Baner Hill · 678m · Western Ghats · Pune, India

The hill,
over time

Baner Hill stands at 678 metres — the third highest point within Pune city limits — on the edge of the Western Ghats, one of the world's eight "hottest hotspots" of biodiversity and a UNESCO World Heritage ecosystem older than the Himalayas.

— photos · —

Why this hill matters

The Western Ghats — of which Baner Hill is an outlier spur — harbour 30% of India's plant, fish, herpetofauna, bird, and mammal species on less than 6% of the country's land. These mountains pre-date the Himalayas and represent ancient, unique biophysical and ecological processes that have evolved over hundreds of millions of years.

Despite their ecological significance, the Ghats face rapid urban pressure. Baner Hill, rising just above one of Pune's fastest-growing suburbs, is a front-row seat to that tension.

What Earth Pulse is doing

Every photo in this archive is timestamped and matched with the air quality, temperature, humidity, rainfall, and wind recorded by Earth Pulse sensors at that exact moment. Over time this builds a long-term visual and environmental record of the hill.

Green in monsoon, brown in summer, shrouded in fog at dawn — the hill tells a story that numbers alone cannot. Earth Pulse has so far detected — bird species from this hillside using acoustic AI, contributing to our understanding of biodiversity in a rapidly urbanising landscape.

Earth Pulse · Satellite Intelligence · Landsat-5 + Sentinel-2
35 Years Written in Light
Real pixel data from two satellites, processed via Google Earth Engine. Not estimates. Not models. What the sensors actually measured.
+278%
greener than 1990
35-year gain
0.957
peak monsoon pixel
near Amazon density
2017
inflection point
reforestation registers
+94%
monsoon vs dry season
annual green pulse
Before & After — Drag to Compare
Baner Hill 2026 Sentinel-2
Baner Hill 1990 Landsat-5
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◀ 1990 · Landsat-5 · 30m
2026 · Sentinel-2 · 10m ▶
← drag the divider left or right · tap and hold on mobile →
NDVI Vegetation Heatmap — Click Any Year
1990 · 0.074 · Bare rock2025 · 0.278 · Greening
Select a year above
NDVI heatmap Baner Hill
2025 DRY SEASON · Mean NDVI 0.278
0.0 Bare rock0.2 Sparse0.4 Scrub 0.6 Healthy0.8+ Dense forest
Satellite Science · 35-Year Analysis · Landsat-5 + Sentinel-2

What the satellites found

We did not ask volunteers what happened to Baner Hill. We did not rely on memory, photographs, or guesswork. We asked satellites. Two of them answered — and the numbers are extraordinary.

Complete 35-Year Record — Every Measurement
YearNDVIvs 1990ConditionWhat happened
19900.074—Bare laterite rockBaseline. Lower than a dirt road.
19930.085+15%Bare rockNegligible change. Wind-blown grass only.
19960.084+14%Bare rockFlat. No measurable recovery.
19990.085+15%Bare rock9 years after baseline — still bare.
20020.108+46%Sparse scrubFirst trace of pioneer shrubs.
20050.131+77%Sparse scrubFragile. Easily reversed by drought.
20080.154+108%Early scrub coverReached double baseline for first time.
20100.090+22%⚠ Drought/fire dipLost nearly all gains. Likely fire or severe drought.
20120.114+54%Sparse, re-recoveringBouncing back from the 2010 setback.
20150.138+86%Early scrub25 years in — still fragile, still sparse.
20170.211+185% ★Emerging canopyInflection point. Human reforestation registers from orbit.
20190.215+191%ConsolidatingCanopy thickening. Gains holding across dry season.
20210.268+262%GreeningLargest single-period jump since monitoring began.
20230.267+261%GreeningStable at new baseline. Recovery now structural.
20250.278+278%Greening — activeCurrent reading. Monsoon peak 0.480. Max pixel 0.957.
2035 target0.550+644%Mature secondary forestAchievable with sustained south-slope planting. 51% of the way there.
1990 — The Baseline
A Hill of Rock and Dust
NDVI 0.074. Healthy tropical forest scores above 0.70 — dense Amazon canopy reaches 0.90+. Baner Hill in 1990 scored lower than a dirt road. This is what Landsat-5 measured, band by band, pixel by pixel, from 705 km above the Earth. Not an estimate. A measurement.
1990–2015 — The Long Silence
25 Years of Barely Moving Numbers
NDVI hovered between 0.074 and 0.154 — slow natural colonisation of pioneer grass, repeatedly knocked back. The 2010 crash from 0.154 to 0.090 erased 6 years of fragile recovery in one season. The hill had no resilience. It needed root depth, soil organic matter, and canopy — all of which only come from deliberate, sustained planting.
2017 — The Inflection Point
When Human Work Became Visible from Space
NDVI jumped from 0.138 to 0.211 — a 53% rise in two years. Scrub does not do this spontaneously on semi-arid laterite. This is the satellite recording volunteers carrying water uphill, fencing saplings against grazing, returning every monsoon. Planted trees reached a size where their canopy finally registered on Sentinel-2. After 2017, gains did not reverse. The hill had crossed a threshold of ecological resilience.
2021–2025 — The Acceleration
Compounding Ecological Returns
NDVI jumped from 0.215 to 0.268 between 2019 and 2021 — the largest two-year gain ever recorded here. This is reforestation ecology compounding: canopy creates shade, shade retains soil moisture, moisture allows understory, understory attracts seed-dispersing birds, birds bring new species. Each layer makes the next easier. The 2025 dry-season reading of 0.278 is 3.7× the 1990 baseline — in the season when the hill should look least green.
The monsoon pulse: NDVI 0.957. During August 2025, Sentinel-2 recorded individual pixels on the north slope at 0.957 — within the range of dense Amazon rainforest. The whole-hill mean reached 0.480 during monsoon: a 94% surge above the dry reading. This is what a recovering forest does — it inhales every monsoon with increasing intensity. In 1990 there was nothing to inhale with.
The Target — How Far Remains
0.55 by 2035: The Recovery Goal
A dry-season NDVI of 0.55 represents mature secondary forest — the ecological equivalent of a functioning Ghats forest patch. Baner Hill at 0.278 is 51% of the way there. At the current rate of +0.005 NDVI/year, the natural trajectory reaches 0.55 around 2080. Targeted planting in the south and south-west zones — still at 0.11–0.14 — can cut that timeline significantly. Every sapling in the right zone changes the number.
Volunteer Intelligence · NDVI-Guided Deployment

