New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) As compared to 2021, there is an increase of 1,445 sq km in the total forest and tree cover of the country with 25.17 per cent of the total geographical area being green, Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav said on Saturday.

As per the present assessment, the total forest and tree cover in the country is 8,27,357 sq km, which is 25.17 per cent of the geographical area of the country. The forest cover has an area of about 7,15,343 sq km (21.76 per cent) whereas the tree cover has an area of 1,12,014 sq km (3.41 per cent), he said.

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

The minister also highlighted the near real-time fire alerts and forest fire services provided by FSI using advanced technology while releasing the ‘India State of Forest Report 2023 (ISFR 2023)’ at the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun.

The ISFR is brought out by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) on a biennial basis since 1987. The India State of Forest Report 2023 is the 18th such report in the series.

The report said the top four states showing maximum increase in forest and tree cover are Chhattisgarh (684 sq km) followed by Uttar Pradesh (559 sq km), Odisha (559 sq km) and Rajasthan (394 sq km). The top three states showing a maximum increase in forest cover are Mizoram (242 sq km) followed by Gujarat (180 sq km) and Odisha (152 sq km).

The total mangrove cover is 4,992 sq km in the country, said the report.

The FSI carries out an in-depth assessment of the forest and tree resources of the country based on the interpretation of Remote Sensing satellite data and field-based National Forest Inventory (NFI), and the results are published in the ISFR.

The report contains information on forest cover, tree cover, mangrove cover, growing stock, carbon stock in India’s forests, instances of forest fire and agroforestry.

To present a detailed picture of forest health at the country level, special thematic information on forest cover and important characteristics of forests have been reported in the ISFR.

Courtesy Media Group: IANS

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