Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
azadi ka amrit mahotsav

Increase in Forest Area

Posted On: 05 FEB 2024 4:41PM by PIB Delhi

Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun, an organization under the Ministry carries out the assessment of forest cover biennially and the findings are published in India State of Forest Report (ISFR). There has been an increase in forest cover of the country by 5516 square kilometre between ISFR 2017 and ISFR 2021. The State/UTs wise details of change in Forest Cover including the State of Chhattisgarh between ISFR 2017 and ISFR 2021 are given in Annexure-I.

The Ministry supports the States/Union Territories for carrying out afforestation activities through the Centrally Sponsored Scheme, namely Green India Mission. This flagship afforestation scheme of the Ministry, aims to undertake afforestation activities in degraded forest areas with people’s participation. The scheme promotes environmental conservation and rain water harvesting through afforestation and tree plantation, restoration of degraded forest landscapes, habitat improvement including through soil moisture conservation activities. The details of fund released under Green India Mission to the State of Chhattisgarh during the last five years are as follows.

 

Year

Fund released under GIM (Rs. In Crore)

2018-19

5.36

2019-20

5.04

2020-21

1.66

2021-22

6.12

2022-23

Nil

2023-24

Nil

Total

18.18

 

Afforestation activities are also undertaken in a major way under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund as per the provisions of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 and the Rules made there under.  The approved Annual Plan of Operations (APO) for State of Chhattisgarh for undertaking activities under the State CAMPA fund during the last five years are as follows: -

 

Year

Amount approved in APO under State CAMPA  (Rs. In Crore)

2018-19

897.52

2019-20

848.51

2020-21

1347.02

2021-22

1500.75

2022-23

688.47

2023-24

471.36

 

The Ministry is also implementing the Nagar Van Yojana which envisages creation of 600 Nagar Vans and 400 Nagar Vatika in the country during the period 2020-21 to 2026-27. The Nagar Van Yojana aims at enhancing the green cover in the urban and peri-urban areas and augmenting biological diversity.

Afforestation activities are also taken up under various programmes and schemes of line Ministries such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, National Bamboo Mission, Sub-Mission on Agroforestry etc. and under schemes of State Governments/UT Administrations through different departments, Non-Government Organizations, Civil Societies, Corporate bodies etc. The multi departmental efforts have yielded good results in conserving and enhancing forest cover in the country.

 

 

Annexure-I

 (Area in Square Kilometre)

 

 

 

S.No.

 

States/UTs

Geographical area

                Forest Cover

Change in Forest Cover between ISFR 2017 & ISFR 2021  (b-a)

ISFR 2017 (a)

ISFR 2021

(b)

   

1

Andhra Pradesh

1,62,968

28,147

29,784

1,637

2

Arunachal Pradesh

83,743

66,964

66,431

-533

3

Assam

78,438

28,105

28,312

207

4

Bihar

94,163

7,299

7,381

82

5

Chhattisgarh

1,35,192

55,547

55,717

170

6

Delhi

1,483

192.41

195.00

2.59

7

Goa

3,702

2,229

2,244

15

8

Gujarat

1,96,244

14,757

14,926

169

9

Haryana

44,212

1,588

1,603

15

10

Himachal Pradesh

55,673

15,100

15,443

343

11

Jharkhand

79,716

23,553

23,721

168

12

Karnataka

1,91,791

37,550

38,730

1,180

13

Kerala

38,852

20,321

21,253

932

14

Madhya Pradesh

3,08,252

77,414

77,493

79

15

Maharashtra

3,07,713

50,682

50,798

116

16

Manipur

22,327

17,346

16,598

-748

17

Meghalaya

22,429

17,146

17,046

-100

18

Mizoram

21,081

18,186

17,820

-366

19

Nagaland

16,579

12,489

12,251

-238

20

Odisha

1,55,707

51,345

52,156

811

21

Punjab

50,362

1,837

1,847

10

22

Rajasthan

3,42,239

16,572

16,655

83

23

Sikkim

7,096

3,344

3,341

-3

24

Tamil Nadu

1,30,060

26,281

26,419

138

25

Telangana

1,12,077

20,419

21,214

795

26

Tripura

10,486

7,726

7,722

-4

27

Uttar Pradesh

2,40,928

14,679

14,818

139

28

Uttarakhand

53,483

24,295

24,305

10

29

West Bengal

88,752

16,847

16,832

-15

30

A&N Islands

8,249

6,742

6,744

2

31

Chandigarh

114

21.56

22.88

1.32

32

Dadra & Nagar Haveli

491

207

227.75

0.26

33

Daman & Diu

111

20.49

34

Jammu & Kashmir

2,22,236

23,241

21,387

-1,854

35

Ladakh

0

2,272

2,272

36

Lakshadweep

30

27.10

27.10

0.00

37

Puducherry

490

53.67

53.30

-0.37

 

Grand Total

32,87,469

7,08,273

7,13,789

5,516

 

This information was given by Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

***

MJPS/NSK



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