e-Governance for Forest monitoring in India
Forests play an important part in any country’s social, cultural, historical, economic, and industrial development, as well as in maintaining its ecological balance. Forests meet the demands of a diverse range of people. The premium on forests can be explained by identifying them as primary producers and defenders of a variety of natural resources. They share characteristics with many other resource systems, such as agriculture, animal husbandry, watershed, biodiversity, and energy, making sustainable, efficient, and fair governance problematic. Forests supply us with a diverse range of goods and ecological functions. They are an abundant source of biodiversity. A vast number of underprivileged people who live in and around forest areas rely substantially on these woods for a living. We must maintain a healthy forest cover in terms of both size and quality, and we must use it in a sustainable manner. Forests give numerous benefits to a wide range of people. If not effectively managed, the variety of users can lead to conflict and resource depletion. The term forest governance was established to encompass the concept of democracy as well as the participation of non-state actors in decision-making surrounding the allocation and use of scarce forest resources. .
The Forest Survey of India (FSI) is a government of India institution that is under the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Its primary mission is to conduct surveys and assessments of the country’s forest resources. It began in 1965 as an FAO/UNDP/GOI project named the Pre-Investment Survey of Forest Resources (PISFR). PISFR’s activities were expanded in response to growing information needs, and it was renamed Forest Survey of India in 1981. PISFR’s major goal was to determine the availability of raw materials for the establishment of wood-based industries in specific locations of the country. The National Commission on Agriculture (NCA) suggested in its 1976 report the establishment of a National Forest Survey Organization to conduct a regular, periodic, and thorough survey of the country’s forest resources, which led to the establishment of FSI. Following a critical examination of FSI’s activities, the Government of India amended its mandate in 1986 to make it more relevant to the country’s fast changing needs and ambitions. ”e-Green Watch” is a key e-governance effort of the FSI, India .
The e-Green Watch is a user-friendly web-based tool that is transparent, dependable, and accountable. It is an integrated e-governance platform that enables the detection of temporal changes for effective online monitoring and evaluation of respective States’ Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) forestry sector activity. It is a comprehensive strategy to facilitate the automation of various management procedures associated with the utilization of CAMPA and other money supplied by states under various centrally sponsored schemes for plantation and other forestry-related works. The application can display the categories of Compensatory Afforestation, Diverted Land, Plantations, Other Plantations, and Assets on Google Earth images and the FSI portal. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim, and Tripura were chosen as pilot states for the initiative. Currently, 27 states/UTs are affiliated to the e-Green Watch portal. The approach for systematic monitoring of ongoing plantations is urgently needed for financial accountability and the adequate success of plantations and other projects on the ground. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) conceived and developed the e-Green Watch portal, and it is actively involved in the creation, maintenance, and upgrading of the portal’s technologies. FSI is analyzing and monitoring polygons uploaded by SFDs/UTs to the e-green watch site and downloaded in kml (Keyhole Markup Language) format. This particular system fits under G2G, G2C and G2E models of e-governance due to the sharing of information between government departments, upload of data by the employees for the information of the public. The e-green watch technique includes the following points (Figure 2):