Tamil Nadu Treepedia – an Android app developed by Tamil Nadu Forest Department under the Tamil Nadu Innovative Initiatives Scheme(TANII). This application focuses on making the choice of tree species for plantation more easier. It provides a variety of options to farmers, home gardeners, industries and individuals to choose the right tree species for their requirement. The main objective of this application is to guide them with the plantation technique and post plantation care. Beneficiaries can use the various facilities available in this application to narrow down to the right tree species which will suit their requirement under the options like “Choose by Tree Species”, “Choose by Tree type”, “Choose by Location” and “Tree Finder”.
Trees play an important role in ecosystem and they provide a range of products and services to rural and urban people. The need of increasing the tree cover is realized with the advent of the increasing global environmental issues. India is pioneering in the large scale plantation activities under various national and state level schemes to increase the tree cover outside the forests. We are aware of the concepts of Social Forestry, Agro forestry, Farm Forestry and Urban Forestry which are in lime light these days, though these practices were existing since our ancient days.
The forest and tree cover of the state of Tamil Nadu constitutes 24.16% of the total geographical area of the State as against 33% envisaged in National Forest Policy, 1988. Earnest efforts are being taken to increase the forest cover / tree cover in the State to 25% of the total land area of the State, by encouraging tree cultivation in and outside reserved forest areas. To increase the green cover outside forests, the State Forest Department of Tamil Nadu have initiated programmes like,
Tree cultivation in private lands under Tamil Nadu Bio-Diversity Conservation and Greening Project (TBGP) Raising Teak plantation in Padugai lands
Free distribution of seedlings to institutions and individual households
Massive Tree Planting Programme
Having the thrust to increase the tree cover, the governments have come up with several missions like Green India Mission, National Afforestation Program etc which primarily focus on increasing the tree cover through afforestation and other plantation activities. India is known for its Forestry knowledge and expertise. But what we lag is the access to these repositories and the linkages. The project of developing this web/mobile application -“Tamil Nadu Treepedia” was aimed to bridge the gap between the resources and the people. As the farmers need to be educated about various tree species available for plantation. There are only few tree based industries popular in the country, there is a heavy demand only for those selected tree species. The Forestry Departments has to play a vital role in exposing the opportunities and the exploring the unpopular trees species by using technological advancements as emphasized by “DIGITAL INDIA”. “Tamil Nadu Treepedia” is one such initiative.
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