5. Find out about state of forests in India
and write a brief report on it.
Answers
The total forest and tree cover is spread across 802,088 square km, which is 24.39 percent of the geographical area of the country.
However, in the northeast region (NER), the current assessment shows an actual decrease of forest cover to the extent of 630 square km.
Independent experts say that the report “masks ground realities” of forest status by in-cluding commercial plantations etc. under its ambit.
India has recorded a one percent jump (8,021 square km) in overall forest and tree cover between 2015 and 2017 despite population and livestock pressures, even as the green footprint in the northeast region shrunk by 630 square km, according to the latest India State of Forest Report (ISFR).
Based on satellite data analysis, the biennial assessment – conducted by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) and released by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) – has put the total forest and tree cover at 802,088 square km, which is 24.39 percent of the geographical area of the country.
The total forest cover is 708,273 square km, which is 21.54 percent of the total area of the country. Between 2015 and 2017, India has added 6,778 square km of forest cover and extended 1, 243 square km of tree cover.
The 2017 report, which is the 15th State of Forest survey, maps green cover across 633 districts in place of 589 districts that were considered for the previous edition. According to the Ministry, India has shown an increasing trend in the forest and tree cover, in comparison to the global trend of decreasing forest cover during the last decade.
It highlighted that the country is “ranked 10th in the world, with 24.4 percent of land area under forest and tree cover, even though it accounts for 2.4 percent of the world surface area and sustains the needs of 17 percent of human and 18 percent livestock population.”
The present report underlines an actual increase of 86.89 square km of forest cover in all the tribal districts of India. Mangrove cover, which is 0.15 percent of the area of the country, has shown an improvement with a gain of 181 square km as compared to the 2015 assessment. Forest cover in hill districts expanded by 754 square