India State of Forest Report 2021 – Forest coverage highlight in Assam and Northeast region (APSC Exam Geography Notes)
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The Northeast states account for 7.98% of total geographical area but 23.75% of total forest cover. North eastern states from the region have the highest percentage of forest cover w.r.t. total geographical area of the state. Mizoram (84.53%) > Arunachal Pradesh (79.33%) > Meghalaya (76.00%) > Manipur (74.34%) > Nagaland (73.90%).
As per India’s State of Forest Report 2021, the northeastern states viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Sikkim have lost 1,020 square kilometres of forest during 2019-2021. The eight states account for 23.75 per cent of the country’s total forest cover.
Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have respectively lost 1.03% and 0.39% of their forest cover, while Manipur has lost 1.48 %, Meghalaya 0.43%, and Nagaland 1.88%. Manipur recorded the largest loss in forest cover (249 sq kms), followed by Nagaland (235 sq kms) and Mizoram (186 sq kms). The decline in the Northeastern states has been attributed to a spate of natural calamities, particularly landslides and heavy rains, in the region as well as to anthropogenic activities such as shifting agriculture, pressure of developmental activities and felling of trees.
The northeastern states have been losing forest cover consistently and between 2011 and 2019, forest cover of six states, excluding Assam, had decreased by nearly 18 per cent between 2011 and 2019. The region lost nearly 25,012 sq. km of forest cover in the preceding decade.
Forests in all states (except Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland) will be highly vulnerable to climate hot spots. Ladakh (forest cover 0.1-0.2%) is likely to be the most affected.
States under North-Eastern Region showed the highest tendency of forest fire, and these states fall under extremely to very highly forest fire zones. States like Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, and Manipur in the North-Eastern Part of India exhibit the highest forest fire probability in terms of its frequency of event occurrence.
Special thematic information on forest cover such as hill, tribal districts, and north eastern region has also been given separately in the report.
FACTFILE – India State of Forest Report (ISFR)
- The biannual report is prepared by The Forest Survey of India (FSI), a body under MoEFCC, which conducts surveys and assessment of forest resources in the country.
- The India State of Forest Report 2021 is 17th such report in the series. In line with the Government of India’s vision of Digital India and the consequent need for integration of digital data sets, the Forest Survey of India has adopted the vector boundary layers of various administrative units upto districts developed by Survey of India along with digital open series topo sheets, bringing about full compatibility with the geographical areas as reported in Census, 2011.
- The report contains information on forest cover, tree cover, mangrove cover, growing stock inside and outside the forest areas, carbon stock in India’s forests and forest cover in different patch size classes. Special thematic information on forest cover such as hill, tribal districts, and north eastern region has also been given separately in the report.
- Forest Survey of India (FSI) has been assessing the forest and tree resources of our country on a biennial basis since 1987. The results of the assessment are published in its biennial report titled “India State of Forest Report (ISFR)”.
India State of Forest Report 2021 – Highlights & important findings
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