RU-49-01-0047-200122/BACKGROUNDER

India State of Forest Report 2021 (ISFR)(Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change)
January 20, 2022
Background
The National Forest Policy of India, 1988 envisaged agoal of achieving 33 per cent of the geographical areaof the country under forest & tree cover. The remotesensing based nation-wide Forest Cover mapping at
biennial interval, serves as a monitoring mechanism
towards achievement of this goal. Periodic forest coverassessment at definite intervals helps in assessing thestatus of forests in the country and its broad trend.
India State of Forest Report (ISFR)i is a biennial
publication of Forest Survey of India (FSI), anorganization under the Ministry of Environment, Forest& Climate Change, Government of India. It is a widelyused primary information source across the Central
Government, State Governments and forestry
professionals of the State Forest Departments,
academia, international organisations and otherstakeholders. These inputs about the forest resources ofthe country are used for broad evaluation andformulation of forest related policies, programmes,
legislations and other related activities.
The principal mandate of the Forest Survey of India(FSI)ii is to conduct survey and assessment of forest
resources in the country. It started as an organization
called Pre-Investment Survey of Forest Resources(PISFR) in 1965 as Food and Agriculture Organisationof the United Nations (FAO)/United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP)/ Government ofIndia Project. The changing information needs resultedin enlarging the scope of activities of PISFR and it wasre-organized as Forest Survey of India in 1981.

Introduction
On January 13,2022, the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC),
Shri BhupenderYadav, released the ‘India State of Forest Report 2021’iii prepared by theForest Survey of India (FSI).
The India State of Forest Report 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.

New Initiatives and Features of the ISFR 2021
In the present ISFR 2021, FSI has included a new chapter related to theassessment of forest cover in the Tiger Reserves, Corridors and Lionconservation area of India. In this context, the decadal assessment of change inforest cover within Tiger Reserves, Corridors and Lion conservation area helps inassessing the impact of conservation measures and management interventions thathave been implemented over the years.

A new initiative of FSI has also been documