India State of Forest Report 2021

On 13^th January, 2022, the Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change has released the biennial ‘India State of Forest Report 2021’ prepared by the Forest Survey of India (FSI).

The ISFR-2021 provides information on forest cover, tree cover, mangrove cover, growing stock, carbon stock in India’s forests, forest fire monitoring, forest cover in tiger reserve areas, above ground estimates of biomass using SAR data & climate change hotspots in Indian forests.

Major Findings

Forest and Tree Cover: The total forest and tree cover of the country is 80.9 million hectare which is 24.62 per cent of the geographical area of the country.

• Increase in Forest & Tree Cover: As compared to the assessment of 2019, there is an increase of 2,261 sq km in the total forest and tree cover of the country. Increase in forest cover has been observed in open forest followed by very dense forest.
• Forest Cover: 1,540 sq km
• Tree Cover: 721 sq km.
• Top Three States Showing Increase in Forest Cover: Andhra Pradesh (647 sq km) followed by Telangana (632 sq km) and Odisha (537 sq km).
• Area-wise Largest Forest Cover: Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover in the country followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.
• Forest Cover as Percentage of Total Geographical Area: In terms of forest cover as percentage of total geographical area, the top five States are Mizoram (84.53%), Arunachal Pradesh (79.33%), Meghalaya (76.00%), Manipur (74.34%) and Nagaland (73.90%).
• 17 states/UT’s have above 33 Percent of the Geographical Area Under Forest Cover: Out of these states and UT’s, five states/UTs namely Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have more than 75 per cent forest cover while 12 states/UTs namely Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Goa, Kerala, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Assam, Odisha, have forest cover between 33 per cent to 75 per cent.

(OF: Open Forest; MDF: Moderately Dense Forest; VDF: Very Dense Forest)

Mangrove Cover: Total mangrove cover in the country is 4,992 sq km.

• An increase of 17 sq Km in mangrove cover has been observed as compared to the previous assessment of 2019.
• Top three states showing mangrove cover increase are Odisha (8 sq km) followed by Maharashtra (4 sq km) and Karnataka (3 sq km).

Impact of Climate Change: The report estimates that by 2030, 45-64% of forests in India will experience the effects of climate change and rising temperatures, and forests in all states will be highly vulnerable climate hot spots.

• Ladakh (forest cover 0.1-0.2%) is likely to be the most affected.
• India’s forests are already showing shifting trends of vegetation types, such as Sikkim which has shown a shift in its vegetation pattern for 124 endemic species.

Forest Fires: The survey has found that 35.46 % of the forest cover is prone to forest fires.

• Out of this, 2.81 % is extremely prone, 7.85% is very highly prone and 11.51 % is highly prone
• The highest numbers of fires were detected in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Carbon Stock: Total carbon stock in country’s forest is estimated to be 7,204 million tonnes and there an increase of 79.4 million tonnes in the carbon stock of country as compared to the last assessment of 2019.

• The annual increase in the carbon stock is 39.7 million tonnes.