India’s forest and tree cover has increased by 5,081 sq km, with the total forest cover going up by 3,775 sq m and tree cover by 1,306 sq km, according to the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2015 released on 4 November.
The ISFR is published by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), which has been assessing the forest and tree resources of the country on a biennial basis since 1987.
The inventory of forests and trees outside forests (TOF) is carried out in 60 randomly selected districts across the country in a cycle of two years.
The report said the country’s total forest and tree cover is 79.42 million hectares (ha), which is 24.16 percent of the total geographical area.
The total carbon stock in the country’s forest is estimated to be 7,044 million tonnes, an increase of 103 million tonnes, which is an increase of 1.48% over the previous assessments.
Highlights of the Report
- The total carbon stock in the country’s forest is estimated to be 7044 million tonnes, an increase of 103 million tonnes.
- Majority of the increase in forest cover has been observed in open forest category mainly outside forest areas, followed by Very Dense Forest.
- Open Forest area has increased by 4744 sq km, which is 9.14 per cent of the geographical area.
- The area under Very Dense Forest has increased by 2404 sq kms, which is 2.61 percent of the geographical area.
- About 40 percent forest cover is in 9 big patches of 10000 sq km and more.
- The increase in total forest cover also includes an increase in the mangrove cover.
- The maximum increase in forest cover has been observed in Tamil Nadu that is 2501 sq km, followed by Kerala that includes 1317 sq km forest cover and Jammu & Kashmir with 450 sq km forest cover.
- Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover of 77462 sq km in the country, followed by Arunachal Pradesh with a forest cover of 67248 sq km and Chhattisgarh with 55586 sq km.
- Mizoram with 88.93 percentage of forest cover has the highest forest cover in percentage terms, followed by Lakshadweep with 84.56 percent.
- 15 States/Union Territories have above 33 percent of the geographical area under forest cover. Out of these, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Andaman & Nicobar Island, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Manipur have more than 75 percent forest cover.
- 8 states Tripura, Goa, Sikkim, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Chhattisgarh and Assam have forest cover is between 33 percent to 75 percent.