An internation al workshop is being organised in the city to help in establishing a network for facilitating the collection, processing and dissemination of statistics pertaining of tropical timber and other forestry parameters. India is a signatory to International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA). The workshop will also take up issues like demand and supply, production and consumption data of tropical timber, which are required on an annual basis. Participants will also discuss issues like removal of fuel woods, fodder, and grass through headloads, removal of timber and non timber forest products including medicinal plants from non-forest areas. Speaking at the inaugural function, minister of state for environment and forests S. Reghupathy said the workshop will take up issues that can help in increasing the quality of forestry statistics of the country and problems faced by the state forests departments in reporting. The recommendations of the workshop will help in drafting a roadmap for the forestry statistics in the country and will also help in constructing a concrete plan for development of a national forestry database management system. The minister said that forests, which were previously viewed as a resource for consumption, are now considered a resource for conservation. He said that with ever increasing demands of "forest products" from the richest to the poorest of the masses, there is a lot of pressure on the forests. He said with advancement of technology, the reporting in this sector has now become more meticulous and expertise dependent. The workshop is been organised by the ministry of environment and Forests and International Tropical Timber Organisation