NEW DELHI, 23 Dec: Several experts have claimed that the latest government data on India’s forests is “inflated” as it includes bamboo plantations, coconut groves, and orchards among others as part of the forest cover.
The India State of Forests Report-2023, released on Saturday after a delay of almost a year, said that India’s total forest and tree cover has increased by 1,445 sq kms since 2021, reaching 25.17 percent of the total geographical area in 2023.
However, the forest cover grew by just 156 sq kmsand most of the gain (149 sq kms) occurred outside the recorded forest area (RFA), which refers to areas designated as forests in government records.
The overall results could have been stronger, especially since the government included bamboo and smaller trees (5-10 cm diameter at breast height) in the tree cover estimates for ISFR-2023. The assessment also expanded to 751 districts, up from 636 in 2021.
Experts, including Kerala’s former principal chief conservator of forests Prakriti Srivastava, conservationist researcher Krithika Sampath and former National Board for Wildlife member Prerna Singh Bindra claimed that the government counted bamboo plantations, coconut groves, and orchards among others as part of the forest cover and produced “another faulty report with inflated datal.”
They argued that such areas do not offer any ecological value for biodiversity and wildlife conservation.
The increase in tree cover (1,289 sq kms) is also mainly due to plantations of rubber, eucalyptus, acacia and mango, coconut, areca nut and shade trees in tea and coffee plantations.
Forest cover refers to all land that has a tree canopy density of more than 10 percent and spans over an area of one hectare or more, regardless of the type of ownership or legal status. It includes natural forests as well as manmade plantations, orchards and tree patches in urban and rural areas that meet the size and canopy density criteria.
Tree cover is defined as patches of trees and isolated trees outside RFA that are less than one hectare.
“Mango contributes to 13.25 percent of the tree cover,” they pointed out.
They said that according to government data, 1,488 sq kms of unclassed forests have been lost between 2021 and 2023 but “there is no explanation for it” in the ISFR-2023.
‘Unclassed forests’ are non-notified forests under government ownership.
The experts said also that the report does not establish a correlation between forest area (areas designated as forests in government records) and forest cover.
The report “clearly reflects that the data on both is not robust and therefore cannot be correlated,” the experts said.
They claimed that the report failed to comply with the Supreme Court order in the Lafarge case which called for digitisation of forest maps, geo-referencing of RFA, and documentation of diverted forest lands. The absence of these elements weakens the report’s credibility.
They said also that forest lands diverted for dams, roads, railways and other such permanent constructions are lost forever, but are not deleted from records, thus “inflating the figures.”
Debadityo Sinha, who leads the climate and ecosystems team at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, said India lost 30,808 sq kms of open and scrub forests alongside 14,073 sq kms of moderately dense forests and 1,816 sq kms of dense forests to “non-forest” uses.
The report mentions the carbon sequestration potential of 406.05 million tonnes of carbon from these degraded lands but is silent on non-forest uses, Sinha posted on X.
“In my understanding, these areas are already home to some of the country’s most significant engineering projects – mines, highways, and strategic developments of national importance – and many are being planned or approved following the latest amendments to the Forest Conservation Act,” he said.
The experts expressed concerns that the forest cover in the hill districts is just 40 percent of their geographical area against the Forest Policy mandated 66.6 percent.
“This is very alarming as our soil health, ecological stability, ability to counter landslides, floods depends on forest cover in the hills,” they said.
The increased number of landslides and floods can be traced to the loss of forest cover in the hills which is a poor reflection of efforts taken to ensure our ecological security, the experts said.
The FSI also analysed forest cover changes in the ecologically fragile Western Ghats over the past decade and found an overall loss of 58.22 sq kms in forest cover.
In this region, the Nilgiris reported the steepest decline of 123 sq kms. The mountain range, spread across Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, is known for its popular tourist spots.
The report showed a decrease of 327.30 sq kms in forest cover in the northeastern region.
The country’s total mangrove cover stands at 4,991.68 sq kms, a net decrease of 7.43 sq kms since 2021, according to the report.
Moderately dense forest and open forest categories saw declines of 1,043.23 sq kms and 2,480.11 sq kms, respectively, over the last decade, despite gains in very dense forest. (PTI)
