MONITORING OF FOREST COVER IN INDIA

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Roderick Tucker
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1 MONITORING OF FOREST COVER IN INDIA Organizational Structure FSI (HQRS) DEHRADUN Regional Offices DEVENDRA PANDEY Director, Forest Survey of India, Dehradun GOFC-GOLD Symposium on Forest Land Cover Observations Jena, Germany, March 2006 North Zone Shimla East Zone Kolkatta Central Zone Nagpur South Zone Bangalore Forest Cover Assessment in India National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) of the Department of Space first attempted in 1983 using satellite data Simultaneously, Forest Survey of India (FSI) also started the assessment First report on the forest cover of India was published by the FSI in 1987 through State of Forest Report (SFR) FSI has been mandated to monitor the forest cover of the country on a two year cycle since then So far nine assessments have been done. The latest (9th) one was published as SFR 2003 in the year FOREST COVER ASSESSMENTS BY FSI A brief history Cycle Year of Assessment Satellite & Sensor Resolution Scale I II III IV V VI VII VIII LANDSAT MSS LANDSAT TM IRS-1B LISS-II IRS-1C LISS-III IRS-1C/1D LISS-III 80m x 80m 30m x 30m 36m x 36m 23m x 23m 23m x 23m 1:1million 1:250,000 1:50,000 IX 2003 IRS-1D, LISS-III 23m x 23m 1:50,000

2 Forest Cover Assessment METHODOLGY OF FOREST COVER MAPPING INPUTS Satellite data of the entire country from National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) IRS ID/IRS-P6 SOI Topographic sheets - 1: 50,000 METHODOLOGY Digital Interpretation/visual Ground Verification OUTPUTS Forest cover maps on 1:50,000 scale in digital or hard copy form showing following land-use classes: CATEGORY CANOPY DENSITY Very Dense Forest More than 70% canopy Moderately Dense Forest 40-70% Open Forest 10-40% Less than 10% in forest lands Mangroves Satellite Data NRSA (DOS) Toposheet (SOI) Interpretation (FSI) Ground Truthing (FSI) Classified Map FOREST COVER MAP OF INDIA AFGANISTAN CHINA Spatial Information on Forests with FSI PAKISTAN ARABIAN SEA NEPAL BHUTAN BANGLADESH BAY OF BENGAL ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS (INDIA) Forest Cover Maps Mangrove Cover Maps Thematic Maps Forest Type Maps Coral Reef Maps Forest Fire Maps Trees Outside Forests (TOF) Maps Very Dense Forest LAKSHADWEEP ISLANDS Dense Forest Open Forest Non Forest Water Bodies District Boundaries

3 Other Data Tree Cover Estimation Plantation Statistics Growing Stock Within forest area Outside forest area (TOF) Inventory of Herbs and Shrubs Estimation of Soil and Forest Carbon TREE COVER Tree cover includes all trees not included in forest cover. Comprises of small patches of tress (less than 1.0 ha) in plantations and woodlots, or scattered trees on farms, homesteads and urban areas or tree along linear features such as roads, canals, bunds etc. TREE COVER Methodology: Stratification of country into 14 Physiographic Zones. Sixty districts (10 % of total districts in the country) are randomly selected. High resolution satellite data used for identification of TOF in rural areas of district and stratification Urban Frame Survey Blocks as done NSSO is used for TOF in urban inventory.

4 2.5 x2.5 grid CLASSIFIED MAP Trees Outside Forest Map of Muktsar District Based on Digital Classification of fused data (IRS 1D LISS-III & PAN) BLOCK Punjab Ferozpur Faridkot LINEAR Legends Ferozpur Bhatinda SCATTERED Overall accuracy of classification = 92% FOREST AND TREE COVER IN INDIA Class Forest Cover a) VDF b) MDF c) Open Total Forest Cover Total Tree Cover Non-forest TotalGeographic area * included in the non-forest area Area (km²) 51, , , ,333 99, ,269 2,568,661 3,287,263 % of Geo. Area * ASSESSMENT OF GROWING STOCK, BIOMASS AND CARBON IN INDIA S FORESTS Study done under NATCOM (India s Initial National Communication to UNFCCC) Growing Stock Assessment for the Entire country Divided into Grids of 2½ x2½ Estimation of Biomass using Specific Gravity method ( done by FRI) Biomass State/UT wise Stratum wise Estimation by Ash Method (by FRI) 2.5 x 2.5' Map sheets Selection of Forested Grids Carbon 2.5 x2.5 Density Forest type/strata 2.½ x2.½ Volume Calculation of volume in the Grid Forest Non forest Forest Cover (km²) Growing Stock (million m³ ) Biomass (million tons) Carbon (million tons) Forest Cover Maps based on Satellite data Aerial Photograph, Stock maps, Inventory forms Location specific Inventory data ,359 4, , ,083.81

5 Forest Fire Maps FSI has recently taken initiative in near real time detection and monitoring of occurrence of forest fire. Presently FSI is using information based on MODIS satellite data on a daily basis. The fire locations downloaded are then overlaid on forest cover maps to rule out occurrence of fire outside forests. The geo coordinates of fire locations within forest cover along with ancillary information are communicated to the concerned SFD for verification and further action. Forest Fire Location Dense Forest Open Forest FIRE POINTS OVERLAID ON THE FOREST COVER MAP (As on ) THANK YOU!

FOREST COVER MAPPING AND GROWING STOCK ESTIMATION OF INDIA S FORESTS

FOREST COVER MAPPING AND GROWING STOCK ESTIMATION OF INDIA S FORESTS GOFC-GOLD Workshop On Reducing Emissions from Deforestations 17-19 April 2007 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia Devendra PANDEY Forest Survey of