Union Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav released the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021. The report said that the forest cover of 52 tiger reserves has decreased by 22.62 square kilometers (0.04 percent) during the last decade.
According to the report, there has been an increase in the area of 20 tiger reserves from 1.28 square kilometers to 238.80 square kilometers, but a decrease of 0.06 square kilometers to 118.97 square kilometers has been registered in the area of 32 tiger reserves.
It was told in the report that the forest area suitable for lions has decreased by 33.43 square kilometers during the last 10 years.
The report said, ‘The Tiger Corridor is spread over an area of about 14 to 89.37 sq km, which is 0.43 percent of the total geographical area of the country. The present assessment shows that the forest cover in tiger corridors is 11,75.12 sq km, which is 1.62 percent of the total forest area of the country.
For the decadal assessment, the 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) was analyzed, the report said.
Among the 52 tiger reserves, the maximum reduction of 118.97 sq km was recorded in the Kawal sanctuary of Telangana between 2011-2021. After this, there was a decline in the forest area of 53.09 sq km in Bhadra in Karnataka and 40 sq km in Sunderbans of West Bengal.
In the tiger reserve that has recorded the highest increase in forest area in the last decade, West Bengal’s Baksa is at the fore, with an increase of 238.8 square kilometers in the forest area. After this, there was an increase of 120.78 sq km in Annamalai Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu and 64.48 sq km in Indravati Sanctuary of Chhattisgarh.
According to the analysis of forest area suitable for lions, there was a decrease of 33.43 square kilometers in the forest area of Gir National Park and Gir Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat. In Gir National Park, where there was a decline of 2.20 sq km in the forest area, a decrease of 31.23 sq km was recorded in the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary.
Although according to the same report, the country’s forest and tree cover is spread over 8.09 lakh square kilometres, this is an increase of 2,261 square kilometer as compared to 2019.
Union Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav released this report in New Delhi on January 13, which is prepared by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) every two years.
According to the report, more than 33 percent of their geographical area is covered by forest in 17 states and union territories. In this, Madhya Pradesh is at number one. It is followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.
The highest increase in forest area has been recorded in five states. These include Andhra Pradesh (an increase of 647 sq km), Telangana (632 sq km), Odisha (537 sq km), Karnataka (155 sq km) and Jharkhand (110 sq km).
Apart from this, more than 3.98 lakh incidents of forest fires were reported in India in 2020-2021 fire season, which is more than double compared to the previous year. This was said in a government report on Thursday.
Union Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav released the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021.
It said that during the fire season between November 2020 and June 2021, 3,98,774 incidents of forest fires were detected by the Forest Survey of India (FSI).
The report said that between November 2019 and June 2020, 1,46,920 incidents of forest fires were recorded.
Among the states, Odisha recorded the highest number of fire incidents at 51,968 followed by 47,795 in Madhya Pradesh and 38,106 in Chhattisgarh.
The highest number of fire incidents were witnessed in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli with a figure of 10,577 across districts. This was followed by 6,156 incidents in Kandhamal in Odisha and 5,499 in Bijapur in Chhattisgarh.
The report said that from November 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020, the total burned forest area in India has been estimated at 11,094 square kilometers, which is 1.56 percent of the total forest area of the country.
It states, “In India, severe fires occur in many types of forests, especially dry deciduous forests, while it is comparatively less in evergreen, semi-evergreen and mountain temperature forests. Recurrent fires have been estimated in more than 36 percent of the country’s forest area. At present, the FSI has been alerting the state forest departments about incidents of forest fires at least six times in 24 hours.
As per the long term trend analysis done by FSI, about 10.66 per cent of the forest area in India is covered in areas with high to very high risk of fire.
(with input from news agency language)
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