BHUBANESWAR: Cyclones and ravaging fire notwithstanding, Odisha has managed to increase its forest cover by around 537 square kilometres in the last two years between 2019 and 2021, the third highest among all states in this period.
The India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021 released by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) on Thursday said Odisha’s forest cover has increased to 52,155.95 sq km in 2021, from 51,619 sq km in 2019. The state has 7,212.8 sq km very dense forest and 20,994 sq km of moderately dense forest. The remaining 23,948.2 sq km forest area is designated open forest.
The report stated that 32,686 sq km forest cover falls under-recorded forest area, while remaining 19,470 sq km forest cover is outside the recorded forest area of the state. The present forest cover of 52,155.95 sq km is 33.50 per cent of the state’s total geographical area. Besides, around 4,923.7 sq km area in Odisha is covered with scrub which accounts for 3.16 per cent of the state’s total geographical area.
District-wise, the biennial report stated that, Kandhamal has the highest forest cover in the state. The district has 5,403.8 sq km forest area, 67.37 per cent of its total geographical area. Gajapati has 2,623.48 sq km forest which covers more than 60 per cent of the district’s total geographical area. On the other hand, Bhadrak has 77.80 sq km forest which is just 3.11 per cent of its entire geographical area.
Similarly, mangrove cover in Kendrapara district which has shown a 7.7 per cent increase, is the highest in the country. Similipal reserve forest also became third in the forest-rich tiger reserve. The report suggested that around 1.226.66 sq km forest (around 2.35 per cent) is extremely fire-prone, while another 3,930.36 sq km is highly fire-prone.
The percentage of highly and moderately fire-prone forest cover stands at 14.64 per cent and 19.34 per cent, respectively. The report stated that moist peninsular low-level sal forest and northern dry mixed deciduous forest together account for over 41 per cent of the forest cover in the state. Besides, dry peninsular sal forest and northern secondary moist mixed deciduous forest constitutes 16.92 per cent and 8.17 per cent of the total forest cover, respectively.
The state has 11,199 sq km bamboo bearing area. As per the ISFR, the carbon stock of forest in the state comes to 444.83 million tonne, equivalent to 1,631.04 million tonne of CO2 which is 6.17 per cent of the total forest carbon of the country. The ISFR stated that Andhra Pradesh has increased maximum forest cover of 647 sq km, followed by Telangana at 632 sq km.