Question

Short note on distribution of forest

Answer 1

The regular statistics about the forest cover in India is available since 1901 when about 2; 40,000 sq. km of the country's area (22% of undivided India) was under forest. At present (2001) forests occupy 7,68,436 sq. km. of country's surface area (23.38% of the total geographical area) which is much lower in comparison to other countries of the world (cf. Finland 72.8%, Japan 61.9%, Brazil 56.8%, Sweden 55.1%, Australia 37.5%, Canada 36.6% and U.S.A. 31.2%). Similarly the per capita forest area (0.2 ha) is still lower in comparison to Brazil (8.6 ha), Australia (5.1 ha), Sweden (3.2 ha) and U.S.A. (1.8 ha). The ecosystem. This is the area where intensification of forestation programme is urgently needed and effective measures should be taken for their regenera­tion.