Tree cover in Indian Himalayan region shrank by 2.2% in two years: Govt

Kirti Vardhan Singh said that according to the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023, the tree cover in the region fell from 15,427.11 sq km in 2021 to 15,075.5 sq km in 2023

The tree cover in the 13 states and Union territories of the Indian Himalayan region has shrunk by 2.27 per cent between 2021 and 2023, Union minister Kirti Vardhan Singh said.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, the minister said that according to the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023, the tree cover in the region fell from 15,427.11 sq km in 2021 to 15,075.5 sq km in 2023.

Singh also said the total carbon stock in the forests of the Indian Himalayan region has been assessed to be 3,273.10 million tonnes in 2023. It stood at 3,272.68 million tonnes in 2021.

 

Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Assam and West Bengal are part of the Indian Himalayan region.

"Forest health is influenced by multiple ecological and biophysical parameters and not merely by the greenness of forest areas," he said.

The Forest Survey of India (FSI) collects data on various parameters of forest enabling conditions like soil depth and soil erosion, characteristics of forest vegetation, and threats to forests to ascertain forest health.

"These characteristics interact with each other and determine the state of forests at a given time and have been published in ISFR 2023," the minister said.