Two weeks short course on “Remote Sensing and GIS Applications in Forestry and Ecology” was conducted by the Forestry and Ecology Division (FED), NESAC during December 02-13, 2024 at NESAC Outreach Facility. A total of 27 participants attended the course which included officials from Forest departments of NER, faculties from government institutes, professionals from private companies and research scholars. The inaugural programme started with the welcome address by Dr. Kasturi Chakraborty, Head, FED. An overview of the course was briefed by Smt. H. Suchitra Devi, Course Director followed by introduction of participants. Dr. B. K. Handique, Head, Programme Planning & Evaluation Group welcomed and addressed the participants on the importance of geospatial technology in various applications of forest ecosystem such as forest management, forest inventory etc. and utilization of the training in their professional career.
The course curriculum included fundamental concepts of remote sensing and GIS, GPS and hands-on training with remote sensing data and relevant software. The specific topics covered in the course were forest cover and density mapping, growing stock and biomass assessment, wildlife habitat evaluation, species distribution modelling, forest fire monitoring and burnt area assessment. A brief introduction to advance remote sensing applications such as UAV, hyperspectral and microwave remote sensing were imparted to the participants during the training. Shri Harish C Chaudhary, PCCF, Working Plan, Research & Training and District Council Affair, Forest and Environment Department, Govt. of Meghalaya was invited as a resource person to deliver a talk on“Forest Management using RS and GIS in Meghalaya”.
To provide practical exposure on familiarization of the satellite images and their real-world applications, a field visit to Sohra was conducted on December 7, 2024. Six mini projects (group-wise) were carried out by the participants. And the results of the projects were presented by the lead member of each group. The valedictory program on December 13, 2024, marked the successful conclusion of the course, with certificates distributed to the participants acknowledging their completion of the training. The programme was concluded with vote of thanks offered by Dr. Dhruval Bhavsar, Course Officer.