HYDERABAD: Telangana has lost significant forest cover over the last two years.
According to the “State of Forest Report - 2023” released by the Union Forest Minister Bhupendra Yadav on Saturday, the Recorded Forest Area (RFA), which includes Reserved Forest Area and Protected Forest Area, in Telangana decreased by 105.87 sq km compared to the 2021 report. This is the second highest extent of forest cover decrease, with Tripura in first place with 116.9 sq km of forest cover lost.
The report has been prepared by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) which carried out an in-depth assessment of the forest and tree resources of the country based on interpretation of Remote Sensing Satellite data and field-based National Forest Inventory.
As per the 2021 report, there was 18,561.98 sq km of forest cover inside the RFA, which decreased to 18,456.11 sq km by 2023. This translates to a decrease of 105.87 sq km forest cover in the state.
According to the report, the total geographical area of Telangana is 1.12 lakh sq km. Of this, the total RFA is 27,688 sq km, which is 24.69% of the total geographical area of the state.
Meanwhile, Hyderabad has lost 1.61 sq km of forest cover compared to 2021. While this was 81.81 sq km of forest cover in 2021, it decreased to 80.2 sq km in 2023.