Forest covers in India’s Western Ghats and the Northeast region are declining, even as the country’s total forest and tree cover has grown by 1,445 square kilometres, covering 25.17 percent of India’s geographical area, according to a latest report issued by the Union government.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate (MoEFCC) Change released the biennial State of Forest Report (SOFR) 2023 on December 21, which found that the growth in the overall forest cover in the country is not due to an increase in natural dense forests, but primarily because of plantations and agroforestry, which are considered outside of recorded forest areas (RFAs).
In the report, the MoEFCC for the first time has focussed on the Western Ghats, an eco-sensitive area which is also an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Western Ghats cover an area of nearly 60,285.61 sq km, in which forest cover is estimated at 44,043.99 sq km (73 percent). It covers six states - Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
It stated that the Western Ghats have lost 58.22 square kilometres (sq km) of forest cover in the past decade. “Though very dense forest increased by 3,465.12 sq km, whereas moderately dense forest and open forest decreased by 1,043.23 sq km and 2,480.11 sq km,” the report said.
The worst hit is the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, which has seen 123.44 sq km of forest loss compared to 2013. Idukki in Kerala recorded a 97.94 sq km decline, followed by Pune (Maharashtra) with a decline of 82.65 sq km.
The report also highlighted the issue of degradation of forest cover in the hilly states of India’s Northeastern region, which boasts of the country’s richest forest resources. “The total forest and tree cover in the North Eastern region is 1,74,394.70 sq km, which is 67 percent of the geographical area of these states. The current assessment shows a decrease of forest cover of 327.30 sq km in the region,” it stated.
Northeast India comprises eight states - Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura. While it covers only 7.98 petcent of India’s land area, the region accounts for 21.08 percent of the total forest and tree cover in the country.
All northeastern states except Mizoram and Sikkim saw a decline in forest cover with Nagaland’s forest cover vanishing the most by 125.22 sq kms, followed by Tripura by 100.70 sq kms. In fact, Mizoram is leading across all states and union territories in the overall increase in pure forest cover, followed by Gujarat (180 sq km) and Odisha (152 sq km).
But Madhya Pradesh has seen the largest decline in forest cover at 612.41 square km, followed by Karnataka (459.36 sq km), Ladakh (159.26 sq km) and Nagaland (125.22 sq km). Overall, the total forest and tree cover in India is 827,357 sq km, which is 25.17 per cent of the geographical area of the country. The report highlighted that compared to 2021, there is an increase of 1,445 sq km in the total forest and tree cover of the country.
Delhi tops forest cover among mega cities
The report states that Delhi, despite a minor reduction, has the largest forest cover among mega cities. Delhi recorded 195.28 sq km of forest cover, as per the report, which translates to 13.17 percent of the national capital’s total area of 1,483 sq km.
According to the United Nations criteria of urban agglomerations, a mega city has a population of 10 million or more. In India, six cities meet this criterion - Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata. But the report also has included Ahmedabad as a mega city as, according to the government, it is rapidly growing and is on the verge of becoming a mega city.
“From the current assessment, it can be seen that Delhi has the largest forest cover (194.15 sq km) followed by Mumbai (110.84 sq km) and Bengaluru (89.61 sq km). There is an increase of 2.09 sq km of forest cover during the two assessments (in 2023 and 2021),” the report stated.
Maximum gain in forest cover has been seen in Ahmedabad (5.48 sq km) followed by Bengaluru (0.59 sq km), while maximum loss in forest cover is seen in Chennai (2.64 sq km) and Hyderabad (1.61 sq km) cities, respectively.
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