(a) whether the Government has details about the area of forest cover lost due to various development projects and industrialisation in the country, during 2019, 2020 and 2021;
(b) if so, the details of the area of deforestation in each State, State-wise details in hectares; and
(c) the area released to each State Government under Compensatory Afforestation Scheme and the area of forests created under the Scheme in each State, since the inception of the Scheme?
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. ISFR 2021 is the latest report released by the Ministry on 13th January, 2022. As per the ISFR 2021, the forest cover has increased by 1540 square kilometer compared to last assessment i.e. ISFR 2019. The Central Government accords prior approval for non-forestry use of the forest land under the provisions laid down in the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. During the last three years (2018-19 to 2020-21), a total of 55430.13 ha of forest land has been allowed to be diverted for non-forest purpose. The category wise detail of area diverted is given at Annexure-I.
(b) Deforestation is caused due to various factors which might include
overexploitation, overgrazing, urbanization and diversion for other purposes etc. The Biennial edition of India State of Forest Report (ISFR) by Forest Survey of India (FSI) of the ministry, comprehensively, brings out the district-wise and state-wise details of forest and tree cover along with type of forest including open forest etc. This repository of data interalia serves as the source to target the potential area for afforestation under various schemes.
Compensatory afforestation is carried out in lieu of forest land diversion. Moreover, to compensate the problem of deforestation and to improve and increase the forest & tree cover in the country, afforestation programmes are taken up under various Centrally Sponsored Schemes of the ministry such as National Afforestation Programme (NAP) and National Mission for a Green India (GIM). The Ministry also supports school nursery and urban forestry programmes through people’s participation. In addition, plantations are also done by various departments, Non-Government Organizations, Civil Society, Corporate bodies etc.
The multi departmental efforts have yielded good results in conserving environment by
addressing the problem of deforestation, besides keeping the pace of development, which is evident from the fact that the forest cover has stabilized and has been constantly increasing over the years. As per the latest ISFR 2021, the total forest cover of the country has increased by 12,294 square kilometres in the last seven years (ISFR 2015 to ISFR 2021). The details of forest cover of the country in the last seven years (ISFR 2015 to ISFR 2021) and change in forest cover with respect to previous assessments are given in the table below:-
(Area in square kilometres)
ISFR Years Total Forest Cover Changes in forest cover w.r.t. previous ISFR Change in percentage
ISFR 2015 7,01,495 - -
ISFR 2017 7,08,273 6,778 0.21
ISFR 2019 7,12,249 3,976 0.56
ISFR 2021 7,13,789 1,540 0.22
The information on deforestation is not maintained at Government of India level.
(c) The details of area required for taking up Compensatory Afforestation under Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 and area over which the Compensatory afforestation completed during 1980-2022 are at Annexure-II.
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