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Forest vegetation maps of Western Ghats


Forest Inventory ( Stock Maps )
In any resource management, continuous flow and updation of information about the inventory is one of the most important components of management functions. In the present-day scenario, forest vegetation, which is a natural and renewable resource, is no more a static resource. Ever-increasing population in a land-scarce situation is putting the natural forests and the eco-system under increased pressure and threats, and needs to be dynamically managed for its sustainability and development.

Forest stock maps constitute the basis of Working Plan for the territorial Forest Divisions. They contain detailed spatial information on extent of recorded forest lands including the administrative jurisdiction at various levels, infrastructure and communications facilities, water resources and the status of forest vegetation. The last component include categorisation of forest into density classes, species distribution, assessment of growing stock, growth data for various species and age distribution. All these information are extremely vital in presenting the management options like afforestation of blank areas, reforestation of degraded forests, harvesting of mature crop (plantation) followed by regeneration, restoration of bio-diversity in monoculture areas, and management of Protected Areas for Bio-Diversity Conservation.

The conventional method of enumeration of the forest inventory by a handful of Working Plan staff is very uncertain, highly time consuming and somewhat unrealistic. By the time enumeration of the forest stock of one Division is completed and the Working Plan is prepared for the next 10 years or so, there may be a sea-change of reality on the ground and the forest Working Plan may have become non-implementable. The conventional method of preparation of stock maps cannot generate real-time information on forest inventories and is thus not at all useful for realistic planning.

Moreover, the forest stock maps are not geo-referenced and hence is not much useful even after digitisation of the individual mouza/block under computer-based GIS and hence are not fit for analysis under GIS.



Working Plan - A Detailed Structural Design




Components of Planning [ Fixation of objectives
[ Fixation of Goals
[ Deciding on strategies



Objects and contents of Working Plan :~

    1. Assess the present status of Forest land and Flora/Faunal Resources.
    2. Evaluate the past practices of management.
    3. Fix the overall goals and strategies
    4. Prescribe a control mechanism and control the deviations from the goals.

  2. Vol. I of W.P. - Contains general description of the resources and past management.
    Vol. II. of W.P. - Fixes the objectives of management, earmarks one working circle (zonation) for attaining each objective, prescribes strategies for each W.C. in the form of yield, treatment method etc. and prescribes the control forms.
    Vol. III of W.P. - Contains information on the forest inventory, i.e. growing stock, species composition, density classification, spatial description of forest land (surveyed maps) etc. the Stock Maps.


    Assessment of Forest Inventory [Survey of Forest land to detect changes
    [Enumeration of growing stock to assess flora resources


Comparative statement of conventional method and New Technology


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