Forest Report 2021

Forest Report 2021

·    India State of Forest Report (ISFR) is a biennial publication of Forest Survey of India (FSI)

·  FSI an organization under the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, GOI

·       On January 13,2022, the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Shri Bhupender Yadav, released the 17^th  ‘India State of Forest Report 2021’ prepared by the Forest Survey of India (FSI)

·       The First India State of Forest Report was published in 1987

 

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 (1^st time in report)

•  Above ground estimates of biomass using SAR data & Climate change hotspots in Indian forests (1^st time in report)

 

•      Forest cover is defined as an area more than 1 ha in extent and having tree canopy density of 10 percent and above.

•      Forest Canopy Density (FCD) refers to the proportion of an area in the field/ground that is covered by the crown of trees and is expressed in percentage of the total area.

•    Tree cover is an estimated area comprising of tree patches, which are less than one hectare and isolated trees outside the recorded forest.

ü The total forest and tree cover of the country is 80.9 million hectares which are 24.62 percent of the geographical area (GA) of the country

ü  Forest cover – 21.71% of GA

ü  Tree Cover – 2.91% of GA

Note - The National Forest Policy of India, 1988 envisaged a goal of achieving 33 per cent of the geographical area of the country under forest & tree cover.

ü  As compared to 2019, there is an increase of 2261 sq km in the total forest and tree cover. Forest cover (Increase of 1540 sq km) + tree cover (Increase of 721 sq km)

 

Area-wise Forest Cover

1)   Madhya Pradesh (Largest forest cover)

2)   Arunachal Pradesh

3)   Chhattisgarh

4)   Odisha

5)   Maharashtra.

 

Percentage-wise Forest Cover

1)   Mizoram (84.53%) (Highest)

2)   Arunachal Pradesh (79.33%)

3)   Meghalaya (76.00%)

4)   Manipur (74.34%)

5)   Nagaland (73.90%)

 

Increase in forest cover

1)   Andhra Pradesh (647 sq km) (Highest)

2)   Telangana (632 sq km)

3)   Odisha (537 sq km)

4)   Karnataka (155 sq Km)

5)   Jharkhand (110 sq. Km).

 

States/UTs with More than one-third area under forest cover

17 states/UT’s have above 33 percent of the geographical area under forest cover.

More than 75%: Five states/UTs namely Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have more than 75 percent forest cover.

Between 33%- 75%: 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% to 75%.

 

Mangrove cover:

ü Total mangrove cover in the country is 4,992 sq km.

Top three states in mangrove cover increase are-

1.    Odisha (8 sq km)

2.    Maharashtra (4 sq km)

3.    Karnataka (3 sq km).

Increase of 17 sq Km in mangrove as compared to the previous assessment of 2019.

 

Total Carbon Stock

ü  Total carbon stock in the country’s forests is 7,204 million tonnes

ü  Increase of 79.4 million tonnes as compared to 2019.

ü  The annual increase in the carbon stock is 39.7 million tonnes.

 

Status of Forest Fires

ü  35.46% of the forest cover is prone to forest fires.

1)   2.81% is extremely prone

2)   7.85% is very highly prone

3)   11.51% is highly prone

 

Bamboo Forests

ü  Bamboo forests have grown from 13,882 million culms (stems) in 2019 to 53,336 million culms in 2021.

ü The total estimated green weight of bamboo culms at national level is 402 million tonnes.

 

Forest cover in Tiger reserve areas

ü  52 tiger reserves in India (Total notified area of 73,972.50 sq km.)

ü  Forests cover in the tiger reserves is 55,666.27 sq km, which is 7.80 per cent of the country’s total forest cover and 74.51% of the total area of tiger reserves

Top three Tiger Reserves showing increasing forest cover–

1)   Buxa (West Bengal)- 238.80 sq km

2)   Anamalai (Tamil Nadu)- 120.78 sq km and

3)   Indravati (Chhattisgarh)- 64.48 sq km

 

Mapping of Forest Cover in Major Mega Cities

Forest Cover of seven major cities

1)   Delhi has the largest forest cover (194.24 sq km)

2)   Mumbai (110.77 sq km)

3)   Bengaluru (89.02 sq km)

4)   Hyderabad (81.81 sq km)

5)   Chennai (22.70 sq km)

6)   Ahmadabad (9.41 sq km)

7)   Kolkata (1.77 sq km)

The total forest cover in the seven major cities is 509.72 sq km which is 10.21 per cent of total geographical area of the cities