Forest Survey of India (FSI) halts Anavaran-Deforestation Alert System

Key facts

• The Forest Survey of India (FSI) has stopped issuing fortnightly alerts through its Anavaran-Deforestation Alert System, with data remaining unupdated since November 2025.
• The Anavaran portal, operational since January 2024, was designed as a pilot project to monitor deforestation in near-real time using satellite data and machine learning.
• The system utilizes the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform and integrates Sentinel-2 satellite images with Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data for continuous monitoring.
• During the 22-month period from January 2024 to October 2025, the FSI issued a total of 12,351 deforestation alerts at a monthly average of 561.
• The states with the highest number of deforestation alerts recorded include Punjab (637), Andhra Pradesh (617), Arunachal Pradesh (611), Nagaland (579), Manipur (577), Uttarakhand (543), Assam (533), Tripura (516), Maharashtra (504), Mizoram (499), Gujarat (498), and Karnataka (450).
• The FSI employs high-resolution satellite imagery at 10-20-metre spatial resolution, including Sentinel 2B (optical), Sentinel 1 (SAR 5m), Sentinel 2 (visible and NIR 10m), RedEdge, and SWIR 20m.
• The FSI also manages the Van Agni portal for forest fire monitoring and the Sachet portal for pre-fire alerts.