Question

what is the difference between actual forest cover and forest area?

Answer 1

There is a difference between forest area and forest cover. Geographicalarea recorded as forests in government records is forest area. It is also referred to as recorded forest area. All lands, more than one hectare in area with a tree canopy density ofmore than 10 per cent is called forest cover.

Answer 2

Answer:

According to state records, the forest area covers 23.28 percent of the total land area of the country. It is important to note that the forest area and the actual forest cover are not the same. The forest area is the area notified and recorded as the forest land irrespective of the existence of trees, while the actual forest cover is the area occupied by forests with canopy.

Forest area is based on the records of the State Revenue Department, while the actual forest cover is based on aerial photographs and satellite imageries.

According to India State of Forest Report 2011, the actual forest cover in India is only 21.05 percent. Of the forest cover, the share of dense and open forests is 12.29 and 8.75 percent respectively. Both forest area and forest cover vary from state to state. Lakshadweep has zero percent forest area; Andaman and Nicobar Islands have 86.93 percent. Most of the states with less than 10 percent of the forest area lie in the north and northwestern part of the country. These are Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.

States with 10-20 percent forest area are Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. In Peninsular India, excluding Tamil Nadu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Goa, the area under forest cover is 20-30 percent. The northeastern states have more than 30 percent of the land under forest. Hilly topography and heavy rainfall are good for forest growth. There is a lot of variation in actual forest cover, which ranges from 9.56 percent in Jammu and Kashmir to 84.01 percent in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

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