Remote sensing and drone mapping are transforming forest protection at Udanti Sitanadi Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh, enabling faster detection of encroachments, monitoring of plantation drives, and improved response to rising forest fire incidents. A report by Deepanwita Gita Niyogi
A combination of remote sensing and drone mapping portals in the Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve of Chhattisgarh has given rise to multiple benefits in forest protection and management. The reserve, spread over 1842.54 square km, has a mixed deciduous forest dominated by Sal (Shorea robusta) trees. Udanti-Sitanadi reserve, which has 51 villages in the critical habitat area and 77 in the buffer, is an important corridor for tigers from Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district.
According to the reserve’s deputy director, Varun Jain, who has been posted here for three years, it is easy to inspect plantation sites and observe encroachments with the help of drones. Currently, three drones are in use. As Udanti-Sitanadi has many villages inside, encroachment on forest land remains a serious issue.
Plantation is an annual activity under CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority) and state government schemes. There are occasions when the field staff fails to dig all the required pits for plantation work. If there is a site on 50 hectares of land which needs 55,000 saplings, sometimes the pits created for the purpose fall short in number.
“The tiger reserve, which falls in Gariaband and Dhamtari districts of Chhattisgarh, is surveyed with grade drones. The drones are GPS (global positioning system) and DGPS enabled. The latter is an improved version of GPS. So, in this way, the machines can inspect the plantation work and improve transparency. These fly and collect over 50,000 images. The geo-tagged images are then processed and stitched together to form a single high-resolution image of an area,” Jain said.
In Udanti-Sitanadi, the forest department has removed encroachments. After this, comparative assessment was made on forest density over the years. It is easy to see changes in the forest layer as well as growth with the help of drones.
Apart from checking the status of plantation work and viewing the status of encroachments inside the forest, drones can also be used to view the extent of watershed development and the level of surface water availability. There is a dam called Sikasar on the reserve’s border. Its catchment area falls inside the reserve.
Use of technology
Apart from the drone portal specific to Udanti-Sitanadi, state-wide remote sensing is used to check the status of deforestation and canopy loss. Deforested areas are marked in red dots. Forest loss can be due to new settlements, fires, illegal felling and the use of land for agricultural purposes.
Jain explained that the portal indicates hotspot areas which need monitoring. “Without always moving, I can identify these hotspots. The portal can be used by the agriculture and the water resources departments also. It is difficult to patrol a vast area. So, drones and remote sensing save time and labour.”
Jain shared that it was he who developed the remote sensing portal for the state during his tenure in the information and technology cell of the forest department in 2021-22. The portal was upgraded in 2023 to include the tiger corridors of Maharashtra and Odisha with which Chhattisgarh shares a border. A total of 10 km of buffer area shared between these states have been included.
Forest management and fire control
When asked about drone usage in Uanti-Sitanadi, Benipuri Goswami admitted that a few people have received training in drone usage and they fly it at times. The social worker, who runs non-profit Khoj Evam Janjagriti Samiti based in Gariaband, feels that gram sabhas should be imparted training on drone operation. This will prove beneficial in the fire season which lasts from mid-February to almost June.
With a changing climate, forest fires are rising. According to data shared by Jain, there were about 450 fire incidents in 2024. This year, it has jumped to 900 already till March-April. The figure is high this year for the entire state. Last year in Chhattisgarh, there were about 14,000 fire points. This year it has crossed 18,000 till now. “The year 2025 is proving to be hotter. Temperatures soared right in February. Higher temperatures increase the risk of forest fires,” the officer added.
On his part, Goswami interacts with fire workers who are engaged in the creation of fire lines inside the forest to stop the spread of fires. Under community forest resource rights (CFRR) under the Forest Rights Act, communities are tasked with the prevention and mitigation of forest fires. The Act passed in 2006 allows tribals and forest dwellers rights over forest resources. “Though people have received about 3,200 hectares as CFRR, issues have cropped up pertaining to management. Sometimes, conflicts break out. Joint forest management committees which work with the department should be disbanded.”
From 2008 till 2013, Goswami worked on the distribution of individual forest rights under the Forest Rights Act in the tiger reserve. Now, he focuses on CFRR which involves protection and management of vast forested areas handed over to communities as a whole rather than to individuals.
From time to time, experimentation is carried out to control fires. As dry leaf piles easily catch fire, bamboo brooms were distributed by the forest department for their removal in 2022. Solar lamps and water filters were distributed to people who helped in fire prevention.
However, the partial hilly terrain of Udanti-Sitanadi aggravates the problem as fires spread fast. With so many fire incidents, Udanti-Sitanadi is undergoing change. As forest fires lead to land degradation and soil moisture loss, weeds come up. These reduce the extent of grass availability on which herbivores depend for survival.
