Written by Pawan Muddu
Mapping for Drought Resilience and Forest Fire Prone Areas in Adilabad, Telangana
On March 18, 2026, under my guidance, we organized a mapathon at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) Hyderabad to introduce students to the HOT Tasking Manager and to pilot a project mapping regions within the state of Telangana.
Telangana, being the 11th largest state in the country, was formed in 2014 and is considered to be one of the newest states in the country. With the booming tech center of Hyderabad, the capital of the state, the surrounding districts grapple with climate crises such as prolonged droughts, forest fires, and even unseasonal rains, causing floods.
For this reason, I gathered students from the B.Tech Geo Informatics program to map buildings in forest fire-prone areas of Adilabad.
This project aims to map buildings and settlements in forest fire–prone areas of Adilabad district, Telangana, including the Kawal Tiger Reserve landscape (Jannaram, Ichoda, Indervelly, Utnoor, Narnoor, and Gadiguda). The mapped data will support the identification of vulnerable communities, improve fire risk assessment, and enable better emergency response planning. Contributors will focus on mapping building footprints using high-resolution imagery to strengthen OpenStreetMap data in remote forest regions and support disaster risk reduction efforts.
The project gained momentum with over 2,000 buildings mapped with close to 37 contributors.
World Water Day Event
The Centre for Environment at JNTU Hyderabad organized a seminar on March 23, 2026, featuring eminent guests, including Shri A V Ranganath, IPS (Commissioner, HYDRAA), and experts from the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) to discuss GIS technologies in water management.
I presented the case of UN Mappers and its potential for water management and drought resilience in Telangana, and demonstrated the use of the Tasking Manager for specific mapping tasks in Lingala Mandal, Telangana, and in Korta Village in Adilabad.
Prithvignya Event JNTU
UN Mappers participated as an associate sponsor of the annual tech fest, Prithvignya, at JNTU Hyderabad, contributing a focused session on the use of mobile-based applications for mapping within the campus. The session aimed to introduce students and participants to practical, field data-collection techniques that support open mapping and humanitarian efforts.
The workshop highlighted three key tools widely used in the OpenStreetMap ecosystem. Participants were trained on the Every Door app, which allows users to easily add and edit points of interest such as buildings, amenities, and services. The session also included hands-on guidance with Street Complete, enabling contributors to improve map data quality by answering simple, gamified questions about their surroundings. Additionally, Mapillary was introduced for capturing street-level imagery, which can be used to enhance mapping accuracy and provide visual context.
(Receiving recognition on behalf of UN Mappers).
Special Mention: Shiva Kumar Induri
(Source of the Photograph: ETV Bharat)
Shiva played a vital role in organizing events between UN Mappers and JNTU- H.
He hails from the village of Korta between the Telangana and Maharashtra border.
His parents are farmers, and after observing rainwater wastage every year, he decided to develop an App called Hydro Harvest AI, which makes accurate estimates based on satellite images. First, the house is identified through GPS. The area is calculated by selecting the roof of the house on the satellite map. It analyses rainfall data of the last 30 years through AI and estimates how much water will fall on the house's rooftop. The software provides a complete report on the recommended tank size based on the available rainfall, as well as the diameter of the pipes. With the help of AI's data, tanks can be installed, and water can be conserved. This technology has been successfully tested by comparing it with engineering designs in Hyderabad.