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February 2004 |
e-Governance practices in forest department
e-Governance in Forest Department
In the department the people are comfortable with the new technologies. Significant infrastructure has already been created and judicious mix of general and specific initiatives are taken up to enhance the e-Readiness of the department further and taking up specific projects such as preparation of district forest atlases, forest cover change analysis, development of customized software, providing internet kiosk to the village forest council (VFC).
The computers have been provided at all levels namely: state, circle, division and range levels. Thus it has reached the smallest unit of administration. Exhaustive training has been imparted to all the personnel handling computers. The training on Internet was conducted at NIC, Chennai
These steps have helped in reducing the digital divide. Rapid technology evolution and innovative applications of remote sensing, GIS and Internet have contributed to the benefit of forestry sector and the technology is gradually reaching large sections of the population.
Computerisation of the department
The assessment of requirement of the department was done by the panel of experts and subsequently the computers were purchased through Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT).
The computers have been provided at all levels namely: state, circle, division and range levels. Thus it has reached the smallest unit of administration. Exhaustive training has been imparted to all the personnel handling computers. The training on office automation and Internet was conducted at NIC (National Informatics Centre) at Chennai. E-mail facilities have been provided upto district level.
There has been significant increase in the use of e-mail for transmission of information within and outside the department. A full-fledged computer center has been established at headquarters at Chennai. A radio frequency link has been established between the main server of Forest Department and the server at NIC.
It is also catering to the needs of other departments in the building. All the officers at headquarters have been provided with the computer and all the computers here have been networked by Local Area Networking (LAN).
Thus steps were taken to ensure Internet affordability, strengthening information infrastructure and procurement of required hardware and software. This along with the e-Services and good infrastructure speaks of the preparedness of the department for e-Governance.
Human Resources Development
For the establishment of Geomatics centre the training was started even before the equipment were actually procured. Training was imparted in reputed institutions in The Netherlands and United Kingdom to the interested and willing persons. Inland trainings were also imparted in reputed institutions such as National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) etc. Pilot studies are being conducted in collaboration with NRSA as on-the-job training. To make full use of the modern technologies it should be exposed to all the field level officials of the department. Therefore training is going to be the regular feature in the department. The Geomatics center has also imparted preliminary training to field level officers.
Establishment of Geomatics Centre
A state-of-the-art Remote Sensing and GIS center was established after meticulous planning and after visiting and studying the facilities available in other institutions in Tamil Nadu and in other states as well. The NRSA was engaged as consultant. Exhaustive tour of the entire state along with the scientists of NRSA and assessment of workload of the department was done in consultation with the field officers. Based on the assessment of workload the requirement of disk space of the system was finalized. Thereafter the systems were procured through the ELCOT as per the implementation report of NRSA.
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