India State of Forest Report, 2021

On January 13, 2022, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) released the 17th India State of Forest Report 2021 (ISFR-2021), prepared by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), which is an organisation under the (MoEFCC) and has been monitoring India’s forest and tree resources through periodic assessments. It has been presenting its findings in its biennial publication ISFR. The first ISFR report was published by the FSI in 1987. Over the years, the successive reports have been presenting a continuous, comprehensive, and comparative picture of India’s forest and tree resources over time.

The ISFR provides valuable inputs for planning, policy formulation, and evidence-based decision making, both at the national and state levels, in order to improve forest and tree resources in the country.

The ISFR-2021

It provides information on forest cover, tree cover, mangrove cover, growing stock, bamboo resources, and assessment of forest, carbon stock in India’s forests, forest-fire monitoring, forest cover in tiger-reserve areas, above-ground estimates of biomass using specific absorption rate (SAR) data and climate change hotspots in the Indian forests. The information about different parameters of the forest resources is based on the regular nation-wide mapping of forest cover, national forest inventory, and other studies conducted at the national level. The results of the nation-wide forest cover mapping are presented on 1:50,000 scale in three canopy-density classes, namely, very dense forest, which has a canopy density of more than 70 per cent; moderately dense forest with a density of 40–70 per cent, and open forest with a canopy density of 10–40 per cent. Tree cover is assessed following a methodology involving remote sensing-based stratification and observation on sample plots which is a part of the national forest inventory.

The 2021 report also presents the results of two special studies, the first one being the Above Ground Biomass (AGB) estimation which was done using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. This was carried out in collaboration with the Space Application Centre (SAC), ISRO, Ahmedabad. Secondly, the Climate hotspots in forest areas was carried out in collaboration with Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani, Goa.

Moreover, this edition of the report also presents the new initiatives taken up in the last two years by the FSI team that has led to the improvements in methodology and development of new techniques. Besides, this report has also briefly mentioned about India’s progress towards achieving the nationally determined contribution (NDC) commitments on forest carbon assessment. It also includes the mapping of climate change hotspots in the Indian forests.

