Key Information
- Name of the report- State of forest report-2017
- Prepared by- The Forest Survey of India (FSI)
- Released by-The Ministry of Environment, Forest and climate change
What is ISFR?
- Forest Survey of India (FSI) has been assessing the forest and tree resources of our country since 1987. The Indian State Forest Report (ISFR) is published for every two years. The results of the assessment are published in its biennial report titled “India State of Forest Report (ISFR)”
- The 2017 report is more comprehensive than the previous one as it is based on information from 633 districts compared with 589 covered in the 2015 report.
- The latest ISFR report includes information about water bodies in forests, a new feature.
Key findings in ISFR-2017:
- Total forest cover in India is 24.39 per cent of the geographical area of the country.
- India’s total forest cover increased by 0.94 per cent in the last two years
- In terms of forest area rank of India in the world is 10th. It is 8th in terms of annual forest gain.
- In 2015 India’s total forest cover is 7, 01,673 square kilometers and in 2017 report it is increased to 7, 08,273 square kilometers. At present
- India’s total forest cover is 708,273 sq.km (about 21.54% of India’s total GA)
- Tree cover is 93,815 sq.km (about 2.85% of the total GA)
ISFR 2017-States & UTs
- The total forest and tree cover is 24.39 per cent of the geographical area of the country
- According to the report, at present 15 states and Union territories have more than 33% of their GA under forest cover.
Top five States with highest forest cover are:
| Name of the state | Rank in forest cover |
|---|---|
| Madhya Pradesh | 1 |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 2 |
| Chhattisgarh | 3 |
| Odisha | 4 |
| Maharashtra | 5 |
- According to the report Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover (77, 414 sq. km), followed by Arunachal Pradesh (66,964 sq. km), Chhattisgarh (55,547 sq. km) Odisha (51, 345 sq. km) and Maharashtra (50,682 sq. km).
- But the forest area in all these states, except Odisha, has decreased since 2015.
Top five states where forest cover grew:
The top five states where forest cover grew are| Name of the state | Forest grew by |
|---|---|
| Andhra Pradesh | 2,141 sq.km |
| Karnataka | 1,101 sq.km |
| Kerala | 1,043 sq.km |
| Odisha | 885 sq.km |
| Telangana | 164 sq km |
- Three states – Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala – have contributed the most to increasing the forest cover
Top five states/UTs with highest forest cover in terms of % of geographical area:
| Name of the state/UT | %forest cover |
|---|---|
| Lakshadweep | 90.33% |
| Mizoram | 86.27% |
| Andaman & Nicobar islands | 81.73% |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 79.96% |
| Manipur | 77.69% |
- The total mangrove cover stands at 4,921 sq km and has shown an increase of 181 sq km from 2015 to 2017.
- The increase in forest cover has been observed in very dense forests.
- The only category that has registered a decline in the latest assessment is the Moderate Dense Forest.
- In the north-eastern states maximum forest cover reduction has been seen in Mizoram (531 sq km), Nagaland (450 sq km) and Arunachal Pradesh (190 sq km).
