An extensive cross checking of selected sheet was carried out to improve accuracy.

The change maps were generated for all the states, as per the parameters decided and were sent to State/UT Forest Departments for validation at their end.

FSI – SAC Collaboration An MoU was signed between Forest Survey of India and Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad for utilization of SAR data for vegetation characterization and retrieval of above ground biomass of Indian

Forests in October, 2016. The work on this MoU started during this period after finalization of work plan. The inventory data for 4 districts was sent to SAC to initiate the collaborative programme.

Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) Meeting The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India constituted the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the Forest Survey of India (FSI) in November, 2006. The committee has been re-constituted in August 2016 under the Chairmanship of Director General Forest & Special Secretary (DGF&SS), MoEF & CC, Govt of India. The TAC has been constituted to regularly review the technical activities of FSI and providing necessary guidance on the methodology followed by

FSI in various activities. The 7th meeting of the TAC of FSI was held 20th March, 2017 at MoEF & CC Delhi. During the meeting, the members of TAC were apprised about the recent initiatives taken by FSI in the field of remote sensing, inventory, use of very high resolution satellite data, e-Green watch, DSS and other projects related activities. The members appreciated the works done by FSI.

Sri Lanka project Forest Survey of India has signed a LoA with FAO Sri Lanka for designing and developing a National Forest Inventory (NFI) system for Sri Lanka. Under this project, FSI has to prepare a sampling design for carrying out inventory in Sri Lanka, designing of field forms, field manual, conducting field training, developing data entry and data processing module and conducting data processing training for staff of Sri Lanka Forest Department. The project was started in April, 2016 and expected to be completed in the first half of the year 2017. The sampling design for the NFI

of Sri Lanka has been prepared. In addition, field forms and field manual has also been prepared. The requisite sample points have also been generated for the entire country. FSI conducted a one week training programme for officers of Sri Lanka Forest Department on “Data Processing of NFI data” at Forest Survey of India during 26-30 December, 2016. Total 15 officers were trained on different aspects of data processing.

Visit Abroad Shri Prakash Lakhchaura attended a two days

workshop on “South-South Learning: The FRL Assessment Process in Asia and the Pacific" held at Pokhara, Nepal, during 10-12 April 2017 along with Shri Noyal Thomas, DIG (FP), MoEF & CC and Dr. R.S. Rawat, Scientist ‘C’ , ICFRE, Dehradun.

The workshop was organized by ICIMOD, Nepal. Total 11 countries participated in the workshop, namely; Bangadesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. In addition,

Resource Persons from ICIMOD, GIZ and FAO also participated in the workshop

The main objectives of the workshop were to provide information on international guidance on designing and constructing REDD+ FRLs (focusing on guidance from the UNFCCC), to exchange information on country approaches to FRL development and design, to discuss and explore possible approaches to resolve technical FRL issues encountered by countries and to discuss emerging lessons from the FRL assessment process under the UNFCCC.

Dr. S.S. Negi, Ex-DGF & Spl. Sec., MoEF&CC chairing the meeting of Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of FSI

Shri Saibal Dasgupta, DG, FSI hoisting the national flag on the

occasion of Republic Day

Shri Ashutosh, Regional Director, South Zone, Bengaluru and Shri Ajaya Kumar Naik, Regional Director, Eastern Zone, Kolkata visited Sri Lanka from 24th–28th April, 2017 under the NFI Project of

Sri Lanka. The officers from FSI checked the plots laid down by Sri Lanka Forest Department under the Project.

Republic Day Celebration Speaking on the auspicious occasion, Director General, FSI extended his heartiest greetings and good wishes to all the officers and staff of FSI. He appreciated the efforts of all for building a developed digital India.

This year, on the occasion of the 68th Republic Day on 26th January, 2017, the following employees of Forest Survey of India were awarded with cash prize and certificate by the Director General, FSI, for their excellent work.

