The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will prepare a Green Cover Index in the next three years. This is being done in collaboration with the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), an arm of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

"Presently, the monitoring of plantations relies on site visits by field personnel," an official statement said while noting that the NRSC will undertake a comprehensive pan-India estimation of green cover for National Highways using high-resolution satellite imagery.

"It will also facilitate targeted interventions in regions that are reported to lack adequate green cover," the statement added.

This approach promises to provide a time-saving and cost-effective solution to generate a macro-level estimate of the degree of greenness along National Highways. Pilot projects for the same have already been successful.

The aim is to capture the Green Cover Index region-wise for National Highways in the first assessment cycle. Subsequent annual cycles will focus on estimating the growth patterns of green cover for National Highways using scientific techniques, the statement added.

Findings of the index will facilitate comparison and ranking of various National Highways for timely and periodic intervention. As green cover would be estimated for every 1 km length of the National Highways, it would be possible to generate granular metrics for individual projects as well.