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Following is the text of the opening remarks, made by the Minister of Environment and Forests, Thiru. A. Raja, at the release of the State of Forest Report – 2003 (SFR-2003) here today:
“It is my pleasure to release the ‘State of Forest Report 2003’. The Forest Survey of India, an organization under the Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India assesses the forest cover of the country on a two-year cycle using satellite data and publishes the information in the form of ‘State of Forest Report’. The first such report was published in 1987, and this report is the 9th in the series.
By using the satellite data, the forest cover down to one hectare can be recorded and delineated. Areas below one hectare or linear plantations along roads, railway lines or canals and scattered trees which could not be recorded by the satellites were assessed by FSI using appropriate stratification, sampling and field inventory methods.
One of the main objectives of assessing the forest resources of the country is to be able to compare the state of forests with the goals set in the National Forest Policy. The national goal is to have 25% of the country’s geographic area under forest and tree cover by the year 2007, and 33% by the year 2012. The SFR is a document, which gives a clear picture of forest and tree cover in the country and assists the policy framers, planners and implementing agencies to visualize and plan the development of forests with respect to the national goal.
Now, I would like to place before you, the salient features of SFR 2003. As per this assessment, the forest cover in the country is 678,333 km² or 20.64% of country’s geographical area as against 675,538 km² or 20.55% assessed in 2001. There is a net increase of 2,795 km².
In the previous assessments, the forest cover was classified into Dense Forest with canopy density of more than 40% and Open Forests with canopy density between 10% and 40%. This time we have introduced a new class by further classifying the Dense Forest into Very Dense Forest with canopy density of more than 70% and Moderately Dense Forest with canopy density between 40% and 70%. The same category has been introduced in mangrove cover assessment also.
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%) of the total land area of the country.
As per the present assessment, the mangrove cover in the country is 4,461 km² (0.14%) of which 1,162 km² is very dense, 1,657 km² is moderately dense and 1,642 km² is open mangrove.
The total tree cover of the country has been estimated to be 99,896 km² or about 3.04% of country’s geographic area which is 18,424 km² more than that in the previous assessment. This assessment is incomplete in the sense that new plantations do not show up on satellite images, till about the 5th – 10th year after plantation, depending upon the species. If these can be accounted for, the total forest and tree cover would be significantly larger. In the next Forest Survey, we will endeavour to fill this gap.
Thus, the total forest and tree cover of the country accounts for 778,229 km² or 23.68% of country’s geographic area. As per the 2001 assessment, the total forest and tree cover was estimated at 757,010 km² or 23.03% of country’s geographic area. There is a net increase of 21,219 km² which is 0.65% of land area of the country.
Among the States/UTs, Madhya Pradesh with 76,429 km² of forest cover heads the list followed by Arunachal Pradesh with 68,019 km² and Chhattisgarh with 55,998 km².
If we go district-wise, out of the 593 districts in the country, 199 districts have less than 5% of their 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 area.
123 districts in the country have been categorized as hill districts having a forest cover of 274,383 km² which is 38.77% of their area. Similarly in 187 tribal districts, the forest cover is 407,298 km² which is 36.91% of their area. Water bodies inside the forest cover have also been assessed and found to occupy 17,396 km².
For the first time a chapter on growing stock of wood in the country has been introduced. The total growing stock of wood in the country is estimated at 6,414 million cubic metres (m.cu.m.) of which 4,782 m.cu.m. is found inside the forest area and 1,632 m.cu.m. of Tree Outside Forests. The average growing stock in the forest, per hectare of recorded forest area works out to be 61.72 cubic metres.
I must say that we are making a steady progress towards the national goal of 33% of forest and tree cover in the country.
I congratulate Forest Survey of India for the efforts they have made to give a near complete picture of status of forest and tree cover in the country. Lastly, I thank all of you present here during the release of the SFR 2003”.
AKS/rs
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