India’s forest cover goes up, shows report

India’s forest cover goes up, shows report

Recently released biennial report of Forest Survey of India showcases how India has added 3,775 sq km to its green cover since 2013. It also reported an increase of 2,402 sq km in the very dense forest category that had remained static since 2007.

Details:

• The 2015 report shows that while 2,511 sq km of prime forests have disappeared altogether, 1,135 sq km of non-forest areas have become either very dense or mid-dense forests during that time.
• Even accounting for the non-forest areas now recorded as dense and mid-dense forests, the net loss of forests in these prime categories works out to be 1,376 sq km — more than twice the area of Mumbai — in two years.
• The states of J&K, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Manipur, and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands took major hits in the loss.
• The overall gain of 2,402 sq km of very dense forests since 2013 is largely due to positive results from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
• Andman and Nicobar islands have gained a remarkable 1,932 sq km of very dense forests, putting 5,686 sq km — or 84% — of its entire forest cover of 6,751 sq km under the top category. Uttar Pradesh added 572 sq km of very dense forest — a jump of 35% since 2013. Tamil Nadu reported a net gain of 100 sq km of very dense forest.
• Madhya Pradesh remains the state with largest forest cover, 77,462 sq km. Followed by Arunachal Pradesh with 67,248 sq km and Chhattisgarh having 55,586 sq km.
• Mizoram has the highest forest cover (88.9%), followed by Lakshadweep with 84.6%. Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Manipur have more than 75% of area under forest.

While an area of at least 1 hectare (0.01 sq km) with a canopy density of 10% is considered forest, prime forests are classified as very dense and mid-dense with canopy densities of at least 70% and 40% respectively.