As per decision 19/Conference of Parties (CP) 9-Kyoto Protocol, the forest can be defined by any country depending upon the capacities and capabilities of the country as follows:-

Forest is defined structurally on the basis of

• Crown cover percentage: Tree crown cover- 10 to 30% (India 10%)
• Minimum area of stand: area between 0.05 and 1 hectare (India 1.0 hectare) and
• Minimum height of trees: Potential to reach a minimum height at maturity in situ of 2 to 5 m (India 2m)

India’s definition of forest: 

India’s definition of forest has been taken on the basis of above three criteria only and very well accepted by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for their reporting/communications. 

The forest cover is defined as ‘all land, more than one hectare in area, with a tree canopy density of more than 10 percent irrespective of ownership and legal status. 

• Such land may not necessarily be a recorded forest area.
• It also includes orchards, bamboo and palm’. 
• The definition of forest cover has clearly been defined in all the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) and in all the international communications of India.

India State of Forest Report 2021

In ISFR 2021 recently published by the Ministry on 13th January, 2022, the forest cover figures are divided as ‘Inside Recorded Forest Area’ and ‘Outside Recorded Forest Area’. 

• Those ‘Inside Recorded Forest Area’ are basically natural forests and plantations of Forest Department. 
• The Forest cover ‘Outside Recorded Forest Area’ are mango orchards, coconut plantations, block plantations of agroforestry. 
• Thus data of mango plantations etc. is automatically getting separated out as Forest Survey of India is reporting the figures of ‘Outside Recorded Forest Area’ separately.

At present, there is no plan to change the definition of forest cover and very dense forest. The definition of forest cover in ISFR represents true picture as described. 

About ISFR 2021:

• ISFR 2021 is prepared by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), which has been mandated to assess the forest and tree resources of the country.
• The ISFR-2021 provides information on forest cover, tree cover, mangrove cover, growing stock, carbon stock in India’s forests, forest fire monitoring, forest cover in tiger reserve areas, above ground estimates of biomass using SAR data & climate change hotspots in Indian forests.

Key findings:

• The total forest and tree cover of the country is 80.9 million hectare which is 24.62 percent of the geographical area of the country.
• As compared to the assessment of 2019, there is an increase of 2,261 sq km in the total forest and tree cover of the country. 
• Out of this, the increase in the forest cover has been observed as 1,540 sq km and that in tree cover is 721 sq km.
• Increase in forest cover has been observed in open forest followed by very dense forest. 

Area-wise Forest cover: 

• Top three states showing increase in forest cover are Andhra Pradesh (647 sq km) followed by Telangana (632 sq km) and Odisha (537 sq km).
• Area-wise Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover in the country followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.

Percentage-wise Forest cover:

In terms of forest cover as percentage of total geographical area: 

• The top five States are Mizoram (84.53%), Arunachal Pradesh (79.33%), Meghalaya (76.00%), Manipur (74.34%) and Nagaland (73.90%).
• 17 states/UT’s have above 33 percent of the geographical area under forest cover. 
• Out of these states and UT’s, five states/UTs namely Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have more than 75 percent forest cover.
•  

• While 12 states/UTs namely Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Goa, Kerala, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Assam, Odisha, have forest cover between 33 percent to 75 percent.

Mangrove cover: 

• Total mangrove cover in the country is 4,992 sq km. 
• An increase of 17 sq Km in mangrove cover has been observed as compared to the previous assessment of 2019. 
• Top three states showing mangrove cover increase are Odisha (8 sq km) followed by Maharashtra (4 sq km) and Karnataka (3 sq km).

Carbon stock:

• Total carbon stock in country’s forest is estimated to be 7,204 million tonnes.
• There an increase of 79.4 million tonnes in the carbon stock of country as compared to the last assessment of 2019. 
• The annual increase in the carbon stock is 39.7 million tonnes.

Significant Features of ISFR 2021:

• In the present ISFR 2021, Forest Survey of India (FSI) has included a new chapter related to the assessment of forest cover in the Tiger Reserves, Corridors and Lion conservation area of India.
• For decadal assessment, change in forest cover, during the period between ISFR 2011 (data period 2008 to 2009) and the current cycle (ISFR 2021, data period 2019-2020) within each Tiger Reserves has been analysed.
• A new initiative of FSI has also been documented in the form of a chapter, where the ‘Above Ground Biomass’ has been estimated. 
• FSI, in collaboration with Space Application Centre (SAC), ISRO, Ahmedabad, initiated a special study for estimation of Above Ground Biomass (AGB) at pan-India level, using L- band of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. 
• FSI in collaboration of with Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) Pilani, Goa Campus has performed a study based on ‘Mapping of Climate Change Hotspots in Indian Forests’. 
• The collaborative study was carried out with the objective to map the climatic hotspots over the forest cover in India, using computer model-based projection of temperature and rainfall data, for the three future time periods i.e. year 2030, 2050 and 2085.
• The report also contains information on various parameters State/UT wise. 
• Special thematic information on forest cover such as hill, tribal districts, and north eastern region has also been given separately in the report.

Significance:

It is expected that the information given in the report would provide valuable information for policy, planning and sustainable management of forest and tree resources in the country.

Source: The Hindu / Down to Earth