Explanation:
The India State of Forest Report 2019 released recently shows an increase of 5,188 square kilometres of forest and tree cover across the country compared to the ISFR 2017.
However, the report highlights that northeast India continues to lose forests when compared to ISFR 2017 and previous reports.
The forest report also reveals that the forest area under the category “recorded forest area” (land notified as forest by the government) in tribal districts, which are home to about 60 percent of India’s forests, is decreasing as well.
The report for the first time did an assessment of biodiversity for all states and union territories and found that Arunachal Pradesh has the maximum richness of species in terms of trees, shrubs and herbs followed by Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
Nearly 25 percent (one fourth) of India’s total land area is now under forest and tree cover. However, there is still a long way to go – more than a decade, admits the government – before India reaches its target of having 33 percent of its total area under forest and tree cover. The latest ‘India State of Forest Report (ISFR 2019) released by the country’s environment minister Prakash Javadekar on December 30, 2019, revealed that the total forest and tree cover of the country is 807,276 square kilometres (which is 24.56 percent of the geographical area of the country) compared to 802,088 sq km (24.39 percent) in ISFR 2017. The report marked an increase of 5,188 sq. km. of forest and tree cover combined, at the national level, as compared to the previous assessment. When the last assessment, ISFR 2017, was released, an increase of 8,021 sq. km. was recorded compared to the data in ISFR 2015.
While the overall forest and tree cover marked an increase on a national level, the report highlighted a decrease in the forest area in the country’s northeast region. This decline in forest area in the northeast has been an ongoing trend with the region witnessing a loss of about 3,199 sq. km. of forest area sine 2009.
