Reserve Forest boundaries for southern India?

[Robin Vijayan]

Hi all

Does anyone know of any digital sources of Reserve Forest boundaries (before we attempt to digitise)? Interested in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

My colleagues and I are examining landscape change across parts of Western Ghats (example from Kodaikanal). 

While we have GIS layers of Protected Areas (Wildlife Sanctuaries and National Parks), Reserve Forest boundaries (digital data) do not appear to be publicly available.

Our attempts at obtaining these from the Forest Departments are only partially successful (only some divisions, paper maps in some cases). We are told that this data can be considered politically sensitive due to probable illegal occupation in some areas.

Best regards

Robin

V. V. Robin
www.skyisland.in
+91 9449002297 

Twitter @vvrobin

Assistant Professor
Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER) - Tirupati