The Forest Survey of India (FSI) has vastly underestimated forest loss from degradation, according to scientists who used software instead of human eyes to interpret satellite images of forest cover.
The scientists applied a new method to estimate forest cover through satellite images of the central Himalayas and found that the proportion of forest loss was much higher than estimates made by the FSI.
The problem appears to lie in the method that the FSI uses in its interpretation of satellite images, said Eswaran Somanathan, an environmental economist at the Indian Statistical Institute in New Delhi.
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