OVERALL GREEN COVER RISES, NORTHEAST FACES A DIP

Prelims level : National Conservation & Mitigation Mains level : GS-III Conservation, environmental pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment.
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Why in News?

  • The India State of Forest Report (ISFR) has been released recently by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

About the Report:

  • India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2019 is a biennial publication of Forest Survey of India (FSI), an organisation under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India engaged in the assessment of country’s forest resources.
  • The first report was brought out in 1987. Since then FSI has published 15 reports while 2019 report is the 16threport in the series.
  • The report provides state/district wise forest cover of the country and changes thereon with respect to the previous assessment.
  • It also provides the estimates of growing stock within and outside the forest areas, forest cover in the hill, tribal and north eastern states, carbon and other important aspects such as tree, bamboo and mangrove cover.

Classification of Forests:

  • The forest cover is broadly classified in 4 classes, namely very dense forest, moderately dense forest, open forest and mangrove.
  • The classification of the cover into dense and open forests is based on internationally adopted norms of classification.
  • It has not been possible to further segregate the dense forest into more classes owing to enormity of work of ground validation and limitations of methodology. Mangroves have been separately classified because of their characteristic tone and texture and unique ecological functions.
  • The other Classes Include Scrub and non-forest. These classes are defined is below:
  • Very Dense Forest– All Lands with tree cover (Including mangrove cover) of canopy density of 70% and above
  • Mod Dense forest– All lands with tree cover (Including mangrove cover) of canopy density between 40% and 70% above
  • Open Forest– All lands with tree cover (Including mangrove cover) of canopy density between 10% and 40%
  • Scrub– All forest lands with poor tree growth mainly of small or stunted trees having canopy density less than 10 percent
  • Non Forest– Any area not included in the above classes.

Key Findings of the Report:

  • The total forest cover of the country is 7, 12,249 sq km which is 21.67% of the geographical area of the country.
  • The tree cover of the country is estimated as 95,027 sq km which is 2.89% of the geographical area.
  • The total Forest and Tree cover of the country is 8, 07,276 sq km which is 24.56% of the geographical area of the country.
  • The current assessment shows an increase of 3,976 sq km (0.56%) of forest cover, 1,212 sq km (1.29%) of tree cover and 5,188 sq km (0.65%) of forest and tree cover put together, at the national level as compared to the previous assessment i.e. ISFR 2017.
  • Forest cover within the Recorded Forest Area/Green Wash (RFA/GW) has shown a slight decrease of 330 sq km (0.05%) whereas there is an increase of 4,306 sq km of forest cover outside the RFA/GW as compared to previous assessment of 2017.
  • The top five Statesin terms of increase in forest cover are Karnataka (1,025 sq km), Andhra Pradesh (990 sq km), Kerala (823 sq km), Jammu & Kashmir (371 sq km) and Himachal Pradesh (334 sq km).
  • Forest cover in the hill districts of the country is 2, 84,006 sq km, which is 40.30% of the total geographical area of these districts. The current assessment shows an increase of 544 sq km (0.19%) in 140 hill districts of the country.
  • The total forest cover in the tribal districts is 4, 22,351 sq km, which is 37.54% of the geographical area of these districts. The current assessment shows a decrease of 741 sq km of forest cover within the RFA/GW in the tribal districts and an increase of 1,922 sq km outside.
  • Total forest cover in the North Eastern region is 1, 70,541 sq km, which is 65.05% of its geographical area. The current assessment shows a decrease of forest cover to the extent of 765 sq km (0.45%) in the region. Except Assam and Tripura, all the States in the region show decrease in forest cover.
  • Mangrove cover in the country has increased by 54 sq km (1.10%) as compared to the previous assessment.
  • The total growing stock of wood in the country is estimated 5,915.76 million cum comprising 4,273.47 million cum inside forest areas and 1,642.29 million cum outside recorded forest areas (TOF). The average growing stock per hectare in forest has been estimated as 55.69 cum.
  • Total bamboo bearing area of the country is estimated as 1, 60,037 sq km. There is an increase of 3,229 sq km in bamboo bearing area as compared to the estimate of ISFR 2017.
  • In the present assessment, total carbon stock in forest is estimated as 7,124.6 million tonnes. There is an increase of 42.6 million tonnes in the carbon stock of the country as compared to the last assessment of 2017. The annual increase is 21.3 million tonnes, which is 78.1 million tonnes CO2 eq.
  • Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) represents the largest pool of carbon stock in forests, which has been estimated 4,004 million tonnes. The SOC contributes 56% to the total forest carbon stock of the country.
  • There are 62,466 wetlands covering 3.83% of the area within the RFA/GW of the country. The total number of wetlands located within the RFA/GW is 8.13%. Amongst the States, Gujarat has largest area of wetlands within RFA in the country followed by West Bengal.
  • Dependence of fuel wood on forests is highest in the State of Maharashtra, whereas, for fodder, small timber and bamboo, dependence is highest in Madhya Pradesh. It has been assessed that the annual removal of the small timber by the people living in forest fringe villages is nearly 7% of the average annual yield of forests in the country.
  • The information on area affected by five major invasive species in States/UTs based on analysis of NFI data has been given in the present ISFR.
  • Fire prone forest areas of different severity classes have been mapped in the grids of 5km x 5km based on the frequency of forest fires. The analysis reveals that 21.40% of the forest cover of the country is highly to extremely fire prone.
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