Hitachi India partners IWST to make forests 'smart'

Hitachi India today said it is deploying IT solutions for monitoring illegal cutting as well as movement of high-value trees like sandalwood and rosewood in partnership with Institute of Wood Science and Technology (IWST).
Hitachi India had inked a partnership last year with IWST, an institute under the Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education (part of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) to implement a "smart forest" initiative.
The project is being carried out at the IWST campus in Malleshwaram, Bengaluru, spread over 25 acres.
"Hitachi India has undertaken this project as a CSR activity and is deploying Internet of Things (IoT) technology towards e-protection and conservation of high value forest species like sandalwood and rosewood," the company said in a statement.

The solutions will help in timely detection and prevention of unauthorised axing/chopping-off of the trees, it said.
This would further help monitor the health and growth of these trees, thereby conserving forests and protecting flora and fauna.

The sensors and solutions analyse the disturbance to the trees and an alarm is triggered, which intimates the concerned authority to take precautionary actions.
"By implementing this project, IWST will be the first institution in the country to have tried such an e-protection system for valuable trees to standardise the e-protection technology and develop the protocol for its commercial adaptation through public-private-partnership," IWST Director Surendra Kumar said.

Gnaneshwar Kambali, General Manager (Digital Solutions and Services Group) at Hitachi India said this project is an amalgamation of leveraging the company's business and technological strengths like IoT to create disruptive transformation for the environment.