Forest and tree cover increased by 21,219 sq. km
ALL FOREST AND TREE CANOPY PATCHES UPTO ONE HECTARE MAPPED
STATE OF FOREST REPORT – 2003 RELEASED
The total forest and tree cover of the country has increased to 778,229 sq. km constituting 23.68% of its geographic area, against 757,010 sq. km constituting 23.03% of geographic area in 2001 assessment. Thus, there is an increase of forest and tree cover by 21,219 sq. km, which is 0.65% of geographical area as compared to 2001 assessment.
This has been indicated in the State of Forest Report – 2003 (SFR-2003), which was released by the Minister of Environment and Forests, Thiru A. Raja, here today. Minister of State for Environment and Forests Shri Namo Narain Meena was also present on the occasion.
The total tree cover of the country has been estimated as 99,896 sq.km or about 3.04 percent of the country’s geographic area, which is 18,424 sq. km more than what was assessed in 2001.
The forest cover in the country has been assessed as 678,333 sq. km., constituting 20.64 percent of its geographical area. Of this, the very dense forest (VDF) constitutes 51,285 sq.km.,(1.56%) modeterately dense forest (MDF) constitutes 339,279 sq.km (10.32%) and open forest constitutes 287,769 sq.km (8.76%). A comparison with the forest cover assessment of 2001 reveals an overall increase of 2,795 sq.km or 0.41 percent in forest cover of the country.
The total volume of wood in the country is estimated to be 6,414 million cubic meter (m.cu.m.) that includes 4,782 m.cu.m. inside forest area and 1,632 m.cu.m. of TOF (Trees Outside Forests).
SFR-2003 has been enriched by the incorporation of many new features. The most prominent one is the introduction of one more density class in the classification of forest cover. Up to SFR-2001, any forest cover with a canopy density more than 40% was classified as ‘Dense Forest’ (DF). SFR-2003 shows the forest cover with a canopy density over 70% as ‘Very Dense Forest’ (VDF); and that with canopy density between 40 and 70% as ‘Moderately Dense Forest’ (MDF). The same category has been introduced in mangrove cover assessment too.
Another newly incorporated highly useful feature is the data on the growing stock of wood. The report provides information on volumes of wood not only in forest areas but also outside it. Sound statistical techniques have been used for this estimation, which is valuable for planning and management decision-making.
This report is the ninth assessment of the forest cover of the country carried out by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun – an organization under the Ministry of Environment & Forests, which assesses forest and tree cover of the country on a two-year cycle. The assessment of forest and tree cover is based on interpretation of data from Indian Remote Sensing Satellites for the year 2002.
The present State of Forest Report (SFR) provides the forest cover in the country at 1:50,000 scale using Digital Image Processing techniques. As was the case in SFR-2001, forest cover comprises of all lands more than one hectare in area, with a tree canopy density of more than 10 percent, irrespective of land use and ownership.
FSI has also estimated the area under tree cover, which is below 1 ha, using a new methodology based on high-resolution remote sensing data. By this method one can identify a tree vegetated land as small as 0.1 ha on the ground. Thus, on the pattern of last report, a complete picture of forest and tree cover in the country has been provided in the SFR-2003 also.
Besides providing information on current status of country’s forest and tree cover to policy makers, foresters and other users, SFR 2003 contains a wealth of scientific data and statistics, which makes it a very useful document for academicians, statisticians, research scholars and forestry students.
AKS/rs