1. Shri Rajesh Kumar, Junior Technical Assistant, Forest Survey of India, North Zone, Shimla

2. Shri Bidyut Nayak, Deputy Ranger, Forest Survey of India, South Zone, Bengaluru.

3. Shri Annant Kakade, Fieldman, Forest Survey of India, Central Zone, Nagpur.

4. Shri Anil Kumar, Junior Hindi Translator, Forest Survey of India, Eastern Zone, Kolkata.

5. Km. Geeta, Junior Hindi Translator, Forest Survey of India, Dehradun. 6. Shri Manoj Uniyal, Project Scientist, Forest Survey of India, Dehradun. 7. Smt. Soma Chakraborty, Senior Technical Associate, Forest Survey of

India, Dehradun.

23rd All India Forest Sports Meet This year, 23rd All India Forest Sports Meet was held in Hyderabad from 7th January, 2017 to 11th January, 2017.

A team of 27 participants including four officers from Forest Survey of India, participated in various events.

Shri Vipin Rao, Senior Technical Associate and Shri Imtijongshi won the bronze medal in the table tennis.

A cricket team of this institute, led by Shri E. Vikram, IFS also participated and won over Jharkhand team by 32 runs in the first round of the competition.

Cricket Team of Forest Survey of India participating in AIFSM Shri Vipin Rao, Sr. Technical Associate and Shri Imtijongshi winners of the bronze medal in the table tennis

Director General, FSI distributing awards to the officials of FSI for their excellence in work

Training Courses

FSI imparts trainings to forestry personnel working at various levels in State Forest Departments to sensitize them with the latest advancements in application of Remote Sensing & GIS for preparation of Working Plans, GPS Applications in Forest Survey and Demarcation, Application of GIS in Forest Resource Management etc. The following courses were conducted during the period January, 2017 – April, 2017.

Theme Duration Participants No Level

Application of Remote Sensing/GIS in Preparation of Working Plan

16.01.2017 to 20.01.2017 12 WPO/ACF/RFO

GPS/DGPS in Forest Surveys & Demarcation 06.02.2017 to 10.02.2017 13 DCF/ACF/RFO/ Forest Surveyors

Forest Fire Monitoring & Damage Assessment 23.02.2017 to 24.02.2017 23 IFS Officers Visitors to FSI The activities of the organisation have always generated interest among foresters, scientists, academicians etc. It invariably figures in the itinerary of professional foresters visiting Dehradun. Scientists, researchers and students of forestry have always been among the regular visitors. Such visits have always been mutually rewarding. A list of groups who visited FSI during this period is given below:

Sl. No. Name of organization No. of participants Dates 1. PG &M.Tech Students Class From IIRS 10 10.01.2017 2. SFS Officers Trainees from CASFOS Dehradun 45 11.01.2017 3. BSC Forestry Students from Agriculture University Ranchi 19 12.01.2017 4. CASFOS Dehradun 23 06.02.2017 5. Forest Guard Trainees from F.T.I. Sunder Nagar, Himachal Pradesh 46 06.02.2017 6. SHUATS, Allahabad 38 27.02.2017 7. Range Officers Class from Karnataka SFD’s 51 27.02.2017 8. Range Officers Class from CASFOS Dehradun 25 28.02.2017 9. Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture & Forestry Nauni Solan 50 16.03.2017

10. Students Visit from COF SHUATS Allahabad 37 27.03.2017 11. FTFP Group from FRI 12 11.04.2017 12. RFO’s Trainees from Kundal Academy 40 12.04.2017

Promotion of Hindi

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Participants of Two Days Training programme for IFS officer’s on Forest Fire Monitoring & Damage Assessment

NEWS FROM ZONES

Central Zone, Nagpur Forest & TOF Inventory based on New NFI Design Regular field work as per new NFI design continued in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. By 31st March, 2017, field work pertaining to 138 FI, 396 TOF (R) and 16 TOF(U) Grids in Maharashtra & Goa States, 164 FI, 129 TOF(R) and 13 TOF(U) Grids in Chhattisgarh, 380 FI, 456 TOF(R) and 13 TOF(U) Grids in Madhya Pradesh and 179 FI, 376 TOF(R) Grids in Gujarat, DNH & DD (UTs) have been tackled. Cummulative total of FI, TOF (Rural) and TOF (Urban) Grids tackled so far during this period is 861, 1357 and 42 respectively.

