“India State of Forest Report (ISFR)” for 2019.

The Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change recently released the biennial “India State of Forest Report (ISFR)” for 2019.

The report is published by the Forest Survey of India (FSI).

FSI has been mandated to

see the forest and tree resources of the country including wall-to-wall forest cover mapping in a biennial cycle.

Starting 1987, 16 assessment have been completed so far. ISFR 2019 is the 16th report in the series.

Key findings

👉The total tree and forest cover in the country increased by 5,188 Sqkm with sharpest declines in the northeastern states.

👉There is an increase of 46 million tonnes in the carbon stock of the country.

👉The total forest cover (TFC) in 2019 is 21.67% of the total geographical area (TGA) of the country as against 21.54% in 2017.

👉Tree cover is estimated as 2.89% of the total geographical area (TGA).

👉Tree and forest cover together made up 24.56% of the geographical area.

👉India‘s forest cover . has increased by 3,976 sq km or 0.56% since 2017.

👉For the second successive time since 2007, the SFR recorded a gain (an impressive 1,275 sq km) in dense forest

👉This includes Very Dense Forest canopy density of 40-70%. with a canopy density of over 70%, and Moderately Dense Forest

👉Around 2,140 sq km of dense forests became non-forests since 2017.

👉 [A dense forest can deteriorate into an open forest (10-40% canopy density) but conversion to non-forest signifies total destruction.]

👉In terms of canopy density classes, area covered by Very Dense Forests (VDF) is 3.02%, Moderately Dense Forest is 9.39% and Open Forest is 9.26%.

👉The category of VDF has increased by a mere 1.14% between 2017 and 2019.

👉Area-wise Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover in the country followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.

👉The top 3 States showing maximum loss in forest cover are Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.

👉In terms of forest cover as percentage of total geographical area, the top five States are Mizoram (85.41%), Arunachal Pradesh (79.63%), Meghalaya (76.33%), Manipur (75.46%) and Nagaland (75.31%).

👉The top 5 States showing an increase in forest cover are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

👉The top 3 States showing maximum loss in forest cover are Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.

👉The forest cover within the Recorded Forest Area or officially classified as 'forest‘ by States/Centre showed a decrease, but 'forest‘ outside such recorded area increased by 4,306 sqkm.

👉Maharashtra had the largest extent of such tree outside forest.

👉The biggest loss is under the tropical semi-evergreen head in

SFR 2019 - close to 23,500 sq km.

👉[In India, tropical semi-evergreen forests are found along the western coast, lower slopes of the eastern Himalayas, Odisha and Andamans.]

Mangroves

✍️The total mangrove cover 4,975 sq km. in the country

✍️An increase of 54 sq Km in mangrove cover has been observed as compared to the previous assessment of 2017.

✍️Top three states showing mangrove cover increase are Gujarat (37 sq km) followed by Maharashtra (16 sq km) and Odisha (8 sq km).

Carbon Stock - The extent of bamboo bearing area of the country has been estimated 16 million hectare.

✍️There is an increase of 0.32 million hectare in bamboo bearing area as compared to ISFR 2017.

✍️Under the current assessment, the total carbon stock in the country‘s forest is estimated at around 7,100 million tonnes.

✍️There is an increase of 42.6 million tonnes in the carbon stock of the country as compared to 2017.

✍️The annual increase in the carbon stock is 21.3 million tonnes, which is 78.2 million tonnes CO2 equivalent.

✍️ Wetlands – FSI started a new exercise of overlaying spatial layer of wetlands in the forest areas.

✍️It covers 3.83% of the area withing Recorded Forest Area (RFA) and 8.13% of total wetlands are located with the RFA.

✍️Forest Fire – 21.40% of the forest cover is prone to extremely high forest fire.

✍️Most of it are located in the northeastern and central region of the country.

✍️Biodiversity – In an first attempt, FSI has carried out a rapid assessment of biodiversity in the States and UTs.

✍️Maximum Tree diversity is in tropical wet evergreen and semi-evergreen forests of Western Ghats (Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka) followed by northeastern states.

Species Richness – Karnataka has the highest species richness

✍️Dependence of fuelwood on forests is highest in the State of Maharashtra, whereas, for fodder,small timber and bamboo, dependence is highestin Madhya Pradesh.

✍️Redefining and updating the forest cover as per the latest baseline completed in 2019. Forest Survey of India

Forest Survey of India (FSI) is an organisation under the Ministry of Environment & Forests.

✍️Its principal mandate is to conduct survey and assessment of forest resources in the country.

✍️The Forest Survey of India organize the training programmes to state sponsored forest personnel.

✍️ FSI releases State of Forest Report biennially based on satellite imageries.

✍️According to the State of Forest Report, the definition of forest cover includes all lands more than 1 hectare in area with a tree canopy of more than 10 per cent, irrespective of land use, ownership, and legal status

✍️Similarly "tree cover" is defined as ―tree patches outside recorded forest areas exclusive of forest cover and less than the minimum mappable area of 1 hectare

✍️There is a third measure known as Tree outside forest (TOF).

The india State of Forest Report 2017‘ defines TOF as ―trees existing outside the recorded forest area in the form of block, linear & scattered size of patche

Since tree cover measures only non-forest patches that are less than 1 hectare, it is only a part of TOF.