(a) whether the forest cover is depleting over several parts/ districts in the country including Uttar Pradesh;
(b) whether proposals regarding conservation and development of forests have been received from Uttar Pradesh; and
(c) if so, the details thereof and the action taken in this regard by the Government?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)
(a) 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). The forest cover assessment is a wall-to-wall mapping exercise based on remote sensing supported by intensive ground verification and field data from National Forest Inventory. As per latest ISFR 2019, the total forest and tree cover of the country is 8,07,276 square kilometres which is 24.56 % of the geographical area of the country. There is an increase of 3976 square kilometre of forest cover at the national level in the ISFR-2019 as compared to the ISFR- 2017. The details of States and Union Territory wise change in the forest cover as compared to ISFR 2017 is given at Annexure-I.
As per the ISFR 2019, Uttar Pradesh has an overall increase of 126.65 square kilometre in the forest cover as compared to ISFR 2017. The details of district wise forest cover in the State of Uttar Pradesh is given at Annexure-II.
(b)& (c) The Ministry has not received specific proposals regarding conservation and
development of forest from Uttar Pradesh during the year 2020-21 and 2021-22. However, the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (National Authority) received Annual Plans of Operation (APOs) from Uttar Pradesh Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA). The APOs mainly consist of activities related to compensatory afforestation, penal compensatory afforestation, catchment area treatment plan, artificial regeneration, assisted natural regeneration, forest and wildlife management, protection and conservation, forest and wildlife related infrastructure development etc.
The details of APOs received from the Uttar Pradesh CAMPA for 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 and their approvals are given below:-
Rs. in Crores
Year Outlay of APO Approved Amount
2019-20 285.68 285.68
2020-21 617.00 442.01
2021-22 600.00 594.53
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