India State of Forest Report 2023

Syllabus: GS3/ Environment

Context

• The Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, released the India State of Forest Report 2023 (ISFR 2023) at Forest Research Institute, Dehradun.

About

• It is published every two years by the Forest Survey of India under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
  • The first survey was published in 1987, and ISFR 2023 is the 18th such report in the series.
• The report contains information on forest cover, tree cover, mangrove cover, growing stock, carbon stock in India’s forests, instances of forest fire, Agroforestry, etc.

Major Findings of ISFR 2023

• The Forest and Tree cover of the country is 8,27,357 sq km which is 25.17 percent of the geographical area of the country, consisting of 7,15,343 sq km (21.76%) as forest cover and 1,12,014 sq km (3.41%) as tree cover.
• 19 states/UTs have above 33 percent of the geographical area under forest cover.
  • Out of these, eight states/UTs namely Mizoram, Lakshadweep, A & N Island, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Manipur have forest cover above 75 percent.
• There is an increase of 1445 sq km in the forest and tree cover of the country which includes 156 sq km increase in the forest cover and 1289 sq km increase in tree cover.
  • Top four states showing maximum increase in forest and tree cover: Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan.
  • Top three states showing maximum increase in forest cover: Mizoram, Gujarat and Odisha.
  • Area wise top three states having largest forest and tree cover: Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, and Maharashtra.
  • Area wise top three states having largest forest cover: Madhya Pradesh , Arunachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
• In terms of percentage of forest cover with respect to total geographical area, Lakshadweep (91.33 percent) has the highest forest cover followed by Mizoram (85.34 percent) and Andaman & Nicobar Island (81.62 percent).
• The total annual potential production of timber from trees outside forest has been estimated as 91.51 million cum.

Achievements

• The extent of bamboo bearing area for the country has been estimated as 1,54,670sq km.
  • As compared to the last assessment done in 2021 there is an increase of 5,227 sq km in bamboo area.
• The total carbon stock in the country’s forest is estimated to be 7,285.5 million tonnes. 
  • There is an increase of 81.5 million tonnes in the carbon stock of the country as compared to the last assessment.

Concern

• India’s mangrove cover has decreased. It is now 4,991.68 sq km, a decrease of 7.43 sq km. 
• Gujarat, has lost the highest area under mangroves, when compared to the last assessment – 36.39 sq km.

Source: PIB