(Daily News Scan - DNS English) India State of Forest Report 2019
On the 30th December 2019, Union Environment Forest and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar released India State of Forest Report 2019. While releasing this report the Minister told that the report gives us confidence that India is on track to achieve the Paris Agreement goals.
In Today's DNS we take a look at India State of Forest Report 2019 and related aspects.
The India State of Forest Report is a biennial exercise to estimate the forest cover, the density of forest vegetation, tree cover across States, and the progress of plantation outside regions officially designated as 'forest.' It’s a publication of Forest Survey of India which is an organization under the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change. The current Report which is the 16th in the series since 1987 provides a comprehensive account of the Forest Cover Scenario of the Country to different user groups. They are of great importance for Policy Planners, Managers, Researchers and Academicians etc. The exercise involves both satellite mapping and surveys to map increase or decrease in forest cover.
According to the report -
- The total forest cover of the country is 7,12,249 sq km which is 21.67% of the geographical area of the country. The tree cover of the country is estimated as 95,027 sq km which is 2.89% of the geographical area.
- The total Forest and Tree cover of the country is 8,07,276 sq km which is 24.56% of the geographical area of the country.
- At the national level, in comparison to the previous assessment of 2017, the current assessment shows an increase of 3,976 sq km i.e. 0.56% of forest cover and 1,212 sq km i.e. 1.29% of tree cover. If we put the forest and tree cover together, there is an increase of 5,188 sq km i.e. 0.65%.
- Forest cover within the Recorded Forest Area has shown a slight decrease of 330 sq km which is 0.05% whereas there is an increase of 4,306 sq km of forest cover outside the Recorded Forest Area as compared to previous assessment of 2017. Recorded Forest Area is the area recorded as forest in the Government records.
- The top five States in terms of increase in forest cover are Karnataka with an increase of 1,025 sq km followed by Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
- Forest cover in the hill districts of the country is 2,84,006 sq km, which is 40.30% of the total geographical area of these districts. The current assessment shows an increase of 544 sq km i.e. 0.19% in 140 hill districts of the country.
- The total forest cover in the tribal districts is 4,22,351 sq km, which is 37.54% of the geographical area of these districts. The current assessment shows a decrease of 741 sq km of forest cover within the Recorded Forest Area in the tribal districts and an increase of 1,922 sq km outside.
- Total forest cover in the North Eastern region is 1,70,541 sq km, which is 65.05% of its geographical area. The current assessment shows a decrease of forest cover to the extent of 765 sq km or 0.45% in the region.
- Mangrove cover in the country has increased by 54 sq km i.e. 1.10% as compared to the previous assessment of 2017.
- Total bamboo bearing area of the country is estimated as 1,60,037 sq km. There is an increase of 3,229 sq km in bamboo bearing area as compared to the previous estimate of 2017.
- In the present assessment, total carbon stock in forest is estimated as 7,124.6 million tonnes. There is an increase of 42.6 million tonnes in the carbon stock of the country as compared to the last assessment of 2017.
- There are 62,466 wetlands covering 3.83% of the area within the Recorded Forest Area of the country. Amongst the States, Gujarat has the largest area of wetlands within Recorded Forest Area in the country followed by West Bengal.
- Fire prone forest areas of different severity classes have also been mapped and the analysis reveals that 21.40% of the forest cover of the country is highly to extremely fire prone.
Forests have acquired increasing importance in the recent past not only for their role in meeting the material requirements but also for their ecological and environmental functions. To ensure sustainable development of our forestry resources, it is important to have accurate and up-to-date information or data on our forest resources.
