NEWS – NITI Aayog Launches Greening India’s Wastelands with Agroforestry (GROW) Report and Portal

HIGHLIGHTS

• Hosted on the Bhuvan website.
• Aims to restore 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030 and create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
• Collaborative effort from multiple institutions and employed advanced technologies such as remote sensing and GIS
• Utilising thematic datasets, the project resulted in the creation of an Agroforestry Suitability Index (ASI). This index enables national-level prioritisation for greening and restoration projects.
• The developed system provides information on areas suitable for agroforestry across India.
• The areas available in the system are classified as highly suitable, moderately suitable, and less suitable for agroforestry.
• The key features of the system:
  1. Generates district-level information on wasteland areas suitable for agroforestry
  2. Generates area prioritisation regime i.e. highly suitable area, moderate and less suitable for agroforestry
  3. Generates live maps
  4. Generates area analysis-statistic report
  5. Offer an interactive mode/tool that provides flexibility in handling the weights as per local conditions/need