India’s forest & tree cover shows an increase of 5,188 sq. km in ‘India State of Forest Report’ 2019
- The Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar released the ‘India State of Forest Report (ISFR)’ 2019 on December 30, 2019, a biennial report by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), which assesses the country’s forest resources.
- The ‘India State of Forest Report (ISFR)’ 2019 is the 16th edition of the report, which gives out data of not just forests but of mangrove, forest carbon, bamboo resources and forest fires as well.
- The Forest Survey of India (FSI) undertakes assessment of country’s forest resources every two years, and presents the results in the form of ‘India State of Forest Report (ISFR)’ since 1987.
- The assessment is done by a wall-to-wall mapping exercise using remote sensing technique followed by intensive ground truthing.
- The 2019 report is richer in content than the previous assessment i.e. ISFR 2017, as it comes with two volumes: one on the national-level assessment and the other state-specific.
- Some of the key findings of the ISFR 2019:
- The total forest cover of the country is 7,12,249 sq km (21.67% of the total geographical area), which is an increase of 3,976 sq km (0.56%) than previous assessment i.e. ISFR 2017.
- The tree cover is estimated as 95,027 sq km (2.89% of the geographical area), an increase of 1,212 sq km (1.29%).
- The total Forest and Tree cover of the country is 8,07,276 sq km (24.56% of the geographical area), an increase of 5,188 sq km (0.65%).
- The top 5 States in terms of increase in forest cover are Karnataka (1,025 sq km), Andhra Pradesh (990 sq km), Kerala (823 sq km), Jammu & Kashmir (371 sq km) and Himachal Pradesh (334 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 5 States are Mizoram (85.41 percent), Arunachal Pradesh (79.63 percent), Meghalaya (76.33 percent), Manipur (75.46 percent) and Nagaland (75.31 percent).
- Mangrove cover in the country increased by 54 sq km (1.10%) as compared to the previous assessment.
- Total bamboo bearing area is estimated as 1,60,037 sq km, an increase of
3,229 sq km as compared to ISFR 2017. - Total carbon stock in forest is estimated as 7,124.6 million tonnes, an increase of 42.6 million tonnes from 2017.
- There are 62,466 (8.13%) wetlands covering 3.83% of the area within the RFA/GW (Recorded Forest Area or (Green Wash)) of the country. Amongst the States, Gujarat has largest area of wetlands within RFA in the country followed by West Bengal.
- The analysis shows that 21.40% of the forest cover in India is highly to extremely fire prone.
Forest Survey of India
- Founded : June 1981
- Headquarter : Dehradun, Uttarakhand