Telangana ropes in Marut Drones for afforestation across 33 districts

This is India’s first kind of project, planting 50 lakh trees in about 12,000 hectares of land in forests across all the 33 districts of Telangana

Hyderabad: Telangana’s ITE&C Department and Forest Department have partnered with Marut Drones, a Hyderabad-based drone technology startup, to launch a drone-based afforestation project named “Hara Bahara”.

This is India’s first kind of project, planting 50 lakh trees in about 12,000 hectares of land in forests across all the 33 districts of Telangana. During the launch of AgHub at PJTSAU today, and in the presence of Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao, the Seedcopter Drone by Marut Drones was unveiled along with the poster launch of “Hara Bahara” campaign.

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This campaign accelerates the mission of Green Telangana under ‘Telangana ku Haritha Haram’ by working in line with the vision of Chief Minister of Telangana, Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao.

Seedcopter by Marut Drones is an aerial seeding solution for rapid and scalable reforestation. It aims to bring community, science and technology together for an inclusive, sustainable and long-lasting solution.

It will not only reverse environmental damage but also create vital employment in rural, tribal, and other vulnerable communities. Its core objective is to build strong communities for afforestation and bring awareness at a grassroots level on the effects of deforestation.

Telangana Minister for IT, Industries, and MAUD, KT Rama Rao said, “Forests are essential to maintain a clean and habitable environment for human life, and emerging technologies have potential to support the afforestation efforts. Being already at the forefront of using drones for new use-cases, we are initiating Hara Bahara to plant seeds to increase the forest areas across all the districts of the State.”

Prem Kumar Vislawath, founder, Marut Drones, told Telangana Today, “We are planning to begin the activity from Wednesday. The seed balls are prepared by the local women and welfare communities which are dispersed via drones in the targeted areas. Further, the area is continuously monitored to track the growth of plants sown. We will be planting 1.5 lakh trees in each district of Telangana.”

He added, “This will be the first such use case in India using drones. Through Seedcopter, we are bringing community, science and technology together for rapid reforestation. We intend to plant one billion trees by 2030 across India.”

This project uses drones to disperse seed balls over thin, barren, and empty forest lands to turn them into lush green abodes of trees.

The process begins with a field survey and mapping of the terrain area to understand the ecosystem and demarcate the areas needing urgent attention. This is used to determine the number and species of trees that can be planted in the barren land based on the soil, climate, and other parameters.

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