Telangana’s green cover efforts earn global attention

The State government’s flagship programme, Telangana Ku Harita Haram, had come in for high praise in the Indian State of Forest Report (ISFR), 2019.

Hyderabad: The efforts of Telangana to increase its green cover has come in for special praise from Erik Solheim, a senior advisor of the World Resources Institute (WRI) and former chief of the United Nations Environment Programme.

Solheim on Wednesday tweeted a report published in Telangana Today, which quoted the State’s Finance Minister T Harish Rao saying that the green cover in Telangana had increased by 3.67 per cent following the efforts of the TRS government since the State was formed in 2014.

“Bravo Telangana! The green cover of this Indian state has increased 3.7% since the state was formed in 2014,” the Norwegian diplomat and member of the Green Party quote-tweeted the Telangana Today report. The tweet has since been retweeted nearly 300 times and liked by about 2000 Twitter users, who also praised Telangana’s efforts.

This is not the first time that the green cover expansion in the State has grabbed attention outside the State. The State government’s flagship programme, Telangana Ku Harita Haram, had come in for high praise in the Indian State of Forest Report (ISFR), 2019, a biennial report brought out by Dehradun-based Forest Survey of India as well.

The report said Telangana had recorded improvement in forest cover in all four categories – very dense forest, moderately dense forest, open forest and scrub. It said this was due to the afforestation programme envisaged to plant and protect 230 seedlings over a period of four years.

Based on the interpretation of IRS Resourcesat-2 LISS III satellite data of the period November 2017 to January 2018, in terms of forest canopy density classes, the State has 1,608.24 sq km under Very Dense Forest (VDF), 8,787.13 sq km under Moderately Dense Forest (MDF) and 10,186.94 sq km under Open Forest (OF). Forest cover in the State has increased by 163.31 sq km compared to previous assessment reported in ISFR, 2017.

The survey also said Telangana had reported extent of Recorded Forest Area (RFA) as 26,904 sq km, which is 24 per cent of its geographical area. The reserved, protected and unclassed forests are 75.65 per cent, 22.07 per cent and 2.28 per cent of the recorded forest area in the State respectively. The main reasons for the increase in forest cover in the State are plantation and conservation activities as well as improvement in interpretation, the report said.

Bravo Telengana!
The green cover of this Indian 🇮🇳 state has increased 3,7% since the state was formed in 2014.https://t.co/ZlVbKDiFen pic.twitter.com/1h1gLNKVHT

— Erik Solheim (@ErikSolheim) February 3, 2021

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