‘Green India’ expands: 2,261 sq km forest & tree cover added in past 2 years; MP takes lead
As compared to the assessment of 2019, there is an increase of 2,261 sq km in the total forest and tree cover of the country.
New Delhi: Bhupender Yadav, Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change on Thursday released the ‘India State of Forest Report 2021’ prepared by the Forest Survey of India (FSI). The FSI has been mandated by the government to assess the forest and tree resources of the country.
Released the Forest Survey Report.
In 2021, the total forest and tree cover in India is 80.9 million hectares, which is 24.62% of the geographical area of the country.
Encouraging to note that 17 states/UTs have above 33% of the geographical area under forest cover. pic.twitter.com/lGgCuMqB7X
— Bhupender Yadav (@byadavbjp) January 13, 2022
Maximum increase in AP(647 sq km), Telangana (632 sq km), Odisha (537 sq km).
Sharing the findings, the Minister informed that the total forest and tree cover of the country is 80.9 million hectare which is 24.62 percent of the geographical area of the country. As compared to the assessment of 2019, there is an increase of 2,261 sq km in the total forest and tree cover of the country.
17 states/UTs have above 33% of geographical area under forest cover
The Minister expressed happiness over the fact that the present assessment reveals that 17 states/UT’s have above 33 percent of the geographical area under forest cover and stated that the focus of the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is not just to conserve the forests quantitatively but to enrich it qualitatively.
At the event to launch the Forest Survey Report, underlined that the focus of the govt under the leadership of PM Shri @narendramodi ji is not to just conserve the forest quantitatively but to also qualitatively enrich it. pic.twitter.com/dvdkE4FEun
— Bhupender Yadav (@byadavbjp) January 13, 2022
The ISFR-2021 provides information on forest cover, tree cover, mangrove cover, growing stock, carbon stock in India’s forests, forest fire monitoring, forest cover in tiger reserve areas, above ground estimates of biomass using SAR data & climate change hotspots in Indian forests.
MAJOR FINDINGS
• The total forest and tree cover of the country is 80.9 million hectare which is 24.62 percent of the geographical area of the country. As compared to the assessment of 2019, there is an increase of 2,261 sq km in the total forest and tree cover of the country. Out of this, the increase in the forest cover has been observed as 1,540 sq km and that in tree cover is 721 sq km.
• Increase in forest cover has been observed in open forest followed by very dense forest. Top three states showing increase in forest cover are Andhra Pradesh (647 sq km) followed by Telangana (632 sq km) and Odisha (537 sq km).
• 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 (84.53%), Arunachal Pradesh (79.33%), Meghalaya (76.00%), Manipur (74.34%) and Nagaland (73.90%).
• 17 states/UT’s have above 33 percent of the geographical area under forest cover. Out of these states and UT’s, five states/UTs namely Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have more than 75 percent forest cover while 12 states/UTs namely Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Goa, Kerala, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Assam, Odisha, have forest cover between 33 percent to 75 percent.
• Total mangrove cover in the country is 4,992 sq km. An increase of 17 sq Km in mangrove cover has been observed as compared to the previous assessment of 2019. Top three states showing mangrove cover increase are Odisha (8 sq km) followed by Maharashtra (4 sq km) and Karnataka (3 sq km).
Total carbon stock in country’s forest is estimated to be 7,204 million tonnes and there an increase of 79.4 million tonnes in the carbon stock of country as compared to the last assessment of 2019. The annual increase in the carbon stock is 39.7 million tonnes.