Forest Survey Report 2021: 11 states have lost forest cover; 21 have lost good forests.
India has recorded an increment of 1,540 square kilometers in its forest cover, as per biennial India’s State of Forest Report 2021, recently published by the Forest Survey of India. This is the expansion recorded during 2019 and 2021.
The Forest Survey of India characterizes ‘forest cover’ as all terrains of a hectare or more with tree patches with a shade thickness of in excess of 10%.
This covers all terrains, regardless of legitimate possession and land use. ‘Recorded woods region’ incorporates just those regions recorded as timberlands in government records and incorporates perfect woodlands.
India’s total forest cover is 713,789 sq km or 21.71 percent of the all-out geographical region of the country. India has set an objective of bringing 33% of its topographical region under timberland cover.
Yet, a profound jump into the timberland gain as indicated by the sort of woodlands draws out the way that India isn’t adding thick backwoods.
Rather, it is losing critical areas of normal timberlands with moderate tree cover. India has more woodland cover with tree shade thickness in the scope of 10 to 40 percent, referred to as ‘open forest’.
Open forests presently have the greatest offer in the nation’s timberland cover, with 9.34 percent of the complete backwoods cover (307,120 sq km). Exceptionally thick woodlands (the unblemished normal timberlands) represent simply 3.04 percent (99,779 sq km) of the complete backwoods cover.
This is a minimal divide between the three significant sorts of woods – exceptionally thick, decently thick, and the open backwoods. Modestly thick timberlands represent 9.33 percent (307,120 sq km) of all our backwoods cover.
India has detailed an expansion of only 501 sq km under the Very Dense Forest class over the most recent two years. There is a deficiency of 1,582 sq km under the Moderately Dense Forest classification. Open backwoods have announced an increment of 2,612 sq km.
Five states – Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Karnataka, and Jharkhand – have contributed predominantly to the net expansion in timberland front of 1,540 sq km. This expansion is likewise because of ranch and agroforestry, as indicated by the report.
Eleven states have detailed a misfortune in woodland cover while 21 states and Union domains have revealed misfortunes in respectably thick timberland cover.
Madhya Pradesh has the biggest backwoods cover in the country presently while states in North East India have the most noteworthy level of woodland cover.
