Forest cover in the State up by 95.56 sq km since 2017: ISFR

PUNE:  As per the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2019, the forest cover in Maharashtra has increased marginally by 95.56 sq km compared to the previous assessment reported in ISFR 2017.

ISFR is a biennial report published by the Forest Survey of India (FSI). With 16.50 per cent of its geographical area under forest cover, the State does not lie in the top five in terms of forest cover as a percentage of total forest area.

District-wise, Latur has the least percentage of geographical area under forest cover - that is just 0.18 per cent, while Gadchiroli district has maximum, that is 68.81 per cent of its area under forest. As per the report, 10.94 per cent of Pune district is forested.

With several tree plantation drives across the State in the past couple of years by citizens as well as administrative authorities, the report stated that the main reasons for the increase in forest cover in the State are plantation and conservation activities.

TREES OUTSIDE FOREST AND TREE COVER
As per the report, Maharashtra has the largest extent of Trees Outside Forest (TOF) in the country, at 26,945 sq km. TOF refer to tree resources found outside the recorded forest areas.

Forest cover stated in the report accounts for tree patches of size 1 hectare (ha) and more having canopy density more than 10 per cent. However, trees occurring in patches of size less than 1 ha including scattered trees are assessed through sampling based methodology. A total of 10,806 sq km are in Maharashtra is under forest cover as per ISFR 2019, which shows that the tree cover of the State has increased by 975 sq km as compared to the previous assessment.

INDIA’S FOREST COVER INCREASES
India’s forest cover has shown an increase of 3,976 sq km during October 2017 to January 2018 (when the satellite survey was conducted). 

The total forest cover of the country is 7,12,249 sq km which is 21.67 per cent of the geographical area of the country. 
The tree cover of the country is estimated as 95,027 sq km which is 2.89 per cent of the geographical area.

MAHARASHTRA’S AREA UNDER FOREST COVER
- Area under Very Dense Forest (VDF) - 8,720.53 sq km 
- Moderately Dense Forest (MDF) - 20,572.35 sq km
- Open Forest (OF) - 21,484.68 sq km