Drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) will soon fly over Delhi’s forest cover to assess encroachment and secure the Ridge area. A project to this effect will soon be launched by the Forest Department of the Delhi Government.
Further, the Government will have to take a no objection certificate from the Ministry of Defence and Director General Civil Aviation (DGCA). Drones are battery-operated machines which glide silently through the air and monitor the forest cover.
Flying at a speed of 40 kilometre per hour, the drones can be used for around 40-50 minutes, brought back to their base station, recharged, and then sent back on sorties several times during a day.
Per unit will cost the Government an estimated `3,00,000 and `6,00,000. The Delhi Police recently used a camera-fitted drone to keep an eye on rioters and anti-social elements in the riot-hit Trilokpuri area. The drone helped in revealing a part of the anatomy of the riot — deadly weapons, ranging from cleavers to kirpan-type swords to heaps of bottles and knives of all sizes and sorts stacked on rooftops.
“We will soon procure two to three drones to have realistic data on the extent of forest land, encroachment or threat to boundaries of reserved or protected forests. With this, we will move on to the second generation technology for monitoring and surveillance of wildlife,” said Sanjiv Kumar, Secretary, Environment and Forest.
“The department has digitised and uploaded the forest area maps in our possession. These maps have been provided to Revenue Department for authentication,” informed Kumar. The Department will also hold discussions with the Wildlife Institute of India and the Madhya Pradesh Government to implement the same across their regions.
The growth of forest and tree cover of Delhi increased from 22 square kilometre in 1993 to 287.81 square kilometre in 2013. The percentage of forest and trees cover area to the total area of Delhi has increased manifold from mere level of 1.48 per cent in 1993 to 20.8 per cent in 2013.
last month, the National Green Tribunal had directed the city administration and the departments concerned to raze all encroachment and unauthorised constructions in forest land in the Neb Sarai area in Delhi.
According to Forest Department officials, there have been several encroachments in forest areas of Delhi, especially in the Ridge area. “These encroachments come to light only by visual interpretation of satellite imageries. Almost 40 per cent of Delhi total forest area is encroached and needs to be regularised,” said the official. The Forest Department till now through its Special Task Force has digitized and geo referenced 21 villages in Southern Ridge as per the 1994 and 1996 notification with the application of GIS technology to consolidate the forest areas in Delhi.
According to officials, the department is facing a serious problem of lack of field functionaries to check the encroachment in forest land, inspection of plantation and sites proposed for tree felling. The forest department is also planning to hire 225 civil defence personnel to strengthen the forest protection mechanism.