GIS introduced in forest management
Source: The Sangai Express / DIPR

Imphal, June 13 2016: Geographical Information System (GIS) has been used for forest management in the State.

Forest Department is one technical department to have a dedicated GIS Lab of its own.

Through the Lab, the Depart-ment had also helped User Agencies/State Govt Depart-ments like the Irrigation and Flood Control Department, Public Works Department, Public Health Engineering Department, Power, Tourism, Health, Police besides Border Roads Task Force, Army, Power Grid Corporation of India, Railways, etc in pre-paring the prescribed maps for project proposals attracting Section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 .

The Lab has the required software and hardware for digital image processing and data interpretation of satellite imageries.

The Geographical Information System (GIS) is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyse, manage, and present all types of spatial or geographical data.

In a general sense, the term describes any information system that integrates, stores, edits, analyses, shares and displays geographic information.

GIS applications are tools that allow users to create interactive queries (user-created sear-ches), analyse spatial infor- mation, edit data in maps, and present the results of all these operations.

GIS is a broad term that can refer to a number of different technologies, proces- ses, and methods.

It is attached to many operations and has many applications related to engineering, planning, management, transport/logistics, insurance, telecommunications, and business.

For that reason, GIS and location intelligence applications can be the foundation for many location-enabled services that rely on analysis and visualization.

GIS can relate unrelated information by using location as the key index variable.

All Earth-based spatial�temporal location and extent references should, ideally, be relatable to one another and ultimately to a "real" physical location or extent.

This key characteristic of GIS has begun to open new avenues of scientific inquiry.

Apart from using GIS, under the 13th Finance Commission (2010-11 to 2014-15) Award, the Forest Department has achieved final plantation/creation over an area of 36981 ha under different working circles, harvesting of 9720 cum of timber to meet the local demands, creation of 34 numbers of modern nurseries, agro-forestry-horti plantation over 2275 ha under jhum management working circle to help control of shifting cultivation.

Further subsidiary works under this Working Circle includes planting of cash crops, soil and moisture conservation works and entry point activities, establishment of modern departmental saw mill and Central Timber Depot at Sawombung (Imphal East district), composite office building (three storey) and a modern Tissue Culture Laboratory at Mantripukhri were constructed.

The State Forest Department has been striving relentlessly to achieve its goal of sustainable utilization and development of the State's natural resources.

The Department has been taking up several schemes and projects both under Centrally sponsored schemes and the state plan to meet the challenging tasks of afforestation, soil and water conservation, wildlife and biodiversity conservation, etc, while ensuring a rational and sustainable utilization of the State's natural resources.

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