Table of Contents
Status of Forest Cover in India
- India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021 is the assessment of India’s forests by the Forest Survey of India. This is the 17th biennial assessment.
- In this edition, a special chapter on “Forest Cover assessment in Tiger reserves and Tiger corridor areas of the country and decadal change in Forest Cover” has also been added.
- FSI is an organization under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
According to the India State of Forest Report 2021:
- The Total Forest and Tree cover is 24.62% of the country’s geographical area.
- The largest forest cover in India is in Madhya Pradesh, followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Maharashtra.
- At the national level, forest cover has increased by 1,540 square kilometers.
- States that have shown a significant gain in forest cover are Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Karnataka, and Jharkhand.
- The tree cover has increased from 90,844 square kilometers in 2011 to 95,748 square kilometers in 2021, representing a decadal increase of 4,904 square kilometers.
- Forest Survey report 2021 released; increase of 2,261 sq km in the total forest and tree cover of the country in last two years.
- Area-wise Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover in the country
- Maximum increase in forest cover witnessed in Andhra Pradesh (647 sq km) followed by Telangana (632 sq km) and Odisha (537 sq km).
- 17 states/UT’s have above 33 percent of the geographical area under forest cover.
- Total carbon stock in country’s forest is estimated to be 7,204 million tonnes, an increase of 79.4 million
- Total mangrove cover in the country is 4,992 sq km, an increase of 17 sq Km observed
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