India State of Forest Report
(ISFR) 2021
About:
It is the 17th biennial assessment
of India’s forests by the Forest Survey of India, an organisation under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). The ISFR 2021 presents
the latest status of the 'Forest cover' and 'Tree cover' of the country, estimates of growing stock, the extent
of trees outside forests, mangrove cover, bamboo resources, and assessment of forest carbon stock.
In addition to the regular chapters, this time round, a special chapter on “Forest Cover assessment in Tiger reserves and Tiger corridor areas of the country and decadal
change in Forest Cover” has also been included.
Results of the two special studies
namely Above Ground Biomass Estimation using Synthetic Aperture Radar
data (carried out in collaboration
with ISRO) and Climate hot spots in forest areas studies (carried out in
collaboration with BITS Pilani, Goa campus) are also being presented in this
report.
New initiatives taken up in the last two years by
the Forest Survey of India (FSI) team are also being presented as a special
chapter.
India's progress towards
achieving the Nationally Determined Contribution
commitments are also included as
part of the chapter on Forest carbon assessment.
Key Findings
The Total Forest and Tree cover is 24.62% of the geographical area of the
country.
The Total Forest cover is 7,13,789 sq km which is 21.71% of the geographical area of the country.
The Tree cover is 2.91% of the geographical area of the
country.
As compared to ISFR 2019 the
current assessment shows an increase of:
0.28% of forest and tree cover put
together, at the national level.
Forest Cover: 0.22%
Tree Cover: 0.76%
Change in Recorded forest
Area/Green Wash (RFA/GW) as compared to previous assessment of 2019.
Forest Cover within the
RFA/GW: A slight increase of
31 sq km.
Forest Cover outside the
RFA/GW: There is an increase
of 1,509 sq km.
The top five states in terms of
increase in forest cover:
Andhra
Pradesh>Telangana>Odisha>Karnataka>Jharkhand.
Forest cover in the hill districts is 40.17% of the total
geographical area of these districts.
A decrease of 902 sq km (0.32%) in
140 hill districts of the country.
The total forest cover in the tribal districts 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 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: The Mangrove cover in the country
has increased by 0.34% as compared to the previous assessment.
Total Carbon Stock: The total carbon stock in forests
is estimated as 7,204.0 million tonnes an increase of 79.4 million tonnes since
2019.
Forest Prone to Fire: The analysis reveals that 22.27%
of the forest cover is prone to forest fire.
Bamboo Forests: The 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 the bamboo bearing area as compared to the estimate of ISFR 2019.