Why in News?

• Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, has on 13 January, 2022, released the ‘India State of Forest Report 2021’. The report is prepared by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) which has been mandated to assess the forest and tree resources of the country.

About India State of Forest Report

• India State of Forest Report (ISFR) is a biennial publication of Forest Survey of India (FSI) an organization under the Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change Government of India.
• The FSI has been mandated to assess the forest and tree resources of the country including wallto-wall forest cover mapping in a biennial cycle.
• Started in 1987, 17 assessment have been completed so far. ISFR 2021 is the 17th report in the series.
• In the current report, FSI has introduced a new chapter related to the assessment of forest cover in the tiger reserves, corridors, and lion conservation area of India.

About Forest Survey of India

• Forest Survey of India started as an organization called Pre-Investment Survey of Forest Resources (PISFR) in 1965 as FAO/UNDP/GOI Project.
• The changing information needs resulted in enlarging the scope of activities of PISFR and it was re-organized as Forest Survey of India in 1981.

Forest cover

• All lands more than one hectare in an area, with a tree canopy density of more than 10%,including tree orchards, bamboo, palms etc., occurring within recorded forest and other government lands, private community or institutional lands, are included in the assessment of Forest Cover.

Tree cover

• Isolated trees and small patches of trees, which are less than one hectare in area and found outside recorded forest areas (RFA), are considered for assessment.

Classification of Forests

• Very Dense Forest ( crown density of 70% or above)
• Moderately Dense Forest (crown density 40-70%)
• Open Forest (crown density 10-40%)
• Scrub (crown density less than 10 per cent)

Major findings of ISFR 2021

1. India’s total forest and tree cover is now 80.9 million hectares, which is 24.62% of the geographical area of the country.
2. 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.
3. The increase in the forest cover has been observed as 1,540 sq km and that in tree cover is 721 sq km.
4. Increase in forest cover has been observed in open forest followed by very dense forest.
5. Top three states showing increase in forest cover are Andhra Pradesh (647 sq km) followed by Telangana (632 sq km) and Odisha (537 sq km).
6. Area-wise Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover in the country followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.
7. 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%)
8. 17 states/UT’s have above 33 percent of the geographical area under forest cover.
9. Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have more than 75% forest cover.
10. Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Goa, Kerala, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Assam, Odisha, have forest cover between 33 percent to 75 percent.
11. 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.
12. Top three states showing mangrove cover increase are Odisha (8 sq km), Maharashtra (4 sq km) and Karnataka (3 sq km).
13. 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.