NEW DELHI: The government may take comfort in the net increase in forest and tree cover in the country, but it primarily is due to the rise in coverage outside traditional forests. Significantly, wide swathes of the dense natural forests in biodiverse regions like the Western Ghats and the Northeast besides mangroves and others have either been degraded or diverted for non-forest purposes.
Data shows that the overall accretion to the nation’s natural forest is only over 7 sq km. At the same time, it added 149 sq km of forest cover outside the natural forest in the past two years.
The 18th biennial assessment of India’s forests, ISFR 2023, by the Forest Survey of India, reveals a major drop in the country’s dense natural forests. Within the Recorded Forest Area (RFA), the country lost over 1,200 sq km of Mid-Dense Forest (MDF) and an equal area of Open Forest (OF). However, it has added over 2,400 sq km of Very Dense Forest. Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Gujarat are among the states that lost their dense natural forests in RFA.
(see Table 1)
Outside the recorded forest area, India lost around 64 sq km of Dense Forest and over 416 sq km of Mid-Dense Forest. Gujarat and Bihar added most forests outside the natural forest areas.
(see Table 2)
The report attributes the negative changes in forest coverage in RFA and non-RFA areas to human encroachments, natural calamities like storms, floods and landslides, harvesting of short rotation plantations or other forms of logging, and finally, titles given to beneficiaries under the Forest Rights Act 2006.
Degradation of dense forest
Data shows that around 93,000 sq km of recorded forest areas have degraded into Open Forest (OF), Scrub and Non-Forest (NF) between 2011 and 2021. As a result, the country’s total carbon sequestration potential came down by 636.50 million tonnes. Open Forest, Scrub and Non-Forest areas are part of the degraded categories of forests.
Worryingly, in 40,709 sq km of forests, density degradation took place from Very Dense Forest and Mid-Dense Forest to Open Forest. Further, 5,573 sq km of Scrub Forest degraded to Open Forest. And 46,707 sq km of Very Dense Forest, Mid-Dense Forest, Open Forest and Scrub Forest got degraded to Non-Forest areas.
Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Telangana and Maharashtra are states where large natural forest areas in the RFA have been degraded. The Western Ghat Eco-Sensitive Areas, which are also global biodiversity hotspots, registered an overall loss of 58.22 sq km in forest cover during the last 10 years. The Very-Dense Forest cover of the Western Ghats increased by 3,465.12 sq km, whereas the Mid-Dense Forest and Open Forest areas decreased by 1,043.23 sq km and 2,480.11 sq km, respectively.
As for India’s Northeast, it constitutes 7.98% of the nation’s land area while accounting for 21.08% of the total forest and tree cover. Sadly, data for the Northeastern states shows an overall drop in forest area (including tree cover) by 327.30 sq km. Except for Mizoram, all states lost their forest areas.
Forest fire caused damage
Forest fires also caused extensive damage to the total count. This year, the total burnt forest areas across the country totalled as much as 34,562 sq km. The maximum fire-affected forest areas were in Andhra Pradesh (5,286.76 sq km), followed by Maharashtra (4,095.04 sq km) and Telangana (3,983.28 sq km). The highest percentage of RFA areas affected by forest fire was in Telangana (14.82%), followed by Andhra (13.94%) and Bihar (10.71%).
However, this year’s overall forest fire incidents were comparatively less than in the previous two years though there was a sharp increase in the Western Himalayas compared to the previous year.
For instance, J&K witnessed an 18-fold increase in forest fire incidents. The corresponding increase in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand is by over 10 and 6 times, respectively.
(see Table 3)
Outside the recorded forest area, India lost around 64 sq km of Dense Forest and over 416 sq km of Mid-Dense Forest. Gujarat and Bihar added most forests outside the natural forest areas.
Experts cite the El Nino factor this year, which caused a deficit monsoon followed by a dry winter in 2023-24 and a record-breaking rise in temperature during summer, creating conducive conditions for forest fires. The report attributes them to fires in pine forests and those from transhumance pastoralists in the Western Himalayan region.
It, however, acknowledges the increasing community support in tackling forest fires. Data shows a correlation between the increase in the number of subscribers of the FSI Forest Fire Alert Service and the corresponding decrease in fire incidents reported in the plains, but not in the Western Himalayan states like Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and J&K.
The fire detection count came down to a considerable extent in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh etc. Here, active participation of the local communities apart from the state forest departments, might have controlled and doused the fires at the nascent stage even before their detection by satellites. Also, faster response to the fire detection could be attributed to the increased number of subscribers to the FSI Forest Fire Alert Service. As for large forest fire (LFF) incidents that lasted from at least 24 hours to more than 15 days, most of them were in Uttarakhand (1,313), followed by Odisha (1,131), Andhra Pradesh (1,073), Madhya Pradesh (962), Chhattisgarh (928) and Telangana (833).
The majority of LFFs lasted up to a week. There were three fire incidents in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh where LFFs continued till around 15 days.
Mangroves
Compared to the 2021, there was a decrease of 7.43 sq km in the country’s mangrove coverage. As per the current assessment, India’s total mangrove cover stands at 4,991.68 sq km, as opposed to 4,999.11 sq km in 2021, which accounts for 0.15% of the country’s total geographical area. There is a prominent decrease of 36 sq km in Gujarat, whereas Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra registered an increase in mangrove areas. West Bengal registered a minimal decrease in dense mangrove forests. The primary driver of mangrove loss continues to be the conversion of mangrove areas for aquaculture, coastal area development activities and agriculture.
In major megacities, Delhi has the largest forest cover (194.15 sq km), followed by Mumbai (110.84 sq km) and Bengaluru (89.61 sq km). In the past two years, Ahmedabad, followed by Bengaluru, experienced the maximum gain in forest cover, while Chennai and Hyderabad recorded the maximum loss.
