The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) on Thursday released the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021. The report showed a continuing increase in forest cover across the country, but a decline in moderate dense forest, forest cover in the Northeast and an increase in forest fire has raised concerns.
Let’s take a look at what is India State of Forest Report 2021 and everything you need to know about it:
What is India State of Forest Report
The IFSR is an overall assessment of the country’s forests and is published every two years by the Forest Survey of India. It was published in 1987 for the first time and on Thursday, the 17th ISFR was released.
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, above ground estimates of biomass using SAR data and climate change hotspots in Indian forests.
What are the key findings of ISFR 2021
The biennial forest report has found that there is an increase of 2,261 sq km in the total forest and tree cover of the country, as compared to 2019.
The total forest and tree cover of the country is 80.9 million hectares which is 24.62 per cent of the geographical area of the country. As compared to the assessment of 2019, there is an increase of 2,261 sq km in the total forest and tree cover of the country.
The increase in the forest cover has been observed as 1,540 sq km and that in tree cover is 721 sq km.
Top three states showing increase in forest cover are Andhra Pradesh (647 sq km) followed by Telangana (632 sq km) and Odisha (537 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 five states are Mizoram (84.53 per cent), Arunachal Pradesh (79.33 per cent), Meghalaya (76.00 per cent), Manipur (74.34 per cent) and Nagaland (73.90 per cent).
A total of 17 states/union territories’ have above 33 percent of the geographical area under forest cover. Out of these states and union territories, five namely Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have more than 75 per cent forest cover.
Twelve states and union territories namely Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Goa, Kerala, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Assam, Odisha, have forest cover between 33 per cent to 75 per cent.
Total mangrove cover in the country is 4,992 sq km. An increase of 17 sq km in mangrove cover has been observed as compared to the previous assessment of 2019.
Top three states showing mangrove cover increase are Odisha (8 sq km) followed by Maharashtra (4 sq km) and Karnataka (3 sq km).
Bamboo forests have grown from 13,882 million culms (stems) in 2019 to 53,336 million culms in 2021.
Total carbon stock in the country’s forest is estimated to be 7,204 million tonnes and there is an increase of 79.4 million tonnes in the carbon stock of the country as compared to the last assessment of 2019. The annual increase in the carbon stock is 39.7 million tonnes.
Causes of concern
Forest fires: Over 3.98 lakh forest fires were reported in India in the fire season from 2020-2021, more than double the number of blazes compared to the previous year. Among states, the maximum number of fires were observed in Odisha at 51,968, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 47,795 and Chhattisgarh at 38,106.
Among districts, the maximum number of such incidents were observed in Gadchiroli in Maharashtra at 10,577, followed by Kandhamal in Odisha at 6,156 and Bijapur in Chhattisgarh at 5,499 incidents.
According to the long-term trend analysis performed by the FSI, nearly 10.66 per cent area of forest cover in India is under extremely to very highly fire-prone zones.
Decline in natural forests: Even though ‘very dense forests’ (with canopy density over 70 per cent) have increased by 501 sq km, 'moderately dense forests' or ‘natural forests’ (with 40-70 per cent canopy density) have declined by 1,582 sq km.
When compared with an increase of 2,621 sq km in open forest areas (10-40 per cent density), the decline of moderately dense forests suggests a degradation of forests in the country as natural forests are degrading to less dense open forest areas.
Decline in Northeastern forest cover: Even though Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland top the charts in terms of forest cover as percentage of total geographical area, the five northeastern states have all shown a loss in forest cover.
The forest cover in the region has shown an overall decline of 1,020 sq km in forest cover.
Since the assessment of 2019, Mizoram has lost 1.03 per cent of its forest cover, Arunachal Pradesh 0.39 per cent, Manipur has lost 1.48 per cent, Meghalaya 0.43 per cent, and Nagaland 1.88 per cent.
Other findings
The report for the first time has assessed forest cover in tiger reserves, tiger corridors and the Gir forest and found that it has increased by 37.15 sq km (0.32 per cent) in tiger corridors between 2011-2021, but tiger reserves recorded a decline of 22.6 sq km (0.04 per cent).
The report has found that forest cover has increased in 20 tiger reserves, and decreased in 32 in the last 10 years.
Impact of climate change
The ISFR 2021 estimates that by 2030, 45-64 per cent of Indian forests will be affected by climate change and rising temperatures, and forests in all states (except Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland) will be highly vulnerable climate hot spots.
The report suggests that Ladakh (forest cover 0.1-0.2 per cent) is likely to be the most affected by climate change.
With inputs from agencies
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