Forest / Tree Resources in India – Short Essay
The State of Forest Report (SFR), 12th in series was published in 2012. As per SFR, the forest cover in the country as been assessed as 78.29 million hac, which constitutes 23.8% of the country’s geographical area.
Forest/Tree Resources:
i. Forest and Tree Cover of the country as per this assessment is 7.829 m ha. Which is 23.81% of the geographical area. This includes 2.75% of tree cover.
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ii. The forest and tree cover would work out to 25.22% after exclusion of 183135 Km2 area above the altitude 4,000m from the total geographical area of the country as these areas do not support tree growth,
iii. There is a decreases of 367 Km2 in the forest cover in comparison to 2009 assessment. However, after accounting for interpretational changes in the assessment of 2009, there is a net increases of 1128 sq. km in the forest cover as compared to 2009 assessment.
iv. In hill and tribal districts of the country, a decrease in forest cover of 548 Km2 and 679 Km2 respectively has been reported as compared to the previous assessment.
v. The north eastern states of India account for one-fourth of the country’s forest cover. There is a net decline of 549 Km2 in forest cover as compared to the previous assessment.
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vi. Mangrove cover has increased by 23.34 Km2 during the same period.
vii. The total growing stock of India’s forest and trees outside forest is estimated as 6047.15 m cum which comprises 4498.73 m cum inside the forests and 1548.42 m cum outside the forests.
viii. The total bamboo bearing areas in the country is estimated to be 13.96 m ha.
ix. The total carbon stock in the country’s forests is estimated to be 6663 m tones.
Image Source: nature.com