New Delhi: India’s forest and tree cover has grown by 1,445 square kilometers since the 2021 assessment. This includes an increase of 156 square kilometers in forest cover and 1,289 square kilometers in tree cover. Meanwhile, the country also recorded a complete loss of 3,656 sq km of dense forests at that time. The ‘India State of Forest Report 2023’ (ISFR 2023) released by Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav at the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun showed this.
According to the latest assessment, the total forest and tree cover in India stands at 8 lakh 27 thousand 357 square kilometers. This represents 25.17 percent of the country’s total geographical area. Of this, 7 lakh 15 thousand 343 square kilometers is classified as forest cover, while 1 lakh 12 thousand 14 square kilometers is tree cover.
Tree patches smaller than 1 hectare are not considered forests and are accounted for separately as tree cover. At 1,12,014 sq km, India’s tree cover now extends over 3.41% of the land area and supplements India’s 21.76% forest cover.
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The top four states that recorded the maximum increase in forest and tree cover are Chhattisgarh (684 sq km) followed by Uttar Pradesh (559 sq km), Odisha (559 sq km) and Rajasthan (394 sq km).The four states that recorded the maximum loss in forest and tree cover between 2021 and 2023 are Madhya Pradesh (612.41 sq km), Karnataka (459.36 sq km), Ladakh (159.26 sq km) and Nagaland (125.22 sq km).
When it comes to gain in forest cover alone, Mizoram (242 sq km), Gujarat (180 sq km) and Odisha (152 sq km) topped the chart. As many as 21 states and UTs have shown an increasing trend in tree cover, which indicates agroforestry promotion, with Chhattisgarh (702.75 sq km) Rajasthan (478.26 sq km) and Uttar Pradesh (440.76 sq km) in the lead.
In terms of quality (canopy density), India’s forests are classified under three categories: very dense forest (VDF) with a 70% or higher canopy density, moderate dense forest (MDF) with 40-70% canopy density and open forest (OF) with less than 40% canopy density.
Depending on various factors such as climate and protection, a forest patch can gain or lose density — OFs may improve to MDFs, or MDFs may thin to OF — during the 2-year ISFR cycle. But when a previously forested area is recorded as non-forest (NF), it signifies a complete loss of that forest. According to the latest ISFR, 294.75 sq km of VDF and 3,361.5 sq km of MDF became non-forests during 2021-2023 in India. Together, that is a loss of 3,656 sq km of dense forests in two years.
Since 2021, the country’s mangrove cover shrunk by 7.43 sq km with Gujarat recording the biggest loss of 36.39 sq km. However, Andhra Pradesh (13.01 sq km) and Maharashtra (12.39 sq km) recorded notable gains in mangroves.
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