India State of Forest Report (ISFR), 2021
Recently India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021 has been released. This is the 17th report. This report is published once in two years. It is issued by the Forest Survey of India. The institute comes under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
Changes in forest cover in a year are not considered correct for estimating the growth of forests. Therefore, a period of two years is assessed. Many countries do an assessment once every five years. Some countries have done the assessment only once.
Key findings of the report
- The total forest and tree cover in India is 24.72 percent of the total geographical area of the country. The forest cover is 21.71 percent and the tree cover is 2.91 percent.
- Madhya Pradesh has the highest forest cover. It is followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.
- Mizoram has the highest forest cover among the north-eastern states. It is followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland.
Conclusion with reference to the types of forests
- Very dense forest (70 percent or more forest cover): 78.87 percent.
- Moderately dense forest (forest cover density between 40 to 70 percent): 9.33 percent.
- Open Forest (Forest cover density between 10 to 40 percent): 9.34 percent.
Source – The Hindu
