Green area grows, now covers 25.17% of India

{STATE OF FOREST REPORT} EXPERTS FLAG CONCERN OVER QUALITY OF FORESTS

- Jayashree Nandi and Amit Bathla

India's total forest and tree cover has grown by 1,445 square kilometres an area equivalent to Delhi-reaching 827,357 sq km or 25.17% of the country's geographical area, according to data released by the government on Saturday that also revealed a complex picture where increased coverage through plantations runs parallel to significant degradation of natural forests.

The latest biennial State of Forest report by the Forest Survey of India, delayed by more than a year, showed that while India's green cover has grown to encompass 25.17% of its geographical area, almost all the growth (149.13 sq km out of 156.41 sq km) has occurred outside natural forests through plantations and agroforestry.

At the same time, over 92,000 sq km of natural forests have degraded from dense to open categories in the past decade, raising concerns about the quality of India's forest resources despite the headline growth in numbers.

"I am happy to introduce here the achievements made by our country in an important area of carbon sequestration," said Bhupender Yadav, Union environment minister, at the report's launch at the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun.

"An increase of 149.42 Mt of CO2 equivalent of carbon stock has been reported as compared to assessment of previous ISFR. Further, I am happy to announce that India has recorded 2.29 billion tons CO2 as compared to base year 2005. I am quite confident that India will achieve target of the carbon sequestration submitted under Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to United Nations Climate Change Convention (UNCCC)."