India State of Forest Report, 2019: Key Findings - PIB-31-12-2019

The Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javadekar released the biennial “India State of Forest Report (ISFR)”.
* Published by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) in a biennial cycle.
* Starting 1987, 16 assessment have been completed so far.
* ISFR 2019 is the 16th report in the series.

* The total forest and tree cover of the country is 80.73 million hectare which is 24.56 percent of the geographical area of the country.

* Compared to the assessment of 2017, there is an increase of 5,188 sq. km in the total forest and tree cover of the country.
The increase in the forest cover has been observed as 3,976 sq km and that in tree cover is 1,212 sq. km.
* Range increase in forest cover has been observed in open forest followed by very dense forest and moderately dense forest.

The top three states showing increase in forest cover are
1. Karnataka (1,025 sq. km)
2. Andhra Pradesh (990 sq km)
3. Kerala (823 sq km).

Some Major Findings

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 percentage of total geographical area, the top five States are Mizoram (85.41%), Arunachal Pradesh (79.63%), Meghalaya (76.33%), Manipur (75.46%) and Nagaland (75.31%).

Mangroves

* Mangrove cover has been separately reported in the ISFR 2019 and the total mangrove cover is 4,975 sq km.
* An increase of 54 sq Km in mangrove cover has been observed as compared to the previous assessment of 2017.
* Top three states showing mangrove cover increase are Gujarat (37 sq km) followed by Maharashtra (16 sq km) and Odisha (8 sq km).

Bamboo

* The extent of bamboo bearing area of the country has been estimated 16.00 million hectare.
* There is an increase of 0.32 million hectare in bamboo bearing area as compared to the last assessment of ISFR 2017.

Wetlands

* Wetlands within forest areas form important ecosystems and add richness to the biodiversity in forest areas, both of faunal and floral species.
* Due to importance of wetlands, FSI has carried out an exercise at the national level to identify wetlands of more than 1 ha within RFA.
* There are 62,466 wetlands covering 3.8% of the area within the RFA/GW of the country.

Carbon Stock

* Under the current assessment the total carbon stock in country’s forest is estimated 7,124.6 million tonnes.
* There an increase of 42.6 million tonnes in the carbon stock of country as compared to the last assessment of 2017.
* The annual increase in the carbon stock is 21.3 million tonnes, which is 78.2 million tonnes CO2 eq.