Forest Cover Mapping Work of forest cover mapping of five states allotted to this zone has been completed as per the schedule. Till now, forest cover mapping of 43 Toposheets of

Maharashtra, 25 toposheets of Chhattisgarh, 44 toposheets of Madhya Pradesh, 30 toposheets of Gujarat and 3 toposheets of Goa States has been completed. As such, work of 145 toposheets pertaining to all the five states has been completed along with ground truthing. Preparation of change maps is in progress and the same would be completed by the month end.

RD Meeting Regional Director, Southern Zone, FSI, Bengaluru participated in the meeting of all the Regional Director convened by the Director General, FSI at Dehradun on 17th March, 2017 to discuss various issues relating to budgetary allocation for the current financial year 2016-17, field work under new NFI design and progress of FCM work.

Southern Zone, Bengaluru Visit of Director General, FSI to South Zone, Bengaluru Shri Saibal Dasgupta, IFS, Director General, FSI inspected the ongoing field inventory work done by FSI, Bengaluru in the state of Telangana on 9th & 11th January, 2017. He also inspected the ground truthing of FCM works of Karnataka State on 13th Janaury, 2017.

DG, FSI also inspected the office of the Regional Director, FSI, South Zone, Bengaluru on 12th January, 2017, reviewed the progress of works and had a discussion with the officers of this office. In the afternoon session, DG, FSI had discussion with Dr. K.S. Shashidhar, IFS (Retd.) & Consultant, FAO and Smt. Meenakshi Negi, IFS, APCCF (WP), Karnataka Forest Department regarding the FAO project.

Forest Cover Mapping Rectification, classification and post field editing of satellite imageries of Karnataka, Tamilnadu & Lakshadweep for the 15th cycle were completed by the end of March, 2017 and the data was sent to the headquarter for consistency checking. The same has been completed and effecting corrections are in progress. Forest & TOF Inventory based on New NFI Design Till 30th April, 2017, FSI, SZ has completed FI and TOF (Rural) as per new NFI design in the states of

Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The inventory of TOF (Urban) in these states and field work in Kerala is in progress. Hindi Hindi Workshop was organized in this office on 27th February, 2017, Shri M.M. Bhandekar, AD, CTB, Bangalore delivered guest lecture on OLIC implementation. Shri Vinod M. Lambodhari, UDC of this office attended Vishwa Hindi Diwas at ISRO, Bengaluru on 10th January, 2017.

Eastern Zone, Kolkata

Geomatics Unit FSI, Eastern Zone, Kolkata has completed the interpretation of Remote sensing data for the 15th cycle pertaining to the states West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Meghalaya and Sikkim. Ground truth verification of all the states with the collaboration of SFD's have been completed. Ground checking was done by the team deputed from Geomatics Lab, FSI(E.Z) and supervised by Regional Director. Quality checking work was attended by Shri Subrata Majumder, Shri Anupam Ghosh, Smt. Debangana Basu and Shri Tapan Dhar at Dehradun from 3rd – 10th April, 2017. Visit of Director General, FSI to Eastern Zone, Kolkata (6th–11th April, 2017) 1. Assam (06th to 08th April, 2017): (a) Interaction with senior officers from Assam Forest Department on the major activities of FSI and future collaboration on the need of the state including inventory.

(b) Inspection of premises for accommodation of sub regional office of Eastern Zone at Guwahati in the campus of CASFOS, Burnihat.

2. West Bengal (09th April, 2017) - Ground checking of 15th cycle of Forest Cover Mapping in Baikunthapur Forest Division. 3. Sikkim 10th April, 2017) - Interaction with Sikkim State Forest Department on major activities of Forest Survey of India. Inventory & Data Entry 1. FSI, Eastern Zone has completed the data entry for soil and forest floor for the entire inventory works of 2015-16 and sent the finalized data to the Headquarter. 2. The Forest and TOF (Rural & Urban) inventory work under new NFI design is under progress in the States of West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura, Jharkhand and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

3. The data entry of Forest and TOF (Rural & Urban) inventory data under new NFI design has been started for the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Odisha, using the new online based NFI data entry software. Promotion of Hindi bl dk;kZy; esa] jktHkk"kk dk;ZkUo;u lfefr dh cSBd fnuakd 31 ekpZ] 2017 dks vk;ksftr dh xbZA cSBd esa fganh ds izxkeh iz;ksx ls lacaf/kr fo’k; ij foLrkj iwoZd ppkZ ,oa leh{kk dh xbZ rFkk fganh ds i=kpkj dks c<+kus ij cy fn;k x;k A

Change area visit by Director General, FSI; with SFD’s staff of Baikunthapur Forest

Division, West Bengal.

