India's forest cover pegged at 63.73 m hectares
Copyright 2000, The Times of India News Service
September 30, 2000
DEHRA DUN: India's forest cover has increased by about 3,896 sq km as compared to the 1997 assessment, according to a a report published by the Forest Survey of India (FSI).
Addressing media persons in the doon valley on Thursday, FSI Director Devendra Pandey said the State of Forests Report (SFR) 1999 released recently showed India's total forest cover to be 63.73 million hectares. This is 19.39 per cent of the total geographic area of the country.
Seventeen states including Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan have registered major gains in forest cover while 12 states reflected losses in the cover which included mainly Mizoram, Assam and Nagaland, the report said.
Dense forest in the country has increased by 10,098 sq km and mangrove by 44 sq km whereas open forest has decreased by 6,246 sq km, the SFR added.
The SFR was released on September 26 by the Union minister of environment and forest in New Delhi.
Dr Pandey said that while the increase in forest cover was largely due to inclusion of large block plantations, joint forest management, protection and natural regeneration, the decrease mainly amounted to shifting cultivation, encroachment and felling of trees, he added.
The forest cover in 95 hill districts of the country was 251,219 sq km, which reflected a marginal increase of 600 sq km compared to the 1997 assessment, the report said.
This constituted 37 per cent of the geographic area as against 66 per cent envisaged in the national forest policy, 1998.
In 137 tribal districts, the forest cover was 416,827 sq km which accounted for about 65 per cent of the country's forest cover, the FSI director said.
The report also presented an analytical account of forest plantations, forests in villages, protected areas, joint forest management areas affected by shifting cultivation in the North-Eastern region and forest cover in selected mining areas of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.
He said in the next SFR report, which would be brought out in 2001, new parameters of forest resources would be included.
The FSI has proposed to map the entire country digitally. Assessment of damages due to forest fires, changes in vegetation, status of wildlife, habitats and forest cover mapping in watersheds would be included in the next report, Dr Pandey added.