A2

A2.FOREST COVER ASSESSMENT 1997

A2.1 Overview

This is the sixth cycle of forest cover assessment based on satellite data interpretation. In this assessment, satellite data of IRS-1B Linear Imaging Self Scanning (LISS II) sensor pertaining to the period from 1993 to 1995 has been used. The satellite data for Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have been interpreted using computer aided digital image processing while the data for rest of the States/UTs has been interpreted visually. The accuracy of interpretation was checked by extensive ground verification and also with the help of available collateral data. The results of the assessment are summarised in Table 2.1 .

The total forest cover which includes dense forest, open forest and mangrove is estimated to be 633,397 sq.km. This constitutes 19.27% of country's geographic area. The status of actual forest cover in terms of dense, open and mangrove forests is presented in FigA2.1

1.Terminology

Canopy -The cover of branches and foliage formed by the crowns of trees in a wood.

Dense forest - All lands with a forest cover of trees with canopy density of 40 per cent and above.

Mangrove - Mangroves are salt tolerant forest ecosystem found mainly in tropical and sub-tropical inter-tidal regions.

Open forest - All lands with a forest cover of trees with canopy density between 10 to 40 per cent.

Protected Forest - A legal term for an area subject to limited degree of protection under the provisions of the Indian Forest Act or other State Forest Acts.

Recorded forest - All lands statutorily notified as forest though they may not necessarily bear tree cover.

Reserved Forest - An area so constituted under the Indian Forest Act or other state Forest Acts

Scrub- All lands with poor tree growth chiefly of small or stunted trees with canopy density less than 10 per cent.

Shifting Cultivation - A method of cyclical cultivation in vogue where cultivators cut the tree crop burn it and raise agricultural crop for one or more years before moving on to another site and repeating the process.

Unclassed Forest - Forest land owned by government but not constituted into a reserve or protected forest.

Table2.1 Forest Cover as per 1997 Assessment

Class	Area (sq.km.)	Per cent of Geographic area
Dense forest	367,260	11.17
Open forest	261,310	7.95
Mangrove	4,827	0.15
Scrub	57,211	1.74
Non-Forest	2,596,655	78.99
Total	3,287,263	100.00

The category wise forest cover of the States/UTs of country is given in Table 2.2 (a) and the extent of scrub and non-forest is given in Table 2.2(b).

Table2.2(a) Extent of Dense Forest, Open Forest and Mangrove in 1997 Assessment (sq.km.)

State/UT	Dense forest	Open forest	Mangrove	Total forest	Per capita (ha)
Andhra Pradesh	23,048	19,859	383	43,290	0.07
Arunachal Pradesh	54,155	14,447	-	68,602	7.93
Assam	15,548	8,276	-	23,824	0.11
Bihar	13,300	13,224	-	26,524	0.03
Delhi	16	10	-	26	Nil
Goa	995	252	5	1,252	0.11
Gujarat	6,337	5,250	991	12,578	0.03
Haryana	370	234	-	604	Nil
Himachal Pradesh	9,560	2,961	-	12,521	0.24
Jammu & Kashmir	11,020	9,420	-	20,440	0.26
Karnataka	24,854	7,546	3	32,403	0.07
Kerala	8,454	1,880	-	10,334	0.04
Madhya Pradesh	82,745	48,450	-	131,195	0.20
Maharashtra	23,622	22,397	124	46,143	0.06
Manipur	4,937	12,481	-	17,418	0.95
Meghalaya	4,044	11,613	-	15,657	0.88
Mizoram	4,348	14,427	-	18,775	2.72
Nagaland	3,487	10,734	-	14,221	1.18
Orissa	26,101	20,629	211	46,941	0.15
Punjab	511	876	-	1,387	0.01
Rajasthan	3,690	9,663	-	13,353	0.03
Sikkim	2,423	706	-	3,129	0.77
Tamil Nadu	8,676	8,367	21	17,064	0.03
Tripura	1,819	3,727	-	5,546	0.20
Uttar Pradesh	22,958	11,036	-	33,994	0.02
West Bengal	3,557	2,669	2,123	8,349	0.01
A&N Islands	6,520	127	966	7,613	2.71
Chandigarh	6	1	-	7	Nil
Dadra & Nagar Haveli	159	45	-	204	0.15
Daman & Diu	-	3	-	3	Nil
Lakshdweep*	-	-	-	-	Nil
Pondicherry*	-	-	-	-	Nil
Total	367,260	261,310	4,827	633,397	0.07

