HYDERABAD: The news is both sweet and sour. Telangana’s concerted efforts to improve forest cover over the years may have paid off as there is a significant improvement but at the same time there is also a sharp decline in forest cover at Kawal Tiger Reserve.
Telangana has been recognised as one of the top states in ensuring an increase in total forest cover by the biennial Forest Survey of India Report 2021, which also pointed out its poor show in conserving forest in Kawal. Overall, forest cover in the state rose to 632 square kilometres, a 3.07 per cent increase. The survey states that Telangana’s total forest cover increased from 20,582 sq km in 2019 to 21,214 sq km in 2021. The state is in second place, just behind Andhra Pradesh.
According to the report, the increase in forest cover has largely been in the Moderately Dense Forest (MDF) cover, where a 332 sq km increase was seen, followed by Open Forests (OF) where a 284 sq km increase was witnessed. The least increase of 16 sq km was seen in the Very Dense Forest (VDF) cover.
Apart from this, the city of Hyderabad was on top of the list of ‘Forest Covers in Major Mega Cities’ in terms of decadal increase. According to the report, Hyderabad’s total forest cover went up from 33.15 sq km from 2011 to 81.81 sq km in 2021, a whopping 147 per cent increase, and it was largely seen in the open forests, shrubs and moderate forest cover.
However, the same report has a shocking red flag in terms of the state’s conservation efforts as it was found that Kawal Tiger Reserve forest areas saw a decline in decadal forest cover by a whopping five per cent, which translates to 118 sq km. The Reserves’ total forest cover dropped from 1,825.85 sq km in 2011 to 1,706.88 sq km in 2021.
What is even more disturbing was that the majority of the loss is for MDF from 1,260 sq km to 1,125 sq km, followed by a decrease from 102 sq km to 91 sq km in the VDF category. The scrub coverage has also declined. In Amrabad Tiger Reserve, however, a 43 sq km increase was observed in green cover over the decade.
The increase in green cover in Hyderabad is mainly being attributed to the success of the Haritha Haram project. In the last few years, the GHMC and HMDA have been taking up Haritha Haram programmes on a large scale in vacant lands, open spaces, avenue plantations, development of forest blocks, theme parks and colonies in and around Hyderabad.
The maximum gain in forest cover witnessed in Hyderabad was 48.66 sq km, followed by Delhi (19.91 sq km) while Ahmedabad and Bengaluru and Kolkata have lost forest cover of 8.55 sq km, 4.98 sq km and 0.75 sq km respectively.