Key findings of Forest Survey Report
Hyderabad: The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) on last week released the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021. The report showed a continuing increase in forest cover across the country, but experts flagged some of its other aspects as causes for concern, such as a decline in forest cover in the […]
Hyderabad: The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) on last week released the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021. The report showed a continuing increase in forest cover across the country, but experts flagged some of its other aspects as causes for concern, such as a decline in forest cover in the Northeast, and a degradation of natural forests. Read more about the report…
India State of Forest Report is an assessment of India’s forest and tree cover, published every two years by the Forest Survey of India. The first survey was published in 1987, and ISFR 2021 is the 17th. India is one of the few countries in the world that brings out such a survey every two years, and this is widely considered comprehensive and robust.
Forest and Tree Cover
The term ‘forest area’ denotes the legal status of the land as per the government records, whereas the term ‘forest cover’ indicates presence of trees over any land.
Tree cover is defined as all tree patches of size less than one hectare occurring outside the recorded forest area. This covers trees in all formations including scattered trees.
Methodology
Three categories of forests are surveyed – very dense forests (canopy density over 70%), moderately dense forests (40-70%) and open forests (10-40%). Scrubs (canopy density less than 10%) are also surveyed but not categorised as forests.
New Features of ISFR 2021:
- It has for the first time assessed forest cover in tiger reserves, tiger corridors and the Gir forest which houses the Asiatic lion.
- The forest cover in tiger corridors has increased by 37.15 sq km (0.32%) between 2011-2021, but decreased by 22.6 sq km (0.04%) in tiger reserves.
- Forest cover has increased in 20 tiger reserves in these 10 years, and decreased in 32.
- Pakke Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh has the highest forest cover, at nearly 97%.
Increase/Decrease in Forests:
• The states that have shown the highest increase in forest cover are Telangana (3.07%), Andhra Pradesh (2.22%) and Odisha (1.04%). Five states in the Northeast – Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland have all shown loss in forest cover.
States with Highest Forest Area/Cover:
• Area-wise: Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover in the country followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.
• In terms of forest cover as percentage of total geographical area, the top five States are Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland.
Haritha Haram a big hit in Telangana
The Telangana government’s flagship programme – Haritha Haram – to increase green cover in the State, has proved to be a runaway success with the State placed in the second spot in the country for its increase in forest cover by 632 sqkm.
The State achievement aside, Hyderabad has topped the mega cities that gained maximum green cover with 48.66 sqkm in a decade in the country. This is no mean achievement considering the fact that Telangana was a parched dry land till State formation in 2014.
Key findings
• ISFR 2021 has found that there is an increase of 1,540 square kilometres of forest cover and 721 sq km of tree cover compared to the 2019 report.
• The States with the highest increase in the forest cover are Andhra Pradesh (647 sq km), Telangana (632 sq km), Odisha (537 sq km)
• In the Northeast, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland have a decrease in forest cover.
• 35.46% of the forest cover is prone to forest fires, with 2.81% being extremely vulnerable.
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