FSI stalls AI-based alerts on deforestation to States

The Forest Survey of India (FSI), which is responsible for the assessment and monitoring of the country’s forest cover, has not issued fortnightly alerts to States on deforestation activities since October last year, according to official data.

The last alert was issued in October 2025 and no data has been updated since then, according to the Anavaran-Deforestation Alert System portal.

Since January 2024, the portal has been functioning by combining satellite imagery and machine-learning techniques to help FSI detect changes in forest cover.

FSI is an organisation under the Ministry of Environment and Forests. It used to send location-specific alerts to State authorities every 15 days about areas where forest cover may have declined, allowing officials to conduct focused on-ground inspections in those locations.

Officials, when contacted, said the portal was being run as a pilot project and is currently being reviewed.

They, however, did not comment on whether it will be resumed after the review.

The FSI sent 12,351 alerts from the portal during the 22-month period from January 2024 to October 2025.