|
· The forest cover in the country is 678,333 km² or 20.64% of country’s geographic area as against 675,538 km² or 20.55% assessed in 2001 (2,795 km² more in absolute terms and 0.41% higher with respect to 2001 assessment).
· The total tree cover of the country (computed area with 70% canopy density) has been estimated as 99,896 km² or about 3.04% of the country’s geographic area, which is 18,424 km² more than the previous assessment.
· The total forest and tree cover of the country accounts for 778,229 km² constituting 23.68% of country’s geographic area. Thus, the forest & tree cover shows an increase of 21,219 km², which is 0.65% of geographic area as compared to 2001 assessment.
· Madhya Pradesh with 76,429 km² of forest cover has the maximum forest cover among the States/UTs followed by Arunachal Pradesh (68,019 km²) and Chhattisgarh (55,998 km²).
· Out of 593 districts in the country, 199 districts have less than 5% of their geographic area under forest cover including 59 districts that have less than 1% forest cover. In 146 districts, the forest cover is more than 33% of their geographic area.
· There are 123 districts in the country categorized as hill districts. Total forest cover in these districts is 274,383 km² (average forest cover being 38.77% of their geographic area).
· There are 187 districts categorized as tribal districts. The forest cover in these districts is estimated at 407,298 km² (average forest cover being 36.91% of their geographic area).
· Forest cover mapping of the country has been done at 1:50,000 scale by digital method.
· All forest and tree canopy patches down to one hectare have been mapped.
· One more density class has been introduced in the classification of forest cover. Forest cover with a canopy density of more than 70% has been classified as ‘Very Dense Forest’ (VDF) and that with canopy density of 40% and 70% as ‘Moderately dense Forest’ (MDF).
· Very dense forest constitutes 51,285 km² (1.56%), moderately dense forest constitutes 339,279 km² (10.32%) and open forest constitutes 287,769 km² (8.76%).
· Water bodies inside the forest cover have been assessed and found to occupy
17,396 km².
· The mangrove cover in the country is 4,461 km² (0.14% of country’s geographic area) of which 1,162 km² is very dense, 1,657 km² is moderately dense and 1,642 km² is open mangrove.
· A chapter on the growing stock of wood has been introduced. The total growing stock of wood in the country is estimated to be 6,414 million cubic meters (m.cu.m.), that includes 4,782 m.cu.m. inside forest area and 1,632 m.cu.m. of Tree Outside Forests (TOF).
· The average growing stock in the forest per hectare of recorded forest area works out to be 61.72 cu.m.
AKS/rs
|
