New Delhi: Indian areas under trees and forest cover have increased by 2.261 square kilometers in the past two years, according to the Indian State Report (ISFR) 2021 released on Thursday.
The total forest cover and the country’s tree is now 80.9 million hectares, which is 24.62 percent of the geographical area.
This, after an increase in forest cover of 1,540 square kilometers and the tree continues by 721 square kilometers.
In terms of the area, Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover in the country followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.
As a percentage of the total geographical area, five top states were Mizoram (84.53%), Arunachal Pradesh (79.33%), MEGHALAYA (76.00%), Manipur (74.34%) and Nagaland (73.90 %).
The two-annual report by the Indian Forest Survey (FSI), the assessment of state forest resources, was released by the Minister of Environment United Bhupender Yadav.
“Advantages in forest cover or increased density of forest canopies can be attributed to better conservation measures, protection, afforestation activities, tree plantations and agroforestry,” the report said.
On ISFR 2021, FSI has included a new chapter related to the assessment of forest cover in tiger reserves, corridors and lion conservation areas in India.
In this context, the decadal assessment of forest cover changes in tiger reserves, corridors and lion conservation areas helps in assessing the impact of conservation and management interventions that have been carried out for years.
For decadal assessment, changes in forest cover, during the period between ISFR 2011 (data period 2008 to 2009) and current cycles (ISFR 2021, data period 2019-2020) in each tiger reserve was analyzed.
A new initiative from FSI has also been documented in the form of a chapter, where ‘biomass on the ground’ is estimated.
FSI, in collaboration with the Space Application Center (SAC), ISRO, Ahmedabad, initiated a special study to estimate biomass on the ground (AGB) at the Pan-India level, using the Synthetic L-Band Aperture Radar (SAR) data.
Results for Assam and Odisha countries (as well as AGB maps), presented earlier at ISFR 2019.
Temporary results for AGB estimates (and AGB maps) for all countries are presented as a new chapter in ISFR 2021.
Detailed reports will be published after the settlement of research.
FSI in collaboration with the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) Pilani, Goa Campus has conducted research based on the ‘climate change hotspot mapping in Indian forests’.
Collaborative studies are carried out with the aim of mapping climate hotspots for forest cover in India, using computer temperature and rainfall data projections based on computer models, for the next three periods of time which is 2030, 2050 and 2085.
Reports also contain information about various status parameters / UT wise .
Thematic information specifically about forest cover such as hills, tribal districts, and northeastern regions have also been given separately in the report.