India State of Forest Report 2017

India State of Forest Report 2017

(All Important Point For your Exam)

India State of Forest Report  is a biennial report published by Forest Survey of India (FSI), since 1987. which is under the Ministry of Environment. The India State of Forest Report 2017 is 15^th such report in the series   The total forest cover is 7, 08,273 sq.km which is 21.54% of the geographical area of the country. The total Tree cover is 93,815 sq.km which is 2.85% of the geographical area of the country.

“India’s rank in forest and tree cover 10^th“

^{“Top 3 country in forest cover area:- Russia, Brazil, Canada ”}

As per the latest FAO report, India is placed 8^th in the list of Top Ten nations reporting the greatest annual net gain in forest area.

India In World

The Increase In Forest & Tree Cover from 2015 to 2017

Reasons behind the increase of forest and tree cover are:

• The national policies,
• Agro-forestry practices,
• Better conservation of forests,
• Improvement of scrub areas to forest areas,
• Increase in mangrove cover,
• Conservation and
• Protection activities have also led to increase in the forest and tree cover and
• Green Highways (Plantations & Maintenance) Policy
• Please note: Green Highways (Plantations & Maintenance) Policy aims develop 1,40,000 km long tree line with plantation along with both sides of national highways.

Reasons behind the decrease of forest and tree cover are:

• Shifting cultivation,
• Other biotic pressures,
• Rotational felling,
• Diversion of forest lands for developmental activities,
• Submergence of forest cover,
• Agriculture expansion and
• Natural disasters

India State of Forest Report 2017

Water bodies State Forest Departments besides plantation and protection also undertake steps to improve water conservation through different interventions such as building Check dams, vegetation barriers, percolation ponds, contour trenches etc. under various Central & State Government schemes

• Water bodies inside forest cover have increased by 2,647 sqkms during the last decade.
• States showing increase in water bodies within forest areas:
  • Maharashtra (432 sqkms),
  • Gujarat (428 sqkms),
  • Madhya Pradesh (389 sqkms).

Mangrove cover:

• The total mangrove cover stands at 4,921 sq km Mangrove forests(सदाबहार वन ) have increased by 181 sqkms.
• The mangrove cover in the country is 0.15% of the total geographical area of the country
• States showing increase in terms of mangrove cover:
  • Maharashtra (82 sqkms),
  • Andhra Pradesh (37 sqkms) and
  • Gujarat (33 sqkms).

• The 2015 assessment covered 589 districts of the country, while the new assessment covers 633 districts.

• India’s northeast showed a decrease in the forest cover.
• Mangrove eco-systems are rich in biodiversity and provide number of ecological services.
• They also play a major role in protecting coastal areas from erosion, tidal storms and tsunamis.
• 7 out of 12 mangrove states have shown an increase in mangrove cover and none of them show any negative change

Please note: Mangroves play a major role in protecting coastal areas from erosion, tidal storms and tsunamis.

Very Dense Forest: Canopy density of 70 % or more

Moderately Dense Forest: Canopy density between 40 % and 70 %

Open Forest: Canopy density between 10 % and 40 %

Scrub: Forest land with canopy density of 10% and less

Category-wise topper states

India State of Forest Report 2017

Bamboo Cover

• The extent of bamboo-bearing area in country is estimated at 15.69 million ha.
• There has been an increase of 1.73 million ha in bamboo area in comparison to last assessment done in 2011.
• There is increase of 19 million tonnes in bamboo-growing stock as compared to last assessment done in 2011.
• The growing stock of bamboo in forest has been estimated to be 189 million tonnes.

Water conservation

• State Forest Departments have also undertaken steps to improve water conservation through different interventions such as building Check dams, vegetation barriers, percolation ponds, contour trenches etc. under various Central & State Government schemes.

All Other Overview

# The very dense forest has increased by 1.36 % as compared to last assessment. This is very heartening as VDF absorbs maximum carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

#Green Highways (Plantations & Maintenance) Policy to develop 1,40,000 km long tree line with plantation along with both sides of national highways will go a long way in enhancing the forest & tree cover.

# As per present assessment total carbon stock in forest is estimated to be 7,082 million tonnes. There is an increase of 38 million tonnes in the carbon stock of country as compared to the last assessment.The report uses the scientific tools like forest mensuration to get information on tree cover, mangrove growth, carbon stock in the forests and the forest cover.

# The earlier satellite imagery scale was 1: 1 million (leading to some miscalculations), but the new scale has been changed to 1: 50,000 to accommodate even the tiniest of patches.

# India is striving towards achieving its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) goal of creating additional carbon sink of 5 to 3.0 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030

# Forests in most of the biodiversity-rich north-eastern part of the country have been contracting continuously over the last few years.

# It is important to mention here that these states are in the North Eastern region of the country where the total forest cover is very high i.e. more than 70% in each state.

# The spatial information given in the report is based on interpretation of LISS-III data from Indian Remote Sensing satellite data (Resourcesat-II).

# Satellite data for the entire country was procured from NRSC for the period October, 2015 – February, 2016.

# The satellite data interpretation is verified by ground truthing.

# 18, 000 points all over report the country have been physically surveyed in a scientific manner in the preparation 

India State of Forest Report 2017