Forest Cover in India

greenpeace4As per India State of Forest Report, 2011, the forest cover of India is 6,92,027 Km2. The details of forest cover, state-wise are given below :-

State/UT

Geographical

 Area

 2011 Assessment

 

Very Dense

Forest

Mod. Dense

Forest

Open

Forest

Total

Forest cover as percentage of geographical area (%)

Andhra Pradesh

275069

850

26242

19297

46389

16.86

Arunachal Pradesh

83743

20868

31519

15023

67410

80.50

Assam

78438

1444

11404

14825

27673

35.28

Bihar

94163

231

3280

3334

6845

7.27

Chhattisgarh

135191

4163

34911

16600

55674

41.18

Delhi

1483

7

49

120

176

11.88

Goa

3702

543

585

1091

2219

59.94

Gujarat

196022

376

5231

9012

14619

7.46

Haryana

44212

27

457

1124

1608

3.64

Himachal Pradesh

55673

3224

6381

5074

14679

26.37

Jammu & Kashmir

222236

4140

8760

9639

22539

10.14

Jharkhand

79714

2590

9917

10470

22977

28.82

Karnataka

191791

1777

20179

14238

36194

18.87

Kerala

38863

1442

9394

6464

17300

44.52

Madhya Pradesh

308245

6640

34986

36074

77700

25.21

Maharashtra

307713

8736

20815

21095

50646

16.46

Manipur

22327

730

6151

10209

17090

76.54

Meghalaya

22429

433

9775

7067

17275

77.02

Mizoram

21081

134

6086

12897

19117

90.68

Nagaland

16579

1293

4931

7094

13318

80.33

Orissa

155707

7060

21366

20477

48903

31.41

Punjab

50362

0

736

1028

1764

3.50

Rajasthan

342239

72

4448

11567

16087

4.70

Sikkim

7096

500

2161

698

3359

47.34

Tamil Nadu

130058

2948

10321

10356

23625

18.16

Tripura

10486

109

4686

3182

7977

76.04

Uttar Pradesh

240928

1626

4559

8153

14338

5.95

Uttarakhand

53483

4762

14167

5567

24496

45.80

West Bengal

88752

2984

4646

5365

12995

14.64

A&NIslands

8249

3761

2416

547

6724

81.51

Chandigarh

114

1

10

6

17

14.72

Dadra & Nagar   Haveli

491

0

114

97

211

42.97

Daman & Diu

112

0

0.62

5.53

6

5.49

Lakshadweep

32

0

17.18

9.88

27

84.56

Puducherry

480

0

35.37

14.69

50

10.43

Grand Total

3287263

83471

320736

287820

692027

21.05

            This was stated by Shrimati Jayanthi Natarajan Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests, in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.

The Minister further stated that the Central Government, as on 31.03.2013, accorded 23,367 approvals under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 for diversion of 11,57,468 hectares of forest land for non-forest purpose. To mitigate impacts of diversion of forest land on the ecology, environment, biodiversity and overall forest cover in the country, the Central Government while according approvals under the Forest (conservation) Act, 1980 for diversion of forest land stipulates appropriate conditions. Important among these are transfer and mutation of equivalent non-forest land in favour of State Forest Department (SFD) for compensatory afforestation from the funds provided by the user agency; notification of such non-forest land transferred in favour of the SFD as Reserved Forest/Protected Forest; realization of the Net Present Value (NPV) of the diverted forest from the user agency for execution of various activities for conservation, protection and management of forests and wildlife; and realization of funds from the user agencies for preparation and execution of appropriate plans for conservation and development of wildlife in and around the forest land proposed to be diverted for non-forest purposes.

The Minister further stated that As mentioned in India State of Forest Report-2011, gregarious occurrence of weeds like lantana in forest areas and agricultural crops like sugarcane, cotton, etc. occurring in the vicinity of forest area cause mixing of the spectral signatures and often make precise forest cover delineation difficult. However, Forest Survey of India takes due care for such areas and through extensive ground truthing this error is minimized. As per ISFR-2011 the accuracy of classification of forest cover is 95.23%.