Forest Cover In Northeastern State Reduced By Over 1,000 sq Km During 2019-2021

Guwahati: The forest cover in north-eastern states have lost 1,020 square kilometers of forest during 2019-2021, as per the India State of Forests Report (ISFR) 2021, released by the Ministry of Environment on Thursday.

The eight northeastern states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Sikkim -- account for 23.75 percent of the country's total forest cover.

According to the report, Arunachal Pradesh lost the maximum forest cover of 257 sq km in this time frame, Meghalaya lost 249 sq km, Nagaland 235 sq km, Mizoram 186 sq km, Meghalaya 73 sq km, Assam 15 sq km, Tripura 4 sq km and Sikkim lost one square kilometer forest cover.

The total forest and tree cover of the country is 80.9 million hectares which is 24.62 percent of the geographical area of the country. As compared to the assessment of 2019, there is an increase of 2,261 sq km in the total forest and tree cover of the country. Out of this, the increase in the forest cover has been observed as 1,540 sq km, and that in tree cover is 721 sq km.

''Increase in forest cover has been observed in the open forest followed by very dense forest. The top three states showing an increase in forest cover are Andhra Pradesh (647 sq km) followed by Telangana (632 sq km) and Odisha (537 sq km),'' the report said.

Area-wise Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover in the country followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Maharashtra. In terms of forest cover as a percentage of total geographical area, the top five States are Mizoram (84.53%), Arunachal Pradesh (79.33%), Meghalaya (76.00%), Manipur (74.34%), and Nagaland (73.90%).

The report further said that 17 states/UT's have above 33 percent of the geographical area under forest cover. Out of these states and UT's, five states/UTs namely Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have more than 75 percent forest cover while 12 states/UTs namely Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Goa, Kerala, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Assam, Odisha, have forest cover between 33 percent to 75 percent.

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