* No discernible forest cover.

Table2.2(b) Extent of Scrub and Non-forest areas in 1997 Assessment (sq.km.)

State/UT	Scrub	Non-Forest
Andhra Pradesh	11,191	220,587
Arunachal Pradesh	415	14,726
Assam	635	53,979
Bihar	1,916	145,437
Delhi	2	1,455
Goa	16	2,434
Gujarat	2,780	180,666
Haryana	157	43,451
Himachal Pradesh	1,825	41,327
Jammu & Kashmir	3,088	198,707
Karnataka	4,566	154,822
Kerala	83	28,446
Madhya Pradesh	3,320	308,931
Maharashtra	7,380	254,167
Manipur	911	3,998
Meghalaya	849	5,923
Mizoram	937	1,369
Nagaland	70	2,288
Orissa	5,461	103,305
Punjab	116	48,859
Rajasthan	6,781	322,105
Sikkim	439	3,528
Tamil Nadu	2,832	110,162
Tripura	150	4,790
Uttar Pradesh	1,170	259,247
West Bengal	109	80,294
A&N Islands	-	636
Chandigarh	-	107
Dadra & Nagar Haveli	12	275
Daman & Diu	-	109
Lakshdweep*	-	32
Pondicherry*	-	493
Total	57,211	2,596,655

* No discernible forest cover.

A2.2 Change in Forest Cover

A comparison of the forest cover of the country as per 1997 assessment and 1995 assessment, given in Table 2.3, reveals that the total forest cover of the country has decreased from 638,879 sq.km. to 633,397 sq.km., thus showing a net loss of 5,482 sq.km. The forest cover of 639,600 sq.km estimated during 1995 assessment, has been revised. This has been done to exclude an area of 721 sq.km. falling under tea gardens in Tamil Nadu from the forest cover. Thus, the revised estimate of forest cover of 1995 assessment comes to 638,879 sq.km. Table 2.3 further reveals that there has been a net decrease of 17,777 sq.km. in dense forest cover of the country while open forests and mangroves have increased by 12,001 sq.km. and 294 sq.km. respectively in 1997 assessment as compared to the previous assessment.

Table2.3 Forest cover in 1995 & 1997 Assessments (sq.km.)

Category	1997 Assessment	1995 Assessment*	Difference
Dense forest	367,260	385,037	-17,777
Open forest	261,310	249,309	+12,001
Mangrove	4,827	4,533	+294
Total	633,397	638,879	-5,482

* The area figures of SFR 1995 are modified. An area of 721 sq.km of tea gardens in Tamil Nadu, earlier included under 719 sq.km. of dense forest and 2 sq.km. of open forest, has been excluded because of interpretational correction.

The changes in forest cover of states and Union Territories during the period between 1995 assessment and 1997 assessment alongwith data period of the respective assessments is given in Table 2.4. This shows that the states of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Orissa and Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands have lost forest cover. The States which recorded gain in forest cover include Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. In Delhi, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, there was no change in forest cover during the period of the last two assessments.