Northern Zone, Shimla

Forest & TOF Inventory based on New NFI Design Forest Inventory during the period under report has been carried out in U.P., H.P., U.K.,Rajasthan, J & K and Delhi. The data entry pertaining to 3 inventoried districts New Delhi, North West Delhi and Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh) has been completed during the period under report. The complete data pertaining to target year 2015-16 along with soil and forest floor results has been sent to Headquarter. The data of 50 grids pertaining to Punjab State has been entered in trial version of new NFI software. Digital Interpretation Unit/Forest Cover Mapping Classification and Ground truthing work of Forest Cover Mapping of 15th cycle in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Chandigarh carried out. Real changes have been incorporated in classification work and change maps prepared. Training (a) The training on Forest Resource Assessment and

use of GPS in Forestry was imparted to 21

personnels of Himachal Pradesh Forest Department at Forest Training Institute, Chail from 27th–28th March, 2017.

(b) Zonal Office, Shimla has organized Interactive session/workshop for all the technical staff on 5th–6th April, 2017 and 10th–11th April, 17 on Forest Inventory and use of GPS in Forestry at FSI North Zone Office.

Repatriation/Retirement/ Joining

1. Shri D.V. Sangolkar, Data Processing Assistant ‘A’ was promoted to the post of Data Processing Assistant ‘B’ w.e.f 27th January, 2017.

2. Shri Uttam Kumar Dutta, Data Entry Operator (A), FSI, EZ, Kolkata retired on superannuation from Govt. service on 31st January, 2017.

3. Shri Anubhav Kumar Singh, Fieldman has joined FSI, EZ, Kolkata on 15th March, 2017 (FN) 4. Shri Ramesh Chand, Superintendent, FSI, HQ retired on superannuation from Govt. service on 31st

March, 2017 5. Shri Virender Singh Negi, Senior Technical Assistant, FSI, HQ retired on superannuation from Govt.

service on 31st March, 2017 6. Shri Abhishek Kumar, Fieldman has joined FSI, EZ, Kolkata on 31st March, 2017 (FN). 7. Sh. Shiv Kumar Jhinghta, Senior Technical Assistant (Asstt. Director I/C), FSI, NZ, Shimla retired on

superannuation from Govt. Service on 31st March, 2017. 8. Sh. Sher Singh, Deputy Ranger, FSI, NZ, Shimla retired on superannuation from Govt. Service on 31st

March, 2017. 9. Shri Josimuddin Ahamad, Fieldman joined FSI, EZ, Kolkata on 17th April, 2017 (FN). 10. Shri Suvikram joined as Data Processing Assistant ‘A’ at FSI, Headquarters, Dehradun on 24th April, 2017.

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EDITORIAL BOARD Sh. Saibal Dasgupta, Director General

Sh. R.S. Gill, JD (TFI) Smt. Pratima Saini, Steno Gr-I,

Smt. Sushila Tripathi, PS, Smt. Madhu Negi, PS

Sh. Arun Kr. Thakur, PS, Smt. Soma Chakraborty, TA/SRF Km. Abhilasha Ramola, TA/SRF

EDITOR Sh. R.S. Gill, Joint Director (TFI)

Address: FSI, Kaulagarh Road, KDMIPE, Dehradun-248195

Phone: (0135) 2754507, Fax: (0135) 2759104 E.mail : jdtfi@fsi.nic.in

“FSI is one organisation that has made the Forest Departments of the country proud as we have been able to tell the whole nation about our contribution towards protection and management of

forests. I was quite impressed by the enthusiasm of the DG and his team. They have been rectifying the problems in the forest area and bringing it to the notice of the forest manager without

any loss of time. I hope in near future, FSI will also prepare biennial maps on carbon stock, moisture regime and qualitative improvement. I wish all the best to the DG and his team.”

Sh. Siddhanta Das Director General Forests & Special Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change