UPSC Articles
Indian State of Forest Report 2019 (ISFR)
Part of: GS Prelims and GS II- Governance; GS-III- Environment
In News
- The ISFR is a biennial publication of Forest Survey of India (FSI) an organization under the Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change Government of India
- The report assesses the forest and tree cover, bamboo resources, carbon stock and forest fires.
- At 7,12,249 sqkm, the forest cover constituted 21.67% of the nation’s geographical area or 0.12% more than last year.
- The forest cover in the country increased by 3,976 square kilometres (sqkm) but with the sharpest declines in the northeastern States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Mizoram.
- However, these states have higher proportion of forest than most States — Mizoram (85.4%), Arunachal Pradesh (79.63%) and Nagaland (75%
- The top three States showing an increase in forest cover are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
- Tree cover, defined as patches of trees less than 1 hectare and occurring outside the recorded forest area, grew by 1,212 sqkm
- Tree and forest cover together made up 25.56% of India’s area. In the last assessment it was 24.39%.
- Quality of forest — in terms of the canopy density of the trees comprising forest patches — is wavering.
- National Forest Policy, 1988 had envisaged 33% of total area to be under tree and forest cover.
- Ujjwala scheme, which provides free cooking gas to extremely poor families, has had a positive impact on reducing the demand for fuelwood.
