Advisor Kumar launches Forest Fire Reporting Mobile application

App to help putting in effective fire management system; Field staff to report fire incidents on real time basis

SRINAGAR, OCTOBER 03: Advisor to Governor, K Vijay Kumar today e-launched Forest Fire Reporting Mobile Application developed with a motive to streamline mechanism for real time reporting of forest fires to quickly disseminate information from field staff to higher authorities so that timely action can be taken to achieve quick control over the fire.

The Forest Fire Alert Mobile Application is being developed by Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) Dehradun with the technical inputs provided by the state Forest Department.

PCCF J&K Suresh Chugh, Chief Wildlife Warden J&K Ravi Kesar, Chairman PCB Sidharth Kumar, Director Soil & Water Conservation P K Singh, Director IIRS Dehradun Prakash Chauhan and other concerned officers of Forest, its allied wings and IIRs were present on the occasion.

The concerned officer from IIRS Dehradun gave a detailed presentation on the Mobile Application which is being developed by them, its features along with the technology used for developing the application.

It was informed that the mobile app is a user-friendlyfield-oriented application which can be easily operated in the smart phones and will be provided to the field staff. As soon as a fire incidence is noticed by the frontline staff, he can simply report the fire keeping mobile location feature on and it will automatically capture the geo-coordinates of location via satellite.

Further, it was told that after filling the details by the field staff, the information can be submitted and will immediately generate report on master control at higher officers in real time after which, quick response teams can be immediately sent to site from fire control rooms.

The information registered through the mobile app will be stored for each forest division and it will serve as a database to develop more effective forest fire management plan by divisions wherein each DFO can from his desktop see more fire prone areas where incidence have been higher in previous year.

Speaking on the occasion, PCCF J&K Suresh Chugh said that the Forest Department has done field testing of app and done relevant changes in making of final app interface so that it is made as much user friendly as possible. The suggestions, and technical inputs provided by the Forest Department have been incorporated by Geo-Informatics department of IIRS.

He said that various modifications have been done in the application as per the actual requirements in the field.

On the occasion, a presentation was also made by to highlight the activities of IIRS including courses they offered, training programmes and especially of its outreach programme through live & interactive classrooms and e-learning process.

Addressing the gathering, Advisor Kumar appreciated the efforts of IIRS and Forests Department for developing this user-friendly mobile application with an objective to report fire incidences from the field on real time basis for taking immediate action to take control over the forest fires.

He hoped that this mobile application would be proved as an effective tool for forest fire management wherein satellite will do validation of forest fire points accurately and these points reflecting actual fire spots can further help the department in taking appropriate actions in controlling fires and taking steps in the direction of putting in place an effective forest fire management system.

With regard to reach of its outreach programme to J&K state, it was informed that few educational institutions have been linked to IIRS live & interactive programme including Kashmir University and few others.

K Vijay Kumar asked the officers of IIRS to further expand its outreach programme in the state and rope in other eligible institutions for their live & interactive programme so that more and more people can be benefitted of this initiative.

He also sought the details from the IIRS officers regarding capacity building plan for the Forest Department officials.