India lost dense forests, gained tree cover

India lost dense forests, gained tree cover, says Govt report

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.

The biennial India State of Forest Report (ISFR 2023) released by Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Saturday in Dehradun reported a net gain of 156 sq km in India’s forest cover and 1,289 sq km in tree cover since 2021. It also recorded a complete loss of 3,656 sq km of dense forests at that time.

Releasing the report, Minister Yadav expressed happiness over the fact that as compared to 2021, there is an increase of 1,445 sq km in the total forest and tree cover of the country.

He also highlighted the near real-time fire alerts and forest fire services provided by FSI using advanced technology.

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. Incidentally, Odisha was one of the top gainers in ISFR 2021 as well.

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.

Some of this loss was offset by the transformation of 895 sq km of non-forests to dense forests: 55.53 sq km to VDF and 839.26 sq km to MDF. These are plantations of limited ecological value as natural forests do not grow so fast.

ISFR 2023 carried out a decadal changes analysis of forest cover of Western Ghats Eco-Sensitive Areas and recorded an overall loss of 58.22 sq km in forest cover since 2013. In that time, the landscape gained 3,465.12 sq km in VDF while MDF and OF decreased by 1,043.23 sq km and 2,480.11 sq km respectively.

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.