The report is based on two primary sources, the State of Forest Report, 2001, and Wildlife Protected Area Network in India: A Review (Executive Summary). Subir Ghosh of Inscriptions has authored the report, and M K S Pasha of the Wildlife Protection Society of India -- a Delhi based non-governmental organisation -- has been closely associated with the its development. The document also uses facts and figures from three other national level reports and surveys: the Census of India 2001, Economic Survey 2002-03 and National Human Development Report 2001.
Ghosh recollects: "When I was almost through with the first draft of a book on Indian wildlife, I wondered how the states could be ranked in innumerable ways for their forest health. What one ended up stitching together was the Green Indicators 2004." Pasha adds: "While we have done our computations, we also appended the raw data accessed along with our statistics in open format, which can be used by others the way they want. We wanted to make life easier for others, maybe ensure they don't have to repeat the exercise we had to undertake while making this report."
It is possible that some people may challenge the innate simplicity of Ghosh and Pasha's indices or the fact that they decided to ignore any debate on the data itself. Their adherence to the categories used by the government to artificially classify the forests might also be criticised. But the effort marks a beginning. Here is an example of what can be done by turning millions of gigabytes of mundane information into edible morsels. It has given everyone a list of ingredients to improve the recipe the next time over.
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