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FOREST
COVER
India is one of the
12 mega diversity countries having a vast variety of flora and fauna,
commands 7% of world's biodiversity and supports 16 major forest types,
varying from the alpine pastures in the Himalayas to temperate,
sub-tropical forests, and mangroves in the coastal areas.
According to the State of Forest Report, published by the Forest Survey
of India (FSI) in 1997, India has a recorded forest area of 76.5 million
hectare or 23.3% of the total geographic area of the country. But the
actual forest cover is 63.34 million ha (19.27% of the country's area)
of which 26.13 million ha are degraded. There is another 5.72 million ha
scrub in addition to the reported forest cover of 63.34 million ha.
Thus, in total, 31.85 million ha forests in the country are degraded or
open.
There are other woodlands established in small blocks (less than 25 ha)
on non-forest lands which are not included in the forest cover estimates
of the FSI because of limitation of interpretation of satellite data.
FSI has taken up the Ground Survey of such areas under Tree Cover and it
has already completed survey work in the state of Haryana. Based on the
data of Ground Survey in Haryana, it has been estimated that an area
equivalent to about 6.6 per cent of non-forest land is under Tree Cover.
On extrapolation of this trend, one can arrive at the fact that an area
equivalent to 17.5 million ha (6.6% of 265 million ha non-forest land of
the country) non-forest land in the country are under Tree Cover. State
of the World's Forests, 1995 published by the FAO has reported such
wooded land in India as 17.7 million ha, which is very close to 17.5
million ha estimated above. Since tree plantation activities on private
lands in some parts of the country are not as intensive as in Haryana,
we can safely take this figure as 16 million ha. Having taken this area
as 16 million ha together with Forest Cover assessed by the FSI, the
total area under forest and Tree Cover in the country comes out as 79.34
million ha or 24.13% of the total area of the country, which is less
than the National Goal of 33% area under forest or Tree Cover set by the
National Forest Policy, 1988.
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