🌱 Plant Here — Where the Hill Needs You Most

The NDVI heatmap above is not just a scientific image — it is a volunteer deployment map. Every orange and yellow zone is a call to action. These areas have NDVI below 0.25 and have not recovered since 1990. They will not recover without intervention.

🔴 Priority 1 — Plant Immediately
South-West Corridor
0.11 NDVI
Bare laterite. High fire risk. Accessible from the western trail. Recommended: Karvi, Teak, Flame of the Forest. Plant in groups of 7–10 for mutual protection.
🔴 Priority 2 — This Monsoon Season
South-Facing Mid-Slope
0.14 NDVI
Direct solar exposure all day. Loses moisture fastest. Needs drought-tolerant deep-rooters. Recommended: Neem, Pongamia, Bel. Plant in clusters of 5 to create shared shade.
🟡 Priority 3 — Gap-Fill & Support
East Face Trail Corridor
0.38 NDVI
Recovering but patchy. Trail-edge erosion visible. Recommended: Bamboo for slope stabilisation, Hirda, Indian Gooseberry. Check survival of prior plantings.
🟢 Protect — Do Not Disturb
North Slope & Summit
0.67–0.72 NDVI
Dense established canopy. Monsoon peak reaches 0.957 here. This is what the whole hill can become. Protect from encroachment and overgrazing. Focus volunteer energy on south zones.
Best planting window: June 1–15 — before the monsoon peaks, so saplings establish root systems with the first rains.  |  This map updates annually after the post-monsoon Sentinel-2 pass each November. Zone NDVI values from 2026 dry-season Sentinel-2 composite at 10m resolution.

Data: Landsat-5 C02 T1_L2 (USGS/NASA, 1988–1992 composite), Sentinel-2 SR Harmonized (ESA/Copernicus, Nov 2025–Apr 2026 dry; Jun–Oct 2025 monsoon peak via qualityMosaic). Google Earth Engine. Coordinates: 18.5520°N, 73.7854°E, 1.2km radius. NDVI = (B8−B4)/(B8+B4). Target NDVI 0.55 based on comparable recovered secondary Ghats forest benchmarks. Zone classifications approximate — updated annually post-monsoon. Earth Pulse — earth-pulse.org

Period
Compare
Season

🎬 Watch the hill change — time-lapse

Playback of filtered photos in chronological order. Each frame shows the AQI, temperature and rainfall at that moment.
Time-lapse frame of Baner Hill
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Comparing across years
Showing all photos from the same month across every year in the archive. Photos are grouped by year so you can see how the hill changes in the same season over time.

Frequently asked questions

Baner Hill stands at 678 metres above sea level — the third highest point within Pune city limits. It lies at coordinates 18.5526°N, 73.7819°E on the eastern edge of the Western Ghats, just above the Baner suburb.
Baner Hill is an outlier spur of the Western Ghats — a UNESCO World Heritage biodiversity hotspot older than the Himalayas. The Western Ghats harbour 30% of India's plant, fish, herpetofauna, bird and mammal species on less than 6% of the country's land area. Baner Hill sits at the ecotone where Western Ghats meet the Deccan plateau.
Satellite NDVI data from Landsat-5 and Sentinel-2 shows Baner Hill is +278% greener in 2025 than in 1990. The dry-season NDVI rose from 0.074 (bare rock) to 0.278 (active greening). During the 2025 monsoon, individual pixels on the north slope reached 0.957, comparable to dense Amazon rainforest. See the Satellite Intelligence section above for the full 35-year record.
The hill is greenest from July to October, peaking in August during the monsoon. November to February offers clear views with cooler temperatures. April–May is hottest and the hill appears brown. Visit early morning (6–8 AM) or evening (5–7 PM) for the best light and bird activity. Check the live AQI and weather on each photo in the archive below to see what conditions look like at different times.
The inflection point was 2017, when NDVI jumped from 0.138 to 0.211 in two years — a 53% rise. This is when human reforestation efforts became visible from orbit. Since 2017, gains have not reversed — the hill crossed a threshold of ecological resilience.
The south-west corridor (NDVI 0.11) and south-facing mid-slope (NDVI 0.14) are the highest priority zones. These bare laterite areas have not recovered since 1990. Recommended native species include Karvi, Teak, Flame of the Forest, Neem, Pongamia and Bel — planted in clusters of 5–10 for mutual protection. See the Plant Here volunteer deployment map in the impact section above.
Two Raspberry Pi camera nodes face Baner Hill — one from the east balcony and one south-facing. They capture timestamped photos automatically, and each frame is matched with the air quality, temperature, humidity and rainfall recorded at that exact moment by Earth Pulse environmental sensors. Photos are stored on Cloudflare R2 and indexed in Supabase. All timestamps shown are in Indian Standard Time (IST, UTC+5:30).