Dehradun, 9 Oct: Uttarakhand government has initiated a major exercise to digitally demarcate the boundaries of Corbett and Rajaji Tiger Reserves using advanced GIS technology. The move aims to resolve long-standing disputes over forest limits, prevent encroachments, and bring greater transparency to land records.
It may be noted here that both the national parks are located near each other and at certain places, there is confusion regarding the boundaries of the parks. The GIS technology-based demarcation project is to executed by ITI Limited under the supervision of the Forest Department. The Forest Department feels that this project will serve as a pilot project for digitising boundaries of all forest areas across the state in later phases. Once completed, the exercise will be extended to all forest areas in the state.
The Project has been titled, “Precise Survey of Identified Boundary and Creation and Maintenance of an Enterprise Class Web/Cloud GIS Based Forest Land Decision Support System”, and it has been entrusted to the Central agency (ITI Ltd) through nomination by the Government of India. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF and HoFF) Sameer Sinha has in this respect written a letter addressed to the General Manager of ITI, where he has stated that the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) have already been approved and work is underway, with a demand to hasten the submission of both the Preliminary Project Report (PPR) and Detailed Project Report (DPR). The PPR is expected within 15 days, which needs to include both technical and financial components in line with existing guidelines. Sinha has also stressed on a strict adherence to the SOPs at every stage to ensure survey accuracy and robust data management.
The primary objective is to define forest boundaries with satellite-based precision, curb encroachments and legal disputes, and usher forest records into a digital domain via a GIS-based decision support system. Once the state’s forest land is fully mapped, Uttarakhand will join an exclusive club of states where the entire forest record is publicly available on a GIS web portal, boosting the transparency and technical efficiency. According to the forest officials, the timing of this project is crucial for Corbett and Rajaji reserves are already nearing saturation, forcing tigers into fringe areas and raising risks of human-wildlife conflicts. Keeping the high population of tigers in Corbett in mind, the state has also planned to relocate five more tigers from Corbett to western Rajaji to relieve pressure on overpopulated areas.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated issue, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has ordered a probe into the disappearance of 7,375 forest boundary pillars in the Mussoorie forest division, which had allegedly disappeared or been made to disappear, allegedly in collusion with the forest officials so that forest land could be encroached. This particular case also points towards the urgency and fragility of demarcation efforts. In this context, the GIS mapping project may not only strengthen enforcement but also help settle long-standing disputes over forest land boundaries and serve as an anchor for wider ecological security in Uttarakhand.
