Northeast Loses Over 500 sq km of Forest in Two Years Even as India’s Green Cover Grows

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: At a time when the recent deluge that swept through Upper Assam was attributed to water flowing in from neighbouring states after heavy rainfall there, it has come to light that more than 500 square km of forest cover has been lost in six NE states, including Assam, in just two years. The highest denudation of 125.22 sq km of forest cover has occurred in the state of Nagaland.

Various individuals and organisations have levelled serious allegations against illegal stone and coal mining in the border areas of Assam-Nagaland. Felling trees in the name of development is another factor that has caused such devastating floods, they stressed.

The Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun, an organisation under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, carries out the assessment of forest and tree cover in the country biennially, and the findings are published in the India State of Forest Report (ISFR). The forest cover assessment is a wall-to-wall mapping exercise based on remote sensing supported by intensive ground verification and field data from the National Forest Inventory and is published at national and state levels. The  ISFR report is published every two years.

The loss of such huge forest cover in the NE states was revealed in the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023. According to the report, the loss of forest and tree cover in the six NE states was as follows: Arunachal Pradesh by 52.49 sq km, Assam 83.92 sq km, Manipur 62.20 sq km, Meghalaya 84.07 sq km, Nagaland 125.22 sq km and Tripura 100.70 sq km. The forest and tree cover loss is calculated on the basis of the difference as published in ISFR 2021 and ISFR 2023.

As per the ISFR 2021, the total forest and tree cover in Arunachal Pradesh was 67,135.69 sq km, which decreased to 67,083.20 sq km in 2023; in Assam, such cover was 30,498.93 sq km in 2021, decreasing to 30,415.01 sq km in 2023; in Manipur, the figures for 2021 and 2023 were 16,857.48 sq km and 16,795.28 sq km, respectively; in Meghalaya, the numbers were 17,771.47 sq km and 17,687.40 sq km, respectively; in Nagaland, the cover was 12,741.71 sq km and 12,616.49 sq km, respectively; and in Tripura, the forest and tree cover was 7,933.03 sq km in 2021 and 7,832.33 sq km in 2023.

Incidentally, two states of the NE were reported to have increased the forest and tree cover. The states are Mizoram and Sikkim, with an increase of 178.42 sq km and 2.88 sq km, respectively.

It is worth noting that the forest and tree cover in the country as a whole increased between 2021 and 2023, but the NE region saw a decrease in such cover during the same period.

As per ISFR 2023, the total forest and tree cover is 8,27,357.95 sq km, which is 25.17% of the geographical area of the country. As compared to ISFR 2021, the total forest and tree cover has increased by 1,445.81 sq km.

The effect of the loss of forest and tree cover on climate change needs to be studied in light of the recent unnatural weather events in the NE, which is attributed to floods, landslides and other devastating incidents occurring in the region.

It needs to be mentioned here that the ISFR report for 2025 is yet to be published.

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