Major Findings

• The total forest cover of the country has been estimated as 7,13,789 sq. km (equivalent to 21.71 per cent of the geographical area of the country). The tree cover which is 2.91 per cent of the geographical area of the country is estimated as 95,748 (sq. km). The total forest and tree cover of the country is about 8,09,537 sq. km (24.62 per cent of the geographical area of the country).
• There is an increase of 1,540 sq. km in the forest cover (about 0.22 per cent). Also, there was an increase of 721 sq. km of tree cover (0.76 per cent), and 2,261 sq. km of forest and tree cover put together (0.28 per cent) as compared to ISFR-2019, at the national level.
• The forest cover inside the recorded forest area/green wash (RFA/GW) has increased slightly by 31 sq. km. The forest cover outside the RFA/GW has increased by 1,509 sq. km, as compared to ISFR-2019.
• Top five states in terms of increase in forest cover are—Andhra Pradesh (647 sq. km), Telangana (632 sq. km), Odisha (537 sq. km), Karnataka (155 sq. km), and Jharkhand (110 sq. km).
• Area-wise, Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover in the county (77,493 sq. km), followed by Arunachal Pradesh (66,431 sq. km), Chhattisgarh (55,717 sq. km), Odisha (52,156 sq. km) and Maharashtra (50,798 sq. km). The top five states in terms of highest percentage of forest cover of total geographical area are Mizoram—(84.53 per cent), Arunachal Pradesh (79.33 per cent), Meghalaya (76 per cent), Manipur (74.34 per cent), and Nagaland (73.90 per cent).
• Seventeen (17) states/union territories have more than 33 per cent of the geographical area under forest cover. Out of these, five states/union territories—Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, and Meghalaya—have more than 75 per cent of forest cover.
• Twelve (12) states/union territories—Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Goa, Kerala, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Assam, Daman and Diu, and Odisha—have forest cover between 33 and 75 per cent.
• Forest cover in the hill districts of the country is about 2,83,104 sq. km, which is around 40.17 per cent of the total geographical area of these districts. There has been a decrease of 902 sq. km (approximately 0.32 per cent) of forest cover in 140 hill districts of the country.
• The total forest cover in the tribal districts is at 4,22,296 sq. km. This is 37.53 per cent of the geographical area of these districts. There has been a decrease of 655 sq. km of forest cover inside the RFA/GW in the tribal districts. However, there has been an increase of 600 sq. km outside.
• In the North-Eastern region of India, the total forest cover is 1,69,521 sq. km, which is estimated as 64.66 per cent of its geographical area, a decrease of 1,020 sq. km (0.60 per cent).
• As compared to ISFR-2019, the mangrove cover of India has increased by 17 sq. km, (0.34 per cent of its geographical area).
• The total growing stock of wood in the country has been estimated as 6,167.50 million cubic metres, comprising 4,388.15 million cubic metres inside forest areas and 1,779.35 million cubic metres outside recorded forest areas. The average growing stock per hectare in forest has been estimated as 56.60 cubic metre.
• The total bamboo-bearing area of the country has been estimated as 1,49,443 sq. km, a decrease of 10,594 sq. km compared to ISFR 2019 estimation.
• The total carbon stock in forest is estimated as 7,204.0 million tonnes. There has been an increase of 79.4 million tonnes in the carbon stock of the country as compared to ISFR-2019. The annual increase is 39.7 million tonnes, which is 145.6 million tonnes CO2 equivalent.
• The soil organic carbon (SOC) represents the largest pool of carbon stock in forests, which has been estimated as 4,010.2 million tonnes which contributes to 56 per cent to the total forest carbon stock of the country.
• Based on the frequency of forest fires, fire-prone areas of different severity classes have been mapped in the grids of 5 km X 5 km. Some 22.27 per cent of the forest cover of the country has been found highly to extremely fire-prone.
• India has reported a total of 3,45,989 forest fires from November 2020 to June 2021 which is the highest, recorded in the country for this period so far. Around 35.46 per cent of the country’s forest cover has been estimated to be prone to frequent forest fires. About four per cent of the country’s forest cover is extremely prone to fire, while six per cent of the forest cover is found to be very highly fire-prone.
• In this period, Odisha has reported 51,968 wild fires, (the maximum number of fires) detected among the Indian states, followed by Madhya Pradesh 47,795 and Chhattisgarh 38,106. This is mainly due to persistent hotter and drier weather due to climate change, and other human factors, such as land conversion for agriculture and poor forest management.
• The climate hotspots projections have been studied for the periods 2030, 2050, and 2085. It has been observed that Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand are projected to witness highest temperature increase while Andaman and Nicobar Islands, West Bengal, Goa, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh are projected to witness the least temperature rise over these periods. As for the North-Eastern states and the upper Malabar coast of Kerala, they are projected to experience the highest increase in rainfall during the studied period. Parts of North-Eastern states including Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim; North-Western parts of India including Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh are projected to experience least increase or sometimes decline in rainfall.

Apart from the above, this report has also included the assessment of forest cover in the tiger reserves and lion conservation area of India. Periodic tiger estimation or census exercise has been carried out by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to assess the status of tiger population. The first tiger census had been conducted in 2006. The tiger population, according to the first assessment was 1,411 which increased to 2,967 as per the latest and the fourth census in 2018-19.

• Tiger reserves in India have lost 22.62 sq. km of forest over the last decade while Gir has lost 33.43 sq. km. Out of the 52 tiger reserves, 20 have shown an increasing trend, ranging from 1.28 sq. km (at Pakke Tiger Reserve of Arunachal Pradesh) to 238.80 sq. km (at Buxa Tiger Reserve of West Bengal). However, 32 tiger reserves have registered a decline in the forest cover, ranging –0.06 sq. km of Orang Tiger Reserve, Assam to –118.97 sq. km of Kawal Tiger Reserve in Adilabad district near Hyderabad, Telangana.
• In case of lion habitat, a decrease of 33.43 sq. km, which is 2.52 per cent of the forest cover, has been observed in the last 10 years.

Methodology

To keep pace with the technological advancements to meet the information needs of the forestry sector, the FSI has taken new initiatives from time to time. This has contributed significantly in updating methodologies, generating new information, and eventually lead to greater precision and enhancement of knowledge. The FSI has adopted the vector boundary layers of various administrative units up to districts level as provided by the Survey of India as its methodology.

The biennial assessment of forest cover was done based on the interpretation of Linear Imaging Self-Scanning Sensor 3 (LISS III) data from the Indian Remote Sensing satellite data (Resourcesat-II). The satellite data (October to December, 2019) for the entire country was procured from the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC). The accuracy of forest cover classification has been assessed as 92.99 per cent. The accuracy of the classification between forest and non-forest classes has been assessed as 95.79 per cent.

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