NIT Rourkela Teams Up with ISRO and Tea Board India for AI‑Powered Tea Plantation Research

Rourkela – In a move that could reshape how tea gardens are managed across the country, the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela has sealed a three‑way Memorandum of Understanding with the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) of ISRO and the Tea Board of India.

The signing took place on August 27 at the Regional Remote Sensing Centre – East (RRSC‑East) in Kolkata. While the director of NRSC, Dr. Prakash Chauhan, and NIT Rourkela’s own Prof. K. Umamaheshwar Rao joined the ceremony virtually, Tea Board’s development chief S. Soundararajan was there in person, adding a human touch to the largely digital affair.

What’s really exciting is the project they’ve christened “CHAYANKAN” – a mouthful that stands for Comprehensive AI‑based Geospatial Data Analytics for Tea Plantation Monitoring. This three‑year venture, which kicked off in April 2026, is all about marrying space‑borne satellite imagery, low‑altitude drone (UAV) scans and good‑old ground‑level observations.

Why does this matter? Think of tea estates sprawling over rugged hills, where a single pest outbreak can wipe out weeks of hard work. By feeding high‑resolution images into sophisticated machine‑learning models, researchers hope to produce near‑real‑time maps of plantation health, estimate yields before the first leaf is even plucked, and send early warnings about disease or pest invasions.

The technical heavy‑lifting will be led by Dr. Arati Paul, the principal investigator from RRSC‑East, supported by co‑investigators Dr. Anima Biswal, J. Nalini and Dr. Anup Nandy from NIT Rourkela. Their plan is to calibrate satellite data with UAV captures, then train AI algorithms to recognise patterns that even seasoned agronomists might miss.

During the virtual signing, officials from all three sides emphasized the broader impact: a more scientific, data‑driven approach to tea cultivation that could boost productivity, reduce chemical usage and ultimately protect the livelihoods of millions of tea workers.

Signing the agreement were Dr. Sushil Kumar Srivastav (Associate Director, NRSC), Dr. Amrita Chakraborty (Secretary, Tea Board) and Prof. Saurav Chatterjee (Dean, SRICCE, NIT Rourkela). Their signatures, though some were digital, symbolize a commitment to bring cutting‑edge space technology down to the tea bushes.

In short, this partnership is a testament to how academia, a space agency and an industry body can come together, using AI and geospatial tech, to tackle age‑old agricultural challenges. If the CHAYANKAN project delivers on its promise, the next generation of tea growers might be guided not just by experience, but by algorithms watching the sky and the fields alike.