Union Minister Bhupender Yadav releases India State of Forest Report 2023

On December 21 2024, Union Minister, Bhupender Yadav, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) released the 18th edition of ‘India State of Forest Report(ISFR 2023)’ on Volume I and Volume II at Forest Research Institute (FRI) in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

• According to the report, India’s total forest and tree cover in 2023 stands at 827,357 square kilometer(sq km), which is around 25% of the geographical area of India .This marks an overall increase of 1,445 sq km from 2021, with forest cover alone rising by 156 sq km.
• Union Minister of State (MoS) Kirtivardhan Singh, MoEFCC and Secretary Leena Nandan, MoEFCC were present at the event.

About India State of Forest Report(ISFR):

i.The ISFR report was brought out by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), MoEFCC on a biennial basis in 1987.

ii.The main objective is to provide an in-depth analysis of India’s forest status, offering insights into forest health, extent and distribution based on remote sensing satellite data and the National Forest Inventory (NFI).

iii.The ISFR 2023 covers vital aspects such as forest cover, tree cover, mangrove cover, growing stock, carbon stock, forest fire occurrences and agroforestry.

iv.The ISFR 2023 has given forest cover information for 751 districts as against 636 districts given in ISFR 2021. For the first time Division wise forest cover information has also been given for those States from where digitized division boundaries were received.

Key findings of ISFR 2023:

i.The ISFR 2023 has been published into two volumes.

• The Volume-I gives the national level assessment such as forest cover, mangrove cover, forest fires, growing stock, carbon stock, agroforestry, important characteristics of forest and decadal change.
• The Volume-II gives information about forest cover for each State/UT of the country, districts and divisions and state wise information derived from the field inventory.

ii.The ISFR 2023 report provides vital information on Forest and Tree resources of the country, based on 2 major activities: Forest Cover Mapping (FCM) and National Forest Inventory (NFI)  

Forest and Tree Cover of India:

Insights on Forest and Tree Cover:

i.Total Forest & Tree Cover: 8,27,356.95 sq km(25.17% of India’s area).

• Forest cover: 7,15,342.61 sq km(21.76%)
• Tree cover: 1,12,014.34 sq km(3.41%)

Top 3 states of  Forest and Tree cover:

ii.Increase in Forest & Tree Cover: 1445 sq km more than the previous assessment, which includes 156 sq km increase in the forest cover and 1289 sq km increase in tree cover.

• Maximum increase (Forest and Tree Cover): Chhattisgarh(683.62 sq km), Uttar Pradesh(UP)(559.19 sq km) and Odisha (558.57 sq km).
• Maximum decrease (Forest and Tree Cover):  Madhya Pradesh (MP) (612.41 sq km) , Karnataka (459.36 sq km) and Ladakh (159.26  sq km)
• Maximum Increase (Forest Cover): Mizoram (242 sq km) followed by Gujarat (241.29 sq km) and Odisha (152 sq km).
• Maximum Decrease (Forest Cover) :MP (612.41 km²) followed by Karnataka (459.36 km²) and Nagaland (125.22 km²)

iii.Highest forest cover: MP (77,073 sq km) followed by Arunachal Pradesh(AR) (65,882 sq km) and Chhattisgarh (55,812 sq km) are the top three states having largest forest cover in Area wise.

Top 3 states of Forest cover:

• In terms of percentage of forest cover with respect to total geographical area, Lakshadweep (91.33%) has the highest forest cover followed by Mizoram (85.34%) and Andaman & Nicobar Island (81.62%).
• 19 states/ Union Territories (UTs) have above 33% of the geographical area under forest cover.
• Out of these, 8 states/UTs namely Mizoram, Lakshadweep, A & N Island, Arunachal Pradesh (AR), Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura and Manipur have forest cover above 75%.

iv.Trees Outside Forest(TOF): 30.70 Mega hectare(M ha) (37.11% of the total forest and Tree cover).

Top 3 states of Tree cover:

vi.Forest in Western Ghats:  Forest cover in all districts under Western Ghats Eco-Sensitive Areas (WGESA) decreased(58.22 sq km) to 44,043.99 sq km (73% of 60,285.61 sq km).

• The Western Ghats cover 6 states: Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

vii.Northeastern Region: The total forest and tree cover in the Northeastern region is 1,74,394.70 sq km(reduced by 327.30 sq km) , which is 67% of the geographical area of these states.

viii.Mangrove Cover: 4,991.68 sq km (0.15% of India’s area), decrease of 7.43 sq km compared to 2021.

• Gujarat saw a decrease of 36.39 sq km whereas Andhra Pradesh(AP) and Maharashtra saw an increase of 13.01 sq km and 12.39 sq km respectively.

ix.Fire Incidents: 2,03,544 hotspots (2023-24).

• The top 3 with the most fire incidents in 2023-24 are Uttarakhand, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh.

x.Growing Stock: 6,429.64 cube millimetre (M m³) (4.25% increase), highest in Arunachal Pradesh (AR) (457.83 M m³).

• The total annual potential production of timber from trees outside forest has been estimated as 91.51 million cum.
• The extent of bamboo bearing area has been estimated as 1,54,670 sq km(increase of 5,227 sq km)
• The total carbon stock in the forest is estimated to be 7,285.5 million tonnes(increase of 81.5 million tonnes).

xi.Agroforestry:  The total tree green cover under agroforestry across India in 2023 is 1,27,590.05 sq km, and there are currently 8,289 million trees under agroforestry systems across the country.

About Forest Survey of India (FSI):
The Forest Survey of India (FSI) was established in 1981 after the expansion of the Pre-Investment Survey of Forest Resources (PISFR) project initiated in 1965 by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Government of India (GoI).

• The scope of PISFR’s activities was expanded and it was reorganised as the FSI in 1981.

Director General(DG) –  Anoop Singh
Headquartered – Dehradun, Uttarakhand