FITGC

Forest Information Technology and Geomatics Centre

The Forest Information Technology and Geomatics Centre (FITGC) is functioning in Forest Headquarters since January, 2014. Objectives and activities of Forest Information Technology and Geomatics Centre (FITGC) in the O/o PCCF & HoFF, Odisha are as follows:

Objectives

To undertake geospatial survey of all Forest Blocks and land parcels recorded or deemed as forests using RS, GIS and DGPS survey.
To develop, upgrade and maintain web based Management Information System/GIS for Forestry Sector in the state of Odisha.
To provide Internet & Wi-Fi facility in all the six floors in Aranyabhawan & its maintenance.
Procurement, Installation, Commissioning and Maintenance of Computer/Server/ Network Hardware and Software system in the Forest Headquarter and guidance to field units thereof.
Development, maintenance and up-gradation of a comprehensive database on web-based GIS application for decision support System in Forest Management and use of Odisha Spatial Data Infrastructure (OSDI).
Monitoring of Forest Cover Change periodically and land based forestry activities using Remote Sensing and GIS Technologies.
Procurement, installation, commissioning and maintenance all the GPS/ GPS PDA equipment used in the department.
Capacity building of selected forestry personnel to build their capabilities to handle MIS/GIS activities in the department.
Procurement of goods in Government e-Market Place by FITGC.

Activities

Official Website for the State Forest: Official Website for the Forest Organization has been developed by FITGC in the domain name www.odishaforest.in having about 90 dynamic webpages hosted in the server placed at FITGC, Forest headquarters, Odisha. Now initiatives have been taken for preparation of unified website for the whole state Forest Department. This contains links to the Circle and Division Level Portals. The respective Field Units can upload and edit the contents of their own websites through content management system. This has been developed using in-house resources of the Forest Department.
Digitization of Forest Blocks of the whole state of Odisha: Digitization and geo-referencing of 4402 forest blocks of area about 43, 67,208.97 ha from 1:50000 scale topo sheet based management maps have been completed. The data has been rectified over high resolution ortho image of Worldview and Cartosat satellite imagery present at ORSAC through involvement of field staff of each Forest Section of the State. Now preparation of management boundaries of all these Forest Blocks are in progress which is being done as a part of the Working Plan Exercise for 34 Forest Divisions at ORSAC.
DGPS Survey and Geo-referencing of Forest Lands in Odisha using high accuracy DGPS Survey, Remote Sensing & GIS: Grounding of DGPS Survey has already been initiated during 2019-20 in 13 Forest Divisions of all the Circles by the Circle and Division Level Technology Partners. The main purpose is to develop an "Enterprise Class GIS based Decision Support System" for forest lands in the state of Odisha. Geo-referencing of 60991.33 Sq. KM of forest land will be covered in 4 years using DGPS Survey. Cadastral Map Vector & MMV data layers generated through compilation of data collected from Division, FITGC & ORSAC. Development of DGPS Survey web portal "https://odishaforestlandsurvey.co.in/" has been completed and published in the FITGC server stack. Base Stations has been established in 8 Forest Circles.
In phase-I DGPS Survey, Joint verification and confirmation of boundary pillars by Forest & Revenue officials has been completed in 1414 forest blocks of area 8987.92 Sq. Km). DGPS Survey has been completed in 1397 forest blocks of area 8922.989 Sq. Km. by the CDLTPs. ORSAC Certification has been done for 1351 FBs with an area 7816.132 Sq. Km. Draft map has been submitted for 1348 FBs with area 7812.04 Sq. Km by the CDLTPs and in 1029 forest blocks, FSO certification has already been completed with an area of 5298.90 Sq. Km. Verification and Authentication of Revenue Forest & DLC records has been completed for 86 Tehsils of area 3705.31 Sq. Km. and for 81 Tehsils of area 1707.765 Sq. Km. respectively.
In Phase-II DGPS Survey, CMV & MMV work has already been completed by the CDLTPs.
Wi- Fi LAN System in Aranya Bhawan: Wi- Fi LAN has been established in the office of PCCF, Odisha with enterprise UTM system and content filtering. The whole office is provided with internet over Wi-Fi at a bandwidth of 175Mbps through a dedicated leased line connection from Software Technology Parks of India, Bhubaneswar. The bandwidth is digitally divided and dedicated bandwidth is provided to the servers installed in the Data Centre of Aranya Bhawan.
Digital monitoring of forestry activities: Geo-ICT based digital monitoring of forestry activities like foot patrolling, plantation & nursery activities, selection of afforestation areas, online forest fire mitigation/monitoring, wildlife habitat management & protection activities and survey of area approved under Forest Right Act inside notified forest blocks. Online monitoring by the administrators has been done in the website https://odishaforestgis.in. Using OFMS (Odisha Forest Management System) from the website consolidated reports are generated on progress of Nursery, Afforestation & SWMC activities, Vanamahotsava celebration, Site selection, details of Forest fire mitigation etc. Online monitoring on progress of Afforestation work programme for the year 2020-21 has been done successfully and polygon data of the current year i.e., 2021-22 plantation has been uploaded in OFMS. Odisha Forest Management System (OFMS) mobile application is made available in both in Google play-store and App-Store. There are 23 modules in OFMS Application
Development of mobile apps : Two numbers of mobile applications has been developed and made available in Google Play Store & App Store to bring transparency is as follows:

