India State of Forest Report

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 report 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 (FTC)

• Total FTC: 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 FTC: 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.
  1. Increase in Forest Cover: 1,540 sq km
  2. Increase in Tree Cover: 721 sq km.
• States Showing Increase in Forest Cover: The top three states include Andhra Pradesh (647 sq km) followed by Telangana (632 sq km) and Odisha (537 sq km).

Forest Cover

• 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/UTs have above 33 Percent of the Geographical Area Under Forest Cover. Out of these states and UTs, 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.

Comparison with 2019 Report

• As compared to ISFR 2019 the current assessment shows an increase of:
• 0.28% of forest and tree cover put together, at the national level
• 0.22% of Forest Cover
• 0.76% of Tree Cover

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).

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.