Tuesday, April 14, 2020

INDIA STATE OF FOREST REPORT 2019

Analysis by S. M. Zaki Ahmad -Expert Faculty of Ecology &Environment

INTRODUCTION
India’s forest cover has increased by 3,976 sq km or 0.56% since 2017. For the second successive time since 2007, the biennial India State of Forest Report (ISFR) recorded a gain — an impressive 1,275 sq km — in dense forest (including Very Dense Forest with a canopy density of over 70%, and Moderately Dense Forest with a canopy density of 40-70%). The ISFR, a biennial exercise, assesses the forest and tree cover, bamboo resources, carbon stock and forest fires. The top three States showing an increase in forest cover are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
Nearly 25 percent (one fourth) of India’s total land area is now under forest and tree cover. While the overall forest and tree cover marked an increase on a national level, the report highlighted a decrease in the forest area in the country’s northeast region. This decline in the forest area in the northeast has been an ongoing trend with the region witnessing a loss of about 3,199 sq. km. of forest area since 2009.

MAJOR FINDINGS OF FOREST REPORT
The major findings of the report are following:
v  The India State of Forest Report 2019 released recently shows an increase of 5,188 square kilometres of forest and tree cover across the country compared to the ISFR 2017.
v  However, the report highlights that northeast India continues to lose forests when compared to ISFR 2017 and previous reports.
v  The forest report also reveals that the forest area under the category “recorded forest area” (land notified as forest by the government) in tribal districts, which are home to about 60 percent of India’s forests, is decreasing as well.
v  The report for the first time did an assessment of biodiversity for all states and union territories and found that Arunachal Pradesh has the maximum richness of species in terms of trees, shrubs and herbs followed by Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
What is Recorded Forest Area (RFA)?
The term “Recorded Forest Area” (RFA) is used for lands which have been notified as “forest” under any government Act or rules or recorded as “forest” in the government records.
v  According to the 2019 report, the total forest cover of the country is 712,249 square kilometers (21.67 percent of India’s total geographical area) slightly up from 708,273 sq. km (21.54 percent) in 2017.
v  The tree cover of the country is 95,027 sq. km (2.89 percent of the total area) again slightly up from 93,815 sq. km. (2.85 percent) in 2017.
v  The report spotlights that forest cover within the RFA category has shown a slight decrease of 330 sq. km., whereas forest cover outside the RFA has shown an increase of 4,306 sq. km., as compared to the previous assessment of 2017.
STATES AND FOREST COVER
As per the ISFR 2019 data the situation of Indian states are the following:

v  The top five states in terms of the increase in forest cover are:
1.       Karnataka (1,025 sq. km.),
2.       Andhra Pradesh (990 sq. km.),
3.       Kerala (823 sq. km.),
4.       Jammu & Kashmir (371 sq. km.)
5.       Himachal Pradesh (334 sq km).
v  The top five states in terms of total forest cover area 
1.       Madhya Pradesh (77,482 sq. Km)
2.       Arunachal Pradesh (66,688 sq. Km)
3.       Chhattisgarh (55,611 sq. Km)
4.       Odisha (51,619 sq. Km)
5.       Maharashtra. (50,877 sq. Km)
v  The top five states in terms of forest cover as a percentage of their total geographical area
1.       Mizoram (85.41 percent)
2.       Arunachal Pradesh (79.63 percent),
3.       Meghalaya (76.33 percent),
4.       Manipur (75.46 percent)
5.       Nagaland (75.31 percent).
The report also highlighted that there are 62,466 wetlands in the country and amongst the states, Gujarat has the largest area of wetlands (within the RFA) in the country followed by West Bengal.
The ISFR 2019 also showed that the mangrove cover in the country has increased by 54 sq. km. as compared to the previous assessment. The maximum increase was in Gujarat which recorded an increase of 37 sq. km followed by Maharashtra (16 sq. km.) and Odisha (8 sq. km.) but it marked a decrease of mangrove cover in Tamil Nadu (four sq. km.), West Bengal (two sq. km.) and Andaman and Nicobar Islands (one sq. km.).
Biodiversity and ISFR
According to the report, for the first time ever, has carried out a rapid assessment of biodiversity for all states and union territories and maximum tree diversity has been found in tropical wet evergreen and semi-evergreen forests of Western Ghats (Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka) followed by northeastern states.
The low tree diversity has been noticed in the sub-tropical dry evergreen forests of Jammu and Kashmir and forest deficit States like Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
Among the States, Karnataka has the highest tree species richness followed by Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

MAJOR CONCERNS

Loss of forest in North-East India
The report presents a gloomy picture of the forests in the North Eastern States. The forest cover of six states, excluding Assam, has decreased by nearly 18 percent between 2011 and 2019. The region lost nearly 25,012 sq km of forest cover in a decade.
Major Loss of Tropical Semi-Evergreen forest
While hill forests have gained in quality, large tracts of tropical forests have fallen off the “dense” category since 2017. The biggest loss — 23,550 sq km — is under the tropical semi-evergreen head in SFR 2019. In India, tropical semi-evergreen forests are found along the western coast, lower slopes of the eastern Himalayas, Odisha and Andamans.

Source: Forest Survey of India

Forest Fire
Forest fires are one of the major drivers of damage caused to forests in the country. Uncontrolled forest fires can lead to significant losses of forests and ecosystem services. Studies suggest that climate change influences forest fire frequency and intensity which results in forests becoming increasingly inflammable.
The increasing duration of forest fire season, numbers of large fires, frequency of severe fire years may be related to climate change. Besides direct losses, foresters have to also deal with many side effects of fires such as increasing spread of weeds, soil erosion, loss of regeneration, landslides, habitat degradation, loss of forest produce etc.



Forest Fire: Source FSI

Carbon sink

What is a carbon sink?
A carbon sink is anything that absorbs more carbon than it releases as carbon dioxide. European forests are currently a net carbon sink as they take in more carbon than they emit. In climate negotiations, this temporary reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is also known as negative emissions.
India is committed at the highest level to meet its commitments under the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) made to the international community under the Paris Agreement (2015). According to the forestry target under NDC, India has committed to creating additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3.0 billion tonnes of CO2 through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.
According to the report, Arunachal Pradesh has the maximum carbon stock of 1,051.32 million tonnes followed by Madhya Pradesh (588.73 million tonnes), Chhattisgarh (480.25 million tonnes) and Maharashtra (440.51 million tonnes).

Conclusion

The forest report 2019 is important enough to take seriously. Forests or, more precisely, carbon-stock conservation and renewable energy are the two pillars of India’s climate-action commitments. The results of the forest survey are crucial for the global community that has just returned from the 25th Conference of Parties (COP) in Madrid, having recommitted itself to the jaded, even illegitimate idea of carbon markets. India will need a more comprehensive study on the forest to meet the SDG goals 2030.

References
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