India State of Forest Report

About India State of Forest Report: 

• It has been published by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) on a biennial basis since 1987.
• It carries out an in-depth assessment of the forest and tree resources of the country based on interpretation of Remote Sensing satellite data and field based National Forest Inventory (NFI).
• The India State of Forest Report 2023 is 18th such report in the series.
• The report contains information on forest cover, tree cover, mangrove cover, growing stock, carbon stock in India’s forests, instances of forest fire, Agroforestry, etc.

Highlights of India State of Forest Report 2023

• The Forest and Tree cover of India is 25.17 percent of the geographical area and in that 21.76% is forest cover and 3.41% is tree cover.
• As compared to assessment of 2021, there is an increase in the forest and tree cover of the country.
• Top four states showing maximum increase in forest and tree cover are Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan.
• Top three states showing maximum increase in forest cover are Mizoram, Gujarat and Odisha.
• Area wise top three states having largest forest and tree cover are Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Maharashtra
• Area wise top three states having largest forest cover are Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
• In terms of percentage of forest cover with respect to total geographical area, Lakshadweep (91.33 percent) has the highest forest cover followed by Mizoram and Andaman & Nicobar Island
• The present assessment also reveals that 19 states/UTs have above 33 percent of the geographical area under forest cover. Out of these, eight states/UTs namely Mizoram, Lakshadweep, A & N Island, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Manipur have forest cover above 75 percent.
• The total mangrove cover is 4,992 sq km in the country.
• The extent of bamboo bearing area for the country has been increased as compared to the last assessment done in 2021.
• There is an increase in the carbon stock of the country as compared to the last assessment.
• India’s carbon stock has reached 30.43 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent; which indicates that as compared to the base year of 2005, India has already reached 2.29 billion tonnes of additional carbon sink as against the target of 2.5 to 3.0 billion tonnes by 2030.

Q1: What is Forest Survey of India (FSI)?

It is an organisation under the Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India Its principal mandate is to conduct survey and assessment of forest resources in the country.

Source: PIB

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