Madhya Pradesh Forest Department has utilised ICT initiatives to monitor its key activities in real time and disseminate information to all the stakeholders in an easy and visual manner to facilitate social audits.

Realising the potential of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for bringing in paradigmatic shift in an organisation’s work culture and service delivery, the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department decided to integrate various technologies to develop innovative applications for its core processes. In March 2007, the Department decided to revamp its technological infrastructure and developed a set of applications such as the Forest Alert Messaging System, Forest Offence Management System, Forest Dwellers Survey System, Forest Financial Management System, Wildlife Management System and Forest Planning and Geo-mapping System and few others.

Space technology, GIS, GPS, image processing, mobile computing, and communication technology are developed in-house in a cost-effective manner and are integrated into a single framework to serve data in a visual fashion. The Forest Department conducts basic capacity building programmes to make these applications easy to use for everyone, including entry level workers.

The ICT applications have made collection, dissemination and maintenance of data easy, effective and accessible. All the data is available online and free for public use which has enhanced transparency and accountability in the work of the Forest Department. Because of these practices, the Forest Department has emerged as a leader in developing and implementing ICT applications and  has successfully disseminated its learning and expertise to other government departments and private organisations. This project of Madhya Pradesh Forest Department has also been honoured with the International Green Globe Foundation Award 2012, Prime Minister Award of Excellence in Administration, 2010, National e-Governance Award (Gold) 2010 and many others.

This case study was published in May 2012.

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