State of Indian forests looks healthy

The India State of Forest Report 2023 (ISFR 2023) was recently released at an event at the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. The report has been brought out by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) on a biennial basis since 1987. The FSI carries out in-depth assessment of the forest and tree resources of the country based on interpretation of remote sensing satellite data and field-based national forest inventory, and the results are published in the ISFR. The India State of Forest Report 2023 is 18th report in the series, according to a Press Information Bureau (PIB) of India media release.

The report contains information on India’s forest cover, tree cover, mangrove cover, growing stock, carbon stock in India’s forests, instances of forest fire, agroforestry, etc. To present a detailed picture of the forest health at country level, special thematic information on forest cover and important characteristics of forests have been reported in the ISFR. As per the present assessment, the total forest and tree cover is 827,357 sq. km, which is 25.17% of the geographical area of the country. The forest cover has an area of about 715,343 sq. km (21.76%) whereas the tree cover has an area of 112,014 sq. km (3.41%).

As explained by an article in The Print, the forest cover in the report is categorised based on tree canopy density as very dense forests, moderately dense forests and open forests. Very dense forests have canopy density equal to or more than 70%, moderately dense forests have canopy density equal to or more than 40% and less than 70%, and open forests have canopy density equal to or more than 10% and less than 40%.

Other major findings, as per the PIB press release, are listed below.

• The total forest and tree cover is 827,357 sq. km, which is 25.17% of the geographical area of the country. The forest cover has an area of about 715,343 sq. km (21.76%) whereas the tree cover has an area of 112,014 sq. km (3.41%).

• As compared to assessment of 2021, there is an increase of 1445 sq. km in the forest and tree cover of the country which includes 156 sq. km increase in the forest cover and 1289 sq. km increase in tree cover.

• Top four states showing maximum increase in forest and tree cover are Chhattisgarh followed by Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan. Top three states showing maximum increase in forest cover are Mizoram followed by Gujarat and Odisha. Area wise top three states having largest forest and tree cover are Madhya Pradesh followed by Arunachal Pradesh and Maharashtra.

• In terms of percentage of forest cover with respect to total geographical area, Lakshadweep has the highest forest cover followed by Mizoram and Andaman and Nicobar Island.

• The present assessment also reveals that 19 states/union territories (UTs) have above 33% of the geographical area under forest cover. Out of these, eight states/UTs namely Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Island, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Manipur have forest cover above 75%.

• The total mangrove cover is 4992 sq. km in the country.

• Among the six mega cities of Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Mumbai, Delhi has the largest forest cover, followed by Mumbai and Bengaluru.

• Total carbon stock in country’s forest is estimated to be 7285.5 million tonnes. There is an increase of 81.5 million tonnes in the carbon stock of country as compared to the last assessment.

• As for the status of the targets under nationally determined contributions (NDCs) related to carbon sequestration, the current assessment shows that India’s carbon stock has reached 30.43 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent, which indicates that as compared to the base year of 2005, India has already reached 2.29 billion tonnes of additional carbon sink as against the target of 2.5 to 3.0 billion tonnes by 2030.

Besides providing vital information for monitoring the country’s forest and tree resources, the data given in the ISFR, according to the PIB press release, serves as a useful source of information for the policy makers, planners, state forest departments, research organisations, line agencies involved in various developmental works, academicians, civil society and others interested in natural resource conservation and management.