Karnataka Forest Minister Eeshwar Khandre has called upon officials to utilize the services of the Earth observation satellite of ISRO to control the encroachment of forest land. He said the same technology can be used to monitor afforestation efforts undertaken by the department and to contain forest fires. Addressing a meeting of senior officials in Bengaluru today, the minister said that forest boundaries are now demarcated in longitudes and latitudes with the help of satellite mapping. The Karnataka State Remote Sensing Application Centre has collected data on forest areas through the Geo Reference module. The National Remote Sensing Centre of ISRO provides near real-time information on forest fires and other changes in land patterns and their exact locations.