New Delhi: India’s forest and tree cover has increased by 8,021 sq. km, up 1% since 2015, to 802,088 sq. km, which is about 24.39% of the total geographical area (GA) of the country, revealed the Union environment ministry on Monday.
Of the total increase of 8,021 sq. km in forest and tree cover, forest cover grew by 6,778 sq. km and tree cover by 1,243 sq. km.
As per the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2017, which was released by Union environment minister Harsh Vardhan, India’s total forest cover is 708, 273 sq. km (about 21.54% of India’s total GA) and tree cover is 93,815 sq. km (about 2.85% of the total GA).
The increase in total forest cover also includes an increase of 181 sq. km in mangrove cover, taking the total mangrove area in the country to 4,921 sq. km.
In 2015, India’s forest cover was 701,673 sq. km.
The report comes every two years and the 2017 report is the 15th such report. ISFR 2017 is also more comprehensive as it is based on information from 633 districts of the country compared to 589 in 2015.
What is most heartening is that the area under “dense forest, moderately dense forest and open forest is 98,158 sq. km (2.98% of GA), 308,318 sq. km (9.38% of GA) and 301,797 sq. km (9.18% of GA) respectively.”
The increase is good news for India which has a target of having 33% of its GA under forest cover. The report said that 15 states and Union territories have more than 33% of their GA under forest cover.
As per the ISFR 2017, an increase of 754 sq. km of forest cover was witnessed in hill districts, while tribal districts saw an increase of 86.89 sq. km only in the last two years. But sadly, the forest cover in the north-eastern region showed a decline of 630 sq. km.
The report highlighted that about 40% of forest cover is contained in nine large patches, each more than 10,000 sq. km in extent.
The top five states where maximum forest cover increased are Andhra Pradesh (2,141 sq. km), Karnataka (1,101 sq. km), Kerala (1,043 sq. km), Odisha (885 sq. km) and Telangana (565 sq. km), while the top five states where forest cover decreased are Mizoram (531 sq. km), Nagaland (450 sq. km), Arunachal Pradesh (190 sq. km), Tripura (164 sq. km) and Meghalaya (116 sq. km).
“The main reasons for the decrease are—shifting cultivation, other biotic pressures, rotational felling, diversion of forest lands for developmental activities, submergence of forest cover, agriculture expansion and natural disasters,” said the environment ministry.
A new feature in the latest ISFR report is information about water bodies in forests. The report revealed that there is an increase of 2,647 sq. km in the extent of water bodies in forest areas over the decade (2005-2015).
“All the States and Union Territories show an increase except Arunachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Bihar,” the report added.
Another interesting finding of the report is that the “net increase in forest cover has been observed in areas less than 1000 metre altitude”, while in all other “altitudinal zones small net decrease has been observed”.
The report further revealed that the total bamboo bearing area of the country was estimated to be 15.69 million hectare, 1.73 million hectare more than what it was in 2011 ISFR.
Meanwhile, stressing that India has shown an increasing trend in forest and tree cover compared to the global trend of decreasing forest cover during the last decade, Vardhan said that India ranks among the top 10 countries of the world in terms of forest area, despite the fact that none of the other nine countries has a population density of more than 150 persons per sq. km, compared to India’s population density of 382 persons per sq. km.
He added that as per the latest FAO report, India is 8th in the list of top 10 nations reporting the greatest annual net gain in forest area.
Siddhanta Das, director general of forests and special secretary in the Union environment ministry, said after a long time forests in very dense forest (VDF) category have increased.
It is important as VDF absorbs maximum carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The ISFR 2017 further said that the “total carbon stock is estimated to be 7,082 million tonnes”, which is an increase of 38 million tonnes compared to 2015. In 2015, India had announced a voluntary target of creating additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 (carbon dioxide) equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.
Secretary, environment ministry, C.K. Mishra, said the economic value of forests must be realised and forests should be used economically. He stated that forests do not exist in isolation and the benefits of forests must be transferred to the people.
