India State of Forest Report ISFR 2021 Summary

India State of Forest Report 2021 (ISFR 2021) is a biennial publication of Forest survey of India (FSI), an organization under the Ministry of Environment Forest, & Climate Change, Government of India, engaged in the assessment of the country’s forest resources.

The first State of Forest Report was brought out in 1987. Since then, 16 such assessments have been completed and the current assessment is the 17^th in the series. The report provides state/district wise forest cover of the country and changes thereon with respect to the previous assessment. It also provides the estimates of growing stock within and outside the forest areas, forest cover in hill, tribal and north eastern states, carbon and other important aspects such as tree, bamboo and mangrove cover.

Salient Findings of India State of Forest Report 2021 – ISFR 2021

• The total forest cover of the country is 7,13,789 sq km which is 21.71% of the geographical area of the country. The tree cover of the country is estimated as 95,748 sq km which is 2.91% of the geographical area. Thus, the total Forest and Tree cover of the country is 8,09,537 sq km which is 24.62% of the geographical area of the country.
• The current assessment shows an increase of 1,540 sq km (0.22%) of forest cover, 721 sq km (0.76%) of tree cover and 2,261 sq km (0.28%) of forest and tree cover put together, at the national level as compared to the previous assessment i.e. ISFR 2019.
• Forest cover inside the RFA/GW has shown a slight increase of 31 sq km whereas there is an increase of 1,509 sq km of forest cover outside the RFA/GW as compared to previous assessment of 2019.
• The 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).
• Forest cover in the hill districts of the country is 2,83,104 sq km, which is 40.17% of the total geographical area of these districts. The current assessment shows a decrease of 902 sq km (0.32%) in 140 hill districts of the country.
• The total forest cover in the tribal districts is 4,22,296 sq km, which is 37.53% of the geographical area of these districts. The current assessment shows a decrease of 655 sq km of forest cover inside the RFA/GW in the tribal districts and an increase of 600 sq km outside.
• Total forest cover in the North Eastern region is 1,69,521 sq km, which is 64.66% of its geographical area. The current assessment shows a decrease of forest cover to the extent of 1,020 sq km (0.60%) in the region.
• Mangrove cover in the country has increased by 17 sq km (0.34%) as compared to the previous assessment.
• The total growing stock of wood in the country is estimated as 6,167.50 million cum comprising 4388.15 million cum inside forest areas and 1779.35 million cum outside recorded forest areas (TOF). The average growing stock per hectare in forest has been estimated as 56.60 сum.
• Total bamboo bearing area of the country is estimated as 1,49,443 sq km. There is a decrease of 10,594 sq km in bamboo bearing area as compared to the estimate of ISFR 2019.
• As per the Climate Hotspot projections for the studied periods i.e. 2030, 2050 and 2085, it has been observed that Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are projected to witness highest temperature increase while Andaman & Nicobar Islands, West Bengal, Goa, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are projected to witness the least temperature rise over these periods. The North-Eastern States and Upper Malabar Coast of India are projected to experience the highest increase in rainfall; whereas, part of North-Eastern States like Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim; North-Western parts of the country namely Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh are projected to experience least increase and sometimes even decline in rainfall.

Forest and Tree cover of India in 2021

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