Ø Recently Union Environment Ministry,
Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) released India State of Forest Report
(ISFR),2021.
Ø This is the 17th report
since 1987.
Ø It is published once in every two
years on the assessment of India’s forest and tree cover.
Ø This report showed increase in
forest cover across the country.
Ø ISFR helps government in planning
and formulating policies related to forest management, and agroforestry
sectors.
Ø ISFR found that the forest and tree
cover in India continues to increase with an additional cover of 1,540 square
kilometres over the past two years.
Ø India’s forest cover present -
7,13,789 square kilometres. This covers 21.71% of India’s geographical area, an
increase from 21.67% in 2019.
Ø Tree cover increased by 721 sq km.
Ø Total forest and tree cover 80.9
million hectares .This is equal to 24.62% of total geographical area of India.
Ø Union Territories and 17 states had
more than 33% of their area under forest cover.
Ø Telangana (3.07%), Andhra Pradesh
(2.22%) and Odisha (1.04%) have shown highest increase in forest cover.
Ø Five Northeastern states shown loss in forest cover (Arunachal
Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland).
Ø Top five states with highest forest
cover percentage: Mizoram(84.53%),Arunachal Pradesh(79.33%),Meghalaya(76%),Manipur(74.34%),Nagaland(73.90%).
Ø Top five states with largest forest
area : Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh ,Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharastra.
Ø Mangroves cover increased by 17
sq.km.Total mangrove cover in India 4,992 sq.km.
Ø 35.46 % of the forest cover is prone
to forest fires. Out of this, 2.81 % is extremely vulnerable 7.85% is very highly
vulnerable, 11.51 % is highly vulnerable.
Ø Forest carbon stock is the amount of
carbon sequestered by forests from the atmosphere.
Ø Total carbon stock in India’s forests is estimated at 7,204 million tonnes,
It increased by 79.4 million tonnes since 2019.
Ø Bamboo forests have increased from
13,882 million culms to 53,336 million
culms in 2021.
Ø Forests categoriesed as mainly three
Ø Very dense forests (canopy density more
than 70%)
Ø Moderately dense forests (40-70%
canopy density)
Ø Open forests (10-40% canopy density)
Ø Scrubs (canopy density less than
10%) are also surveyed though they are not categorised as forests.
Ø Assessed Forest cover in tiger
reserves,tiger corridors for the first time.
Ø Forest cover in tiger corridors increased
by 0.32%.
Ø Forest cover in tiger reserves decreased
by 0.04%.