7 days ago
Forest school imparts training in use of geospatial tools
Guwahati: Assam Forest School in Jalukbari has enhanced forester training by incorporating contemporary geospatial tools for daily forest management, officials said on Sunday.
Geospatial technologies like GIS and
GPS
provide forest staff with accurate tools for planning, surveillance, and decision-making. According to experts, these tools assist in developing detailed forest coverage maps, monitoring wildlife movements, evaluating habitat change, and supporting evidence-based conservation.
A six-day thematic refresher training on open-source GIS software for forester-I was recently completed at the Assam Forest School, Jalukbari.
As many as 20 forester-I trainees and one junior assistant from across 20 forest divisions across the state participated in the programme.
The training commenced with Preeti Buragorhain, DCF in charge of conservator of forest, Dr Priyasha Saikia, DFO, Guwahati Social Forestry Division, and Dimpi Bora, director of Assam Forest School, Jalukbari, in attendance.
The programme aimed to enhance the technical proficiency of ground-level forest staff through practical training.
"Trainees were introduced to GPS and its applications in forestry and wildlife, GPS and mobile app-based data collection methods, the use of Google Earth Pro in mapping with relevant case studies, an overview of GIS data types and sources, digitisation of points, lines, and polygons in Google Earth Pro, and also included the fundamentals of map composition using QGIS software," a organiser said.
Aaranyak's resource persons conducted the six-day training sessions.
Forest officials highlighted GIS's vital role in their department. With forests facing threats from deforestation, encroachment, and climate change, precise monitoring and management have become crucial, they noted.
The closing ceremony was attended by chief guest Dibakar Deb, a silviculturist. Participants pledged to implement their new skills.
