INDIA STATE OF FOREST REPORT 2021

INDIA STATE OF FOREST REPORT 2021

Context:

According to the India State of Forest Report 2021, released on 13 January 2022, India's total forest and tree cover is 80.9 million hectares. It is 24.62% of the geographical area of India.

Key Points:

• Around 17 states/UT’s have more than 33% of the geographical area under forest cover.
• An increase in forest cover has been seen in the open forest, followed by a very dense forest.
• The top three states to have shown an increase in forest cover is:
• Andhra Pradesh (647 sq km)
• Telangana (632 sq km)
• Odisha (537 sq km)

Highlights from this Report:

i) There is an increase of 2,261 sq km in India's total forest and tree cover compared to 2019.

➢     In this case, the expansion of the forest cover has been identified as 1,540 sq km, and the tree cover is 721 sq km.

ii) Under current estimates, the total carbon stock in the national forest is estimated at 7,204 million tons.

➢     There has been a growth of 79.4 million tons in the country's carbon reserves compared to the last 2019 survey.

iii) The total number of mangroves nationwide is 4,992 square kilometres.

➢     An increase of 17 sq Km on mangrove cover was observed compared to the previous 2019 survey.

➢     Odisha (8 sq km) is followed by Maharashtra (4 sq km) and Karnataka (3 sq km) by the three top states indicating mangrove growth.

iv) The Madhya Pradesh area has the country's largest forest, followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Maharashtra.

v) In terms of forest coverage as a percentage of the universe, the top five states are:

• Mizoram (84.53%),
• Arunachal Pradesh (79.33%),
• Meghalaya (76.00%),
• Manipur (74.34%),
• and Nagaland (73.90%).