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Critical Topics and Their Significance for the UPSC CSE Examination on January 06, 2025

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Is India’s forest cover growing enough?

For Preliminary Examination:  Current events of national and international importance

For Mains Examination: GS III - Environment & Ecology

Context:

The State of Forest Report (SFR), 2023 was released by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav at the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, on December 21, 2024. The SFR is a biennial exercise the Government of India undertakes to track tree and forest cover, carbon stock, forest fires, and other parameters related to the country’s green cover

Read about:

 State of Forest Report (SFR)

Western Ghats Eco-Sensitive Area (WGESA)

Key takeaways:

Findings of SFR 2023

• The SFR 2023 revealed that 25.17% of India’s land area is covered by forests and trees, with forests accounting for 21.76% and tree cover contributing 3.41%. Compared to SFR 2021, these figures show slight increases from 21.71% and 2.91%, respectively, amounting to an absolute growth of 1,445 sq. km.
• The National Forest Policy, 1988 mandates that 33% of India’s geographical area should be under forest or tree cover. States such as Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, and Odisha recorded the highest gains in forest and tree cover, whereas regions like Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Ladakh (UT), and Nagaland experienced declines.

Understanding Green Cover

• As per the report, forest cover refers to areas of at least one hectare with a tree canopy density of 10% or more, regardless of ownership or legal status. Tree cover, on the other hand, encompasses smaller tree patches outside forested areas, including dispersed trees in urban and rural settings, spanning areas less than one hectare.
• The SFR employs satellite imagery alongside data from the National Forest Inventory (NFI) and ground verification for accuracy. Forest cover data derives from satellite analysis, while the growing and carbon stock figures rely on NFI data collected between 2017 and 2022. The 2023 report specifically used satellite imagery from October to December 2021.

Performance of Sensitive Areas

• The Western Ghats Eco-Sensitive Area (WGESA), designated under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 for special protection, has seen a reduction of 58.22 sq. km in forest cover over the last decade, as per SFR 2023. While “very dense” forests increased, the “moderately dense” and “open” forests experienced declines. Forest canopy densities are classified as follows: “very dense” (≥70%), “moderately dense” (40-70%), and “open” (10-40%).
• In the Nilgiris, part of the WGESA and a UNESCO biosphere, forest cover reduced by 123.44 sq. km between 2013 and 2023. Alarmingly, forest fires in the Nilgiris increased fourfold from 2022-23 to 2023-24.
• Mangrove ecosystems, critical for stabilizing coastlines and supporting biodiversity, have also suffered losses. India’s mangrove cover, comprising 0.15% of its total geographical area, decreased by 7.43 sq. km between 2021 and 2023. While Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra expanded their mangrove cover, Gujarat’s Kutch region recorded significant declines.
• The northeastern region, though covering less than 8% of India’s landmass, contributes over 21% to its forest and tree cover. However, the SFR 2023 reported a decline of 327.3 sq. km in the region, attributed partly to forest-to-agriculture conversion.

Implications and Critiques of SFR