October 01, 2018: Boosting State Government’s initiatives against Ganja and wood smuggling, ISRO will extend help in monitoring the situation. The State Forest department is set to ink a ‘MoU’ with ISRO soon. Chief Forest Conservator Alinda Rastogi said this in Agartala today. He said, a delegation of ISRO called on Chief Minister Biplab Deb today at Civil Secretariat. ISRO delegation held talks on improvement in forestation in the State. “Moreover, ISRO will also extend assistance in monitoring wood smuggling, random tree felling and ganja cultivation through satellite”, Rastogi said.
In the wake of State Government’s all out drive against ganja cultivation, ISRO’s help will add more teeth in operations to end ganja menace in the State. In most of the cases, ganja is being cultivated in areas full of jungles making it difficult to identify and destroy the ganja saplings.
ISRO’s monitoring through satellite will also help the Forest officials in curbing tree felling and wood smuggling. “With timber smugglers reportedly active in various forest areas, State is losing valuable trees like Segun etc in large quantity every year. Of course, random tree felling is another major issue. ISRO’s satellite monitoring system will help forest personnel in identifying areas where smugglers are active”, sources said.
Informed sources said, MoU with ISRO relating to forestation will assist State in cornering smugglers in a big way – Satellite monitoring system will provide vital information to agencies involved in dealing with wood smuggling.
Scientist and Group director of ISRO Dr CS Jha, director of RCS Shantanu Choudhury, chief forest conservator of State Alinda Rastogi and CEO of JICA Angshuman Dey were held discussion with Chief Minister Biplab Deb.
