The State forest department's move to start real-time mapping of rainfall through the Automatic Weather Stations set up across five wildlife sanctuaries is a belated and minor step towards protecting the flora and fauna of forests and protecting the environment. The question is how far this initiative can help in protecting forests. Automated Weather Stations are small units that help measure wind speeds and directions, air temperature, and relative humidity and even record the quantum of rainfall and soil moisture.
The recent forest fires may have forced the thought of introducing Automated Weather Stations, but the need of the hour is to look beyond weather stations and focus on monitoring and specialised quick-response disaster management systems. Furthermore, AWS is not good enough to alert the forest department of tragedies like those witnessed recently.
AWSs may be new to Goa, but Maharashtra installed around 2,000 such systems in various parts of the State in 2017 for their farming community, to disseminate location-specific agricultural advisories based on data gathered, besides providing inputs for disaster management.
Monitoring climate is crucial from Goa's perspective because a recent assessment by the Forest Survey of India has stressed that climate change will adversely impact Goa's forest and tree cover by 2030. While infrastructural development is taking its toll on Goa's greenery, data shows that India has lost over 1.6 million hectares of forest cover between 2001 and 2018.
However, along with the AWSs, there is a pressing need to adopt a comprehensive monitoring framework to keep a vigil over the State's crucial ecosystems. In 2022, researchers developed a deep learning algorithm to get real-time periodic land use data. Better forest monitoring systems are needed so that States have complete control over these inaccessible terrains. The Bihar government has tied up with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for a low-cost forest monitoring tool that uses satellite images and geo-analytics for better forest scanning, planning and management that help in speedy forestry interventions.
The recent forest fires have thrown open the issue of forest monitoring even as the authorities are still grappling with the probe report nearly 50 days after a series of fires set off a panic. Where is the report, and why is it still not out? The people of Goa are yet to understand the cause of the fires even as the political leadership and the forest minister maintained 'human' involvement in the incidents.
Irrespective of the reasoning, Goa has been losing its forest cover, thick and fast. According to data by Global Forest Watch, Goa had lost 28.4 hectares of its tree cover by 2021. Developers and real-estate companies have been trying to cut into forests, and the many hill-cutting cases that have been in focus lately are testimony to the change that the State is witnessing.
The forest fires may have been doused, but the flames of insecurity over greenery are still burning. The government must introduce time-tested systems to monitor forests and wildlife on a real-time basis before these invaluable assets slip out of hands.
