Question : FOREST COVER IN NORTH EASTERN STATES

(a) the percentage of forest cover in the North-Eastern States, State-wise and National average thereof;

(b) the forest cover in the other developed States like Haryana and Punjab;

(c) whether the development in the North- Eastern States, including Sikkim is due to large area in these States under forest cover;

(d) whether the Government proposes to initiate measures for overall development of North Eastern States by taking advantage of high forest cover and remove regional disparities; and

(e) if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS (SHRI JAIRAM RAMESH):

(a)& (b) The details of forest cover in North-Eastern States and Haryana & Punjab as per the India State of Forest Report, 2009 are given in Annexure-1. The total Forest Cover as per ISFR, 2009 is 21.02% of geographical area.

(c), (d)&(e) Being predominant forest rich states, forest cover forms the basis for promoting development activities such as ecotourism in these North Eastern States including Sikkim. To ensure that these states take advantages of high forest cover, the 13th Finance Commission set up by the Central Government has recommended an amount of Rs.5000 crore as forest grant taking into the consideration of three factors for allocation of funds to different states, forest area of the state vis a vis national average, compensation for the economic disability posed by forest cover and third, quality of forest cover in each state. Thus, the mechanism devised by 13th Finance Commission is designated to benefit the forest rich states. The details of allocation state-wise is given in Annexure-II.