BHUBANESWAR: Odisha has around 6 per cent of India’s total forest carbon stock, revealed a recently released India State of Forest (ISF) report 2019. The Eastern State, which has 51,619 sq km forest cover at present, has around 432.28 million tonne forest carbon stock and is 5th among all States in terms of forest carbon sequestration - a process of increasing the carbon content of forest through processes that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Forest carbon is stored within the forest ecosystem in five pools such as above-ground biomass (AGB), below-ground biomass (BGB), deadwood, litter and soil organic matter.
The ISF report stated that Odisha has 126.65 mt carbon stored in AGB, 39 mt in BGB, 1.6 mt in deadwood and 9 mt in litter in its forest. Besides, a whopping 255.85 mt carbon is stored in the soil organic matter of forest.
“Forest carbon stock prevents carbon emission into the atmosphere. Less carbon in the atmosphere has greater macro-level benefits. It will reduce the greenhouse gas effect and lessen the impact of climate change,” said senior IFS officer and Chief Executive of Chilika Development Authority Susanta Nanda.
The ISF report has estimated India’s total carbon stock for 2019 at 7,124 mt, which is an increase of 42.6 mt compared to the estimates of previous assessment done in 2017. Arunachal Pradesh has the highest carbon stock of 1,051 million tonne among all States.
Behind it are Madhya Pradesh (588.73 mt), Chhattisgarh (480.25 mt), Maharashtra (440.51 mt) and Odisha (432.28 mt).
Officials said with India pledging to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of Co2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover, Odisha with a total geographical area of around 1.5lakh square km has greater potential to make a significant contribution to this effort.
The State has managed to increase its forest cover by 274 square km between 2017 and 2019.