KYFL @ Odisha(Know Your Forest Location in Odisha): one Application i.e. KYFL @ Odisha has been made available in App & Google-play store. The user can get the geo-location of Point of Interest (POI), name & Approximate Distance from the nearest Notified Forest Block and details of Forest Administrative Jurisdiction. The application also provide the additional land revenue Information like Name of the District, Tahasil, CD Block, GP, Village, Khata No., Plot No., Owner's Name, Land Type & area in Ha with respect to POI.

Mo Jungle: My Odisha Forest- The Application named "Mo Jungle: My Odisha Forest " has been made available both in App & Google-play store. All plantation assets which have been created are brought under public domain through web application (www.odishaforest.in ) and mobile application Mo Jungle: My Odisha Forest in iOS and Android to bring transparency in afforestation activity. The status of Forest fire mitigation during the fire season are also made available for public access.
Customized GAGAN Enabled GPS PDA devices for Forestry Management: During August 2016, GAGAN enabled GPS PDAs have been procured and customized as per the need of the Forest Department. The earlier used GPS devices were not customized according to our need and there were no default lock settings for features such as time stamp and datum and also not able to detect SBAS GAGAN signals which decreases the accuracy. GPS PDA devices have been provided to all the Ranges of the State @ four devices per Range with a total of 1200 devices. In due cource of time to facilitate the field staff mobile applications are developed & they use the android mobile in place of GPS PDA. Twenty-five numbers of applications have been developed & have few things in common i.e. they are captured in offline (no network) Mode through GPS signal through the device and data is uploaded using internet to the servers after coming back to office from the field using Wi- Fi or Mobile Data. All the applications have facilities in which Geo tagged photographs can be taken with Date and Time. In the details shown, one can exactly know the geospatial details such as latitude, longitude, District, Circle, Division, range, Section, Beat etc. All above details are available in the web view/web interface of the portal www.odishaforestgis.in. The captured details are also shown over bing maps, bhuban maps and google maps for GIS queries and better analysis. There are also facilities for downloading of .kmz files for opening the data through google earth and shape files for working on GIS platform.
Online Odisha Timber Transit Permit System: The Online Odisha Timber Transit Permit System web & mobile application helps the citizens and the institutions to apply for TT Permit online through the website: https://ttpermitodisha.in/. from anywhere in the world.
Annual Maintenance Contract and Purchase of IT equipment: This Centre has taken up the task of Annual maintenance of Computers and peripherals through an approved firm by process of tender. The FITGC has also been assigned the task of procurement of IT items form GeM portal.
Video Surveillance System in the Office of the PCCF, Odisha: Video surveillance system consisting of 23 CCTV cameras have been set up at AranyaBhawan. All the cameras are IP based and networked. These operate 24x7 and provide feed to remote users as per requirement and has built in analytics.
Sourcing and creation of in house manpower for IT & GIS activities: This office has selected Forester / FGs having B.Tech or IT Background and given them specialized training on computers, server and network management at Central Tool room and training Centre (CTTC), Bhubaneswar. Three candidates have been deployed at the head office level and others are serving for IT initiatives at the Circle/ Division level. Steps are taken each year to train field IT Savvy Staff on applications developed by Forest IT and Geomatics Centre so that they act as the master trainers for their respective units.