The major losses of 3,822 and 3,969 sq.km. have been recorded in Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh respectively. It is to be noted here that loss of forest cover in case of Andhra Pradesh pertains to the data periods 1989 and 1993 and reflects the change over a period of 4 years. This was mainly due to the non-availability of output of digitally classified data in 1995 assessment. In addition, complete ground verification could not be done after 1989 till 1997 assessment due to local disturbances. However a loss of 144 sq.km. pertaining to the same period was reported in 1995 assessment because of partial assessment. In respect of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra though the digital image processing has been resorted to since 1995 assessment, area calculation has been done digitally only in 1997 assessment. Major gain has been recorded in the state of Maharashtra. The classified images showing changes in forest cover in two locations namely Bilaspur (Madhya Pradesh) and Pune (Maharashtra) are shown in Fig.2.2.

Table2.4 Comparative account of forest cover of State/UT in 1995 and 1997

Assessments (sq.km.)

State/UT	1995 Assessment			1997 Assessment			Change
	Data period	Forest cover		Data period		Forest cover
Andhra Pradesh	Oct. 89 ^$	47,112		Oct.93		43,290	-3,822
Arunachal Pradesh	Dec.91 - Nov.92	68,621		Nov.94-Nov.95		68,602	-19
Assam	Mar.-Dec.91 Nov.-Dec.92	24,061		Dec.93, Apr.-Nov.94		23,824	-237
Bihar	Nov.-Dec.92	26,561		Nov.-Dec.94		26,524	-37
Goa	Jan.92	1,247		Dec.93-.94		1,252	+5
Gujarat	Oct.-Nov.92	12,320		Oct.- Dec.94		12,578	+258
Haryana	Oct.-Nov.92	603		Oct.-Nov.94		604	+1
Himachal Pradesh	Oct.92-Nov.93	12,501		Nov.94-Nov.95		12,521	+20
Jammu & Kashmir	Oct.-Nov.92		20,433	Nov.94-95		20,440		+7
Karnataka	Dec.91, Jan.92		32,382	Dec.93 , Jan.94		32,403		+21
Kerala	Nov.93-94		10,336	Dec.95		10,334		-2
Madhya Pradesh	Oct.-Nov.92		135,164	Oct.-Nov.94		131,195		-3,969
Maharashtra	Oct.-Nov.92		43,843	Oct.-Nov.93		46,143		+2,300
Manipur	Nov.91 & 92		17,558	Dec.93-Feb.94		17,418		-140
Meghalaya	Mar.-Nov.91		15,714	Dec.93		15,657		-57
Mizoram	Feb.,Apr.,Nov.92		18,576	Dec.93-Feb.94		18,775		+199
Nagaland	Nov.92		14,291	Dec.93-Oct.94		14,221		-70
Orissa	Nov.91		47107	Oct.-Nov.93		46,941		-166
Punjab	Oct.-Nov.92		1,342	Oct.94- Jan 95	1,387				+45
Rajasthan	Oct.92 -Nov.93		13,280	Nov.-Dec.94	13,353				+73
Sikkim	Nov.-Dec.93		3,127	Sep.94	3,129				+2
Tamil Nadu	Feb.-Apr.92		17,045*	Mar.94	17,064				+19
Tripura	Feb.92		5,538	Dec.93	5,546				+8
Uttar Pradesh	Oct.-Dec.92		33,986	Oct.-Dec.94	33,994				+8
West Bengal	Nov.91		8,276	Oct.-Dec.93	8,349				+73
A&N Islands	Jan.93		7,615	Dec.94	7,613				-2
Chandigarh	Oct.-Nov.92		7	Oct.-Nov.94	7				Nil
D& N Haveli	Oct.-Nov.92		204	Oct.-Dec.94	204				Nil
Daman & Diu	Oct.-Nov.92		3	Oct.-Dec.94	3			Nil
Delhi	Oct.-Nov.92		26	Oct.-Nov.94	26			Nil
Lakshdweep**	-		-	-	-			-
Pondicherry**	-		-	-	-			-
Total			638,879*		633,397			-5,482

* An area of 721 sq.km. of tea gardens earlier shown as forest cover has been excluded from the forest cover.

** No discernible forest cover.

$ - Corresponds to 1993 assessment.

A2.3 Situation in North-Eastern States

The North-East region had recorded major losses in the 1995 assessment. It is, therefore, necessary to take stock of the situation in this region separately for making comparison. The forest cover status of North Eastern States is presented in Table 2.5. While the 1995 assessment witnessed a loss of 783 sq.km. in this region (SFR, 1995), the present assessment shows a somewhat better situation, as the loss of forest cover in this region has come down to 316 sq.km. Mizoram and Tripura have, in fact, shown gain in forest cover during this period.

Table2.5 Change in forest cover in North-East region (sq.km.)

State	1997 Assessment			1995 Assessment				Total
	Dense forest	Open forest	Total	Dense forest	Open forest	Total	Change
Arunachal Pradesh	54,155	14,447	68,602	54,176	14,445	68,621	-19
Assam	15,548	8,276	23,824	15,694	8,367	24,061	-237
Manipur	4,937	12,481	17,418	5,318	12,240	17,558	-140
Meghalaya	4,044	11,613	15,657	4,045	11,669	15,714	-57
Mizoram	4,348	14,427	18,775	4,281	14,295	18,576	+199
Nagaland	3,487	10,734	14,221	3,487	10,804	14,291	-70
Tripura	1,819	3,727	5,546	1,819	3,719	5,538	+8
Total	88,338	75,705	164,043	88,820	75,539	164,359	-316

The loss/gain in forest cover in the North-Eastern states due to various reasons has been shown in Table 2.6. Between 1995 and 1997 assessments, 1,875 sq.km. of forest area mainly concentrated in the states of Manipur, Nagaland, Assam and Mizoram was lost because of shifting cultivation. However, an area of 1,700 sq.km. of abandoned shifting cultivation came under forest cover as a result of regeneration. This shows that shifting cultivation remains the single largest factor for the loss of forest cover.

Table2.6 Loss/gain in forest cover in North-Eastern States. (sq.km.)

State	Loss			Gain			Net change
	Shifting cultivation	Other reasons	Total	Nat. reg. in shifting cultivation	Other reasons	Total
Arunachal Pradesh	75	-	75	56	-	56	-19
Assam	257	159	416	163	16	179	-237
Manipur	603	-	603	463	-	463	-140
Meghalaya	75	2	77	20	-	20	-57
Mizoram	292	-	292	491	-	491	+199
Nagaland	573	-	573	503	-	503	-70
Tripura	-	3	3	4	7	11	+8
Total	1,875	164	2,039	1,700	23	1,723	-316

Note : Nat.- Natural, Reg.- Regeneration

A2.4 Recorded forest area and forest cover

The total recorded forest area i.e., the area notified as forest, of the country is 765,210 sq.km, which is 23.28% of the geographic area. The status of reserve, protected and unclassed forest is shown in Fig.2.3. The data regarding the extent of recorded forest area of various States/UTs has been obtained from the respective forest departments. The difference between the recorded forest area and the actual forest cover is on account of the fact that the actual forest cover as reflected in the assessment takes into account only those areas which bear tree cover and ignores those areas which may legally have the status of forest but bear no tree cover. The extent of recorded forest area and actual forest cover in various States/UTs is given in Table 2.7. The extent of recorded forest notified a Reserve Forest, Protected Forest and Unclassed Forest in various States/UTs of the country is given in Table 2.8.

Table2.7 Geographic area, recorded forest area and actual forest cover of various State/UT (sq.km)

State/UT	Geographic area		Recorded forest *					Forest cover
			Area	Per cent				Area		Per cent
Andhra Pradesh	275,068		63,814			23.20		43,290			15.7
Arunachal Pradesh	83,743		51,540			61.54		68,602			81.9
Assam	78,438		30,708			39.15		23,824			30.4
Bihar	173,877		29,226			16.81		26,524			15.3
Delhi	1,483		42			2.83		26			1.7
Goa	3,702		1,424			38.46		1,252			33.8
Gujarat	196,024		19,393			9.89		12,578			6.4
Haryana	44,212		1,673			3.78		604			1.4
Himachal Pradesh	55,673		35,407			63.60		12,521			22.5
Jammu & Kashmir	222,235		20,182			9.08		20,440			9.2
Karnataka	191,791		38,724			20.19		32,403			16.9
Kerala	38,863		11,221			28.87		10,334			26.6
Madhya Pradesh	443,446		154,497			34.84		131,195			29.6
Maharashtra	307,690		63,842			20.75		46,143			15.0
Manipur	22,327		15,154			67.87		17,418			78.0
Meghalaya	22,429		9,496			42.34		15,657			69.8
Mizoram	21,081		15,935			75.59		18,775			89.1
Nagaland	16,579		8,629			52.04		14,221			85.8
Orissa	155,707		57,184			36.73		46,941			30.1
Punjab	50,362		2,901			5.76		1,387			2.8
Rajasthan	342,239		31,700			9.26		13,353			3.9
Sikkim	7,096		2,650			37.34		3,129			44.1
Tamil Nadu	130,058		22,628			17.40		17,064			13.1
Tripura	10,486		6,292			60.01		5,546			52.9
Uttar Pradesh	294,411		51,663			17.54		33,994			11.5
West Bengal	88,752		11,879			13.38		8,349			9.4
A&N Islands	8,249		7,171			86.93		7,613			92.3
Chandigarh	114	31			27.19		7		6.1
Dadra & Nagar Haveli	491	203			41.34		204		41.5
Daman & Diu	112	N.A.			N.A.		3		2.7
Lakshdweep	32	N.A.			N.A.		Nil		Nil
Pondicherry	493	N.A.			N.A.		Nil		Nil
Total	3,287,263	765,210			23.28		633,397		19.27

* Source : State/UT Forest Departments

Table2.8 Distribution of Recorded forest area in various State/UT (sq.km.)

State/UT	Reserved		Protected		Unclassed		Total *
Andhra Pradesh	50,479		12,365		970		63,814
Arunachal Pradesh	15,321		8		36,211		51,540
Assam	18,242		3,934		8,532		30,708
Bihar	5,051		24,168		7		29,226
Goa	165		--		1,259		1,424
Gujarat	13,819		997		4,577		19,393
Haryana	247		1,104		322		1,673
Himachal Pradesh	1,896		31,473		2,038		35,407
Jammu & Kashmir	20,182		--		--		20,182
Karnataka	28,611		3,932		6,181		38,724
Kerala	11,038		183		--		11,221
Madhya Pradesh	82,700		66,678		5,119		154,497
Maharashtra	48,373		9,350		6,119		63,842
Manipur	1,463		4,171		9,520		15,154
Meghalaya	981		12		8,503		9,496
Mizoram	7,127		3,568		5,240		15,935
Nagaland	86		507		8,036		8,629
Orissa	27,087		30,080		17		57,184
Punjab	44		1,107		1,750		2,901
Rajasthan	11,585		16,837		3,278		31,700
Sikkim	2,261		285		104		2,650
Tamil Nadu	19,486		2,528		614		22,628
Tripura	3,588		509		2,196		6,293
Uttar Pradesh	36,425		1,499		13,739		51,663
West Bengal	7,054		3,772		1,053		11,879
A&N Islands	2,929		4,242		--		7,171
Chandigarh	31		--		--		31
Dadra & Nagar Haveli	203		--		--		203
Daman & Diu**	--	--		--		--
Delhi	42	--		--		42
Lakshdweep**	--	--		--		--
Pondicherry**	--	--		--		--
Total	416,516	223,309		125,385		765,210

*Source : State/UT Forest Departments

** Not available

FigA2.1