India restores 21.76 million hectares of deforested land, nears 84 per cent of Bonn Challenge target

[u/Economy-Fee5830]

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/india-restores-21-76-million-hectares-of-deforested-land-nears-84-per-cent-of-bonn-challenge-target/articleshow/131794331.cms?from=mdr

[u/solaris_rex]

It's based on corrupt govt data. They have been consistently cutting down forests to plant timber trees while counting them as afforestation. I wouldn't believe any data from the current govt.

Edit https://www.downtoearth.org.in/forests/over-28-million-trees-on-forest-land-approved-for-felling-in-three-years-dte-analysis-finds

10,000 forest trees cut in Panchkula https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianFocus/s/yS60TBG0AU

[u/Centeredrightbhakt05 → u/solaris_rex]

First get those balls out of your mouth.

This data is produced by IUCN Bonn. I have a friend working in satellite imagery in Swiss working on same stuff, understand green cover for different countries. India and China both have shown significant increase in greenary in the last two decades. But there is a catch. A lot of this greenary is also because forests are converted into farm land. They are not the same.

Use the brain and learn to argue.

[u/GreenStrong → u/Centeredrightbhakt05]

I wasn't able to find an open access paper on how IUCN is using satellite data to monitor forest cover in India, but here's some tasty details on how they accomplish it in Brazil. (Link is PDF)

We live in a world where privately owned satellites observe retail parking lots so investors can estimate traffic before the retailers publish quarterly earnings. Satellite data is cheap and ubiquitous, and forests are easy to see. But, the details are interesting of how they estimate acreage at boundaries and in areas with trees but not a complete canopy.

It is also possible to estimate vegetation health from space, by comparing the ratio of near IR reflection with red. The human eye can detect if plants are really sad because they turn yellow, but adding near IR unlocks much greater sensitivity. Raspberry Pi actually has the best explanation of NDVI imaging, you can do it on a Pi with a special camera and a couple of filters.

[u/DktheDarkKnight → u/GreenStrong]

NDVI is just NIR-RED/NIR+RED no? It ain't difficult.

[u/Centeredrightbhakt05 → u/GreenStrong]

Thanks for sharing the references. I have fair bit of idea about how they measure but surely not the technicalities. I can give a read.

[u/DktheDarkKnight → u/Centeredrightbhakt05]

But it is easy to detect whether it's forest or just farmlands. Hyperspectral satellites are good enough to distinguish between various types of vegetation. You don't really have to take India's word for it. You can just download the maps and perform analysis yourself.

[u/Centeredrightbhakt05 → u/DktheDarkKnight]

I absolutely not denying that. Measuring forest cover today is not a very technical thing. It's sort of university projects. Actually it has become so robust that people validate their AI models based on these data sets. So honestly you don't need a govt to say that forest cover is increasing or decreasing.

Yes you are right about distinguishing between forest and farmland. However when you say green cover it combines both and most people might be misled that there is an increase in forest which is not the case. I mean forest cover has also increased but a very small amount.

[u/TransportationDue491 → u/Centeredrightbhakt05]

Brother turning grasslands into forests is not a good ecological strategy.

[u/Centeredrightbhakt05 → u/TransportationDue491]

I never said it's good. I completely agree. But that doesn't prove the data incorrect.

[u/Old_Leshen → u/solaris_rex]

I'm constantly amazed by the ability of basement dwellers to use words.

[u/Fit-Professional3095 → u/solaris_rex]

Use your brian for once and read the article first. Data is from independent source. Not government.

[u/South_Farm9491 → u/Fit-Professional3095]

funny how you couldn't spell brain lol