Disclosing these details, forest minister, Jagdish Yadav said that the Haryana Remote Sensing Application Centre (HARSAC) was entrusted with the task of conducting the study of the satellite imageries of the Aravalli range.

The HARSNC procured IRS-1A LISS-II false colour composite geocoded data for two seasons: April and October (1990 and 1997). Data from the US based satellite Land Sat and France based Spot were also used for effective visual interpretation. The minister said that it would have been a difficult task to assess the restored green cover but for the remote sensing technology, a proven medium to carry out this assessment expeditiously and accurately.

The chief conservator of forests, J.P.L. Srivastava added that the study entailed identifying, delineating, and interpreting various features on the imageries on the basis of tone, texture, type, shape, size and location by the visual image interpretation technique. He pointed out that digital image processing was also applied to certain parts of Gurgaon and Faridabad for better discrimination of different forest categories.

The Aravalli Project was launched in 1990 with financial assistance from the European Union. The project, which covers the districts of Gurgaon, Faridabad, Rewari, Mahendergarh and Bhiwandi had a total capital outlay of 28.80 million European currency units (ECU).

The forest minister concluded by revealing that encouraged by the success of the Aravalli Project, the European Union intended to fund a `community forestry scheme' with a grant of Rs 126 crore. This scheme will be introduced in about 300 villages.