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

Total forest and tree cover increased by 2261 square kilometre in India as per the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021

Posted On: 13 MAR 2023 4:16PM by PIB Delhi

Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today informed that the Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun, an organization under the Ministry carries out the assessment of forest cover of the country biennially since 1987 and the findings are published in India State of Forest Report (ISFR). As per latest ISFR 2021, the total forest cover of the country is 7,13,789 square kilometre which is 21.72% of the geographical area of the country. The current assessment shows that the total forest cover of the country has increased by 1540 square kilometre, tree cover has increased by 721 square kilometre, and total forest and tree cover has increased by 2261 square kilometre at the national level as compared to the previous assessment i.e. ISFR 2019. The State/UTs wise details of forest cover as per ISFR 2021is given in Annexure I.

In the written reply it was stated that in order to restore ecosystems and increase the forest cover in the country, afforestation and tree plantation activities are undertaken by States/UTs. The Ministry provides financial assistance to States/UTs under various Centrally Sponsored Schemes namely Green India Mission to support and supplement the efforts of States and Union Territories. National Mission for a Green India (GIM) is one of the eight Missions outlined under the National Action Plan on Climate Change. It aims at protecting, restoring, and enhancing India's forest cover and responding to Climate Change by undertaking plantation activities in the forest and non-forest areas. GIM activities started in the Financial Year 2015-16. So far, a sum of Rs. 728.21 Crores have been released to sixteen States and one union territory for afforestation activities, over an area of 1,36,808 hectare. The State-wise details of funds released during the last five years and current year is given in Annexure-II.

It was stated that the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is implementing Nagar Van Yojana (NVY) since the year 2020 which envisages creation of 400 Nagar Vans and 200 Nagar Vatika in the country during the period 2020-21 to 2024-25 under the funds available under National Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAMPA). The Nagar Van Yojana aims to enhance the green cover in the urban and peri-urban areas including biological diversity, provide ecological benefits and improve the quality of life of city dwellers. So far, the Ministry has approved 270 projects under Nagar Van Yojana with the total cost of Rs.238.64 Crore.

It was stated that the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAMPA fund) are being utilized by States/UTs for taking up compensatory afforestation as per approved Annual Plan of Operations for compensating the loss of forest & tree cover due to diversion of forest land for developmental projects as per provisions of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 (CAF Act) and CAF Rules, 2018. In addition to this, area specific provisions such as preparation of Catchment Area Treatment Plan, Wildlife Conservation Plan, Soil and Moisture Conservation Plan, etc. are also stipulated to mitigate the impacts of diversion of forest lands. The details of CAMPA funds released to the States/UTs during 2018-19 to 2022-23 are enclosed at Annexure-III.

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

Annexure-I

 

 

 

State/UTs details of Forest Cover as per ISFR 2021

 

(Area in square kilometre)

S. No

State/UT

Geo-graphical Area (GA)

Total Forest Cover

Percentage of Geographical area

Change in Forest Cover w.r.t ISFR 2019

Change Percentage

w.r.t. 2019 assessment

Scrub

1

Andhra Pradesh

1,62,968

29,784

18.28

647

2.22

8,276

2

Arunachal Pradesh

83,743

66,431

79.33

-257

-0.39

797

3

Assam

78,438

28,312

36.09

-15

-0.05

228

4

Bihar

94,163

7,381

7.84

75

1.03

236

5

Chhattisgarh

1,35,192

55,717

41.21

106

0.19

615

6

Delhi

1,483

195.00

13.15

-0.44

-0.23

0.38

7

Goa

3,702

2,244

60.62

7

0.31

0

8

Gujarat

1,96,244

14,926

7.61

69

0.46

2,828

9

Haryana

44,212

1,603

3.63

1

0.06

159

10

Himachal  Pradesh

55,673

15,443

27.73

9

0.06

322

11

Jharkhand

79,716

23,721

29.76

110

0.47

584

12

Karnataka

1,91,791

38,730

20.19

155

0.40

4,611

13

Kerala

38,852

21,253

54.70

109

0.52

30

14

Madhya Pradesh

3,08,252

77,493

25.14

11

0.01

5,457

15

Maharashtra

3,07,713

50,798

16.51

20

0.04

4,247

16

Manipur

22,327

16,598

74.34

-249

-1.48

1,215

17

Meghalaya

22,429

17,046

76.00

-73

-0.43

663

18

Mizoram

21,081

17,820

84.53

-186

-1.03

1

19

Nagaland

16,579

12,251

73.90

-235

-1.88

824

20

Odisha

1,55,707

52,156

33.50

537

1.04

4,924

21

Punjab

50,362

1,847

3.67

-2

-0.11

34

22

Rajasthan

3,42,239

16,655

4.87

25

0.15

4,809

23

Sikkim

7,096

3,341

47.08

-1

-0.03

296

 

24

Tamil Nadu

1,30,060

26,419

20.31

55

0.21

758

25

Telangana

1,12,077

21,214

18.93

632

3.07

2,911

26

Tripura

10,486

7,722

73.64

-4

-0.05

33

27

Uttar Pradesh

2,40,928

14,818

6.15

12

0.08

563

28

Uttarakhand

53,483

24,305

45.44

2

0.01

392

29

West Bengal

88,752

16,832

18.96

-70

-0.41

156

30

A & N Islands

8,249

6,744

81.75

1

0.01

1

31

Chandigarh

114

22.88

20.07

0.85

3.86

0.38

32

Dadra & Nagar Haveli
and Daman & Diu

602

227.75

37.83

0.10

0.04

4.85

33

Jammu &
Kashmir

 

2,22,236

 

21,387

39.15

29

0.14

284

34

Ladakh

2,272

1.35

18

0.80

279

35

Lakshadweep

30

27.10

90.33

0.00

0.00

0.00

36

Puducherry

490

53.30

10.88

0.89

1.70

0.00

Total

32,87,469

7,13,789

21.71

1,540

0.22

46,539

 

 

 

 

Annexure-II

 

Details of funds released from 2017-18 to 2022-23 under the scheme National Mission for a Green India

(Rupees in Crore)

 

S. No.

States

2017-18

2018-19

2019-20

2020-21

2021-22

2022-23

1

Andhra Pradesh

0.45

2.67

Nil

Nil

2.02

Nil

2

Arunachal Pradesh

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

13.43

Nil

3

Chhattisgarh

10.95

5.36

5.04

1.66

6.12

Nil

4

Haryana

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

9.55

Nil

5

Himachal Pradesh

Nil

Nil

Nil

17.09

Nil

Nil

6

Jammu & Kashmir

Nil

Nil

Nil

25.73

Nil

6.49

7

Karnataka

0.86

1.62

2.21

2.35

4.45

2.93

8

Kerala

Nil

Nil

16.32

Nil

Nil

Nil

9

Madhya Pradesh

Nil

24.16

30.65

Nil

18.29

17.93

10

Maharashtra

Nil

10.30

 

Nil

Nil

Nil

11

Manipur

6.42

4.89

4.16

6.74

9.93

5.45

12

Mizoram

20.00

22.36

17.71

2.99

29.86

36.27

13

Odisha

1.41

4.74

14.19

26.01

17.74

8.48

14

Punjab

6.22

 

3.19

 

3.32

2.7393

15

Sikkim

Nil

3.32

3.12

2.19

7.77

6.57

16

Uttarakhand

Nil

Nil

Nil

27.89

33.99

28.40

17

West Bengal

Nil

Nil

9.43

Nil

Nil

0.76

Total

46.30

79.43

106.01

112.65

156.46

116.01

 

 

 

 

 

Annexure III

 

 

Details of CAMPA fund released to State/UTs during 2018-19 to 2022-23.

Sl. No.

State/UT

Funds Released                                                                   (Amount in Rupees)

2018-19

2019-20

2020-21

2021-22

2022-23

1

Andaman & Nicobar

1,56,00,000.00

Nil

16,41,18,034.00    

     Nil                        

Nil

2

Andhra Pradesh

    1,04,47,00,000.00

      17,34,81,40,177.00

Nil

   1,14,05,48,162.00

Nil

3

Arunachal Pradesh

    3,54,15,00,000.00

      15,88,71,93,258.00

Nil

    6,12,94,58,249.00

Nil

4

Assam

        45,84,00,000.00

        5,60,80,73,954.00

Nil

                                   -  

  1,48,33,97,176.00

5

Bihar

        46,61,90,000.00

        5,22,94,75,017.00

Nil

        43,63,92,536.00

Nil

6

Chandigarh

          1,27,00,000.00

            11,37,92,289.00

Nil

                                   -  

Nil

7

Chhattisgarh

Nil

      57,91,70,20,385.00

Nil

    2,07,50,40,301.00

Nil

8

Dadar&Nagar

Nil

Nil

Nil

        22,87,00,439.00

Nil

9

Daman &Diu

Nil

Nil

Nil

                                   -  

Nil

10

Delhi

Nil

Nil

Nil

    1,38,17,38,583.00

Nil

11

Goa

Nil

        2,38,15,66,295.00

Nil

Nil

Nil

12

Gujarat

    2,12,66,00,000.00

      14,84,60,03,080.00

Nil

Nil

Nil

13

Haryana

    1,44,20,00,000.00

      12,82,65,30,878.00

Nil

Nil

Nil

14

Himachal Pradesh

    1,32,52,00,000.00

      16,60,72,19,227.00

Nil

Nil

Nil

15

Jammu&Kashmir

                                   Nil

        5,10,11,54,800.00

  3,56,19,88,860.00

Nil

Nil

16

Jharkhand

    2,86,25,00,000.00

      41,58,01,69,322.00

Nil

Nil

Nil

17

Karnataka

    1,01,40,00,000.00

      13,50,37,43,189.00

Nil

Nil

Nil

18

Kerala

        14,61,00,000.00

            81,58,66,102.00

Nil

Nil

Nil

19

Ladakh(UT)

Nil

Nil

  2,49,27,14,340.00

Nil

Nil

20

Lakshdweep(UT)

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

21

Madhya Pradesh

    2,68,76,00,000.00

      51,96,69,19,315.00

Nil

    9,90,82,99,200.00

Nil

22

Maharashtra

    2,25,00,00,000.00

      38,44,24,19,155.00

Nil

    2,85,22,21,971.00

Nil

23

Manipur

        24,85,00,000.00

        3,09,76,18,132.00

Nil

        36,43,61,620.00

Nil

24

Meghalaya

Nil

        1,63,30,65,753.00

Nil

Nil

Nil

25

Mizoram

          8,30,00,000.00

        2,12,98,47,833.00

Nil

Nil

Nil

26

Nagaland

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

27

Orissa

    5,54,00,00,000.00

      59,33,98,06,189.00

                                 Nil

3,47,27,30,804.00

Nil

Sl. No.

State/UT

                      Funds Released                                                                                             (Amount in Rupees)

2018-19

2019-20

2020-21

2021-22

2022-23

28

Puducherry(UT)

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

Nil

29

Punjab

        79,20,00,000.00

      10,40,84,37,006.00

Nil

Nil

      29,49,32,090.00

30

Rajasthan

    1,82,03,00,000.00

      17,48,25,94,648.00

Nil

Nil

Nil

31

Sikkim

                                   -  

        3,92,36,08,568.00

Nil

Nil

      10,20,08,491.00

32

Tamil Nadu

          7,00,00,000.00

        1,13,41,93,727.00

Nil

Nil

Nil

33

Telangana

    2,37,38,00,000.00

      31,10,38,02,776.00

Nil

Nil

      67,76,22,192.00

34

Tripura

        16,70,00,000.00

        1,83,65,13,688.00

Nil

        47,99,87,468.00

Nil

35

Uttar Pradesh

    1,50,60,00,000.00

      18,19,62,67,880.00

Nil

Nil

Nil

36

Uttarakhand

    3,03,00,00,000.00

      26,75,09,03,454.00

Nil

Nil

  1,18,99,55,031.00

37

West Bengal

        21,22,00,000.00

        2,36,47,68,181.00

Nil

Nil

      69,28,38,990.00

 

TOTAL

  35,23,58,90,000.00

  4,79,57,67,14,278.00

  6,21,88,21,234.00

  28,46,94,79,333.00

  4,44,07,53,970.00

               

 

******

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