The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) have inked a groundbreaking Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop and report a ‘Green Cover Index’ for the extensive network of Indian National Highways.
As part of a three-year collaboration, ISRO’s satellite center data will be harnessed by NHAI to map the entire highway network, fostering environmental awareness and sustainable development. The initiative, spearheaded by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, aims to quantify environmental attributes and contribute to the development of green corridors along the national highways.
Nitin Gadkari’s official statement read, “NHAI collaborates with ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre in a 3-year MoU to create and monitor a ‘Green Cover Index’ for India’s extensive National Highways network, promoting environmental awareness and sustainable development. In the inaugural assessment, the endeavor seeks to regionally quantify the Green Cover Index. Subsequent cycles will employ scientific methodologies to assess green cover growth patterns annually.”
Using high-resolution satellite imagery, the NRSC will estimate the green cover, enabling the creation of the ‘Green Cover Index’ for National Highways. This initiative incorporates emerging technologies to enhance plantation management and monitoring, supplementing in-situ data collection and facilitating NHAI performance audits.
The ‘Green Cover Index’ not only presents a robust and reliable mechanism for macro-level estimates along national highways but also offers a quick and affordable means to evaluate ecological transformations. The results will enable the comparison and ranking of different national highways, facilitating timely and recurring interventions for sustainable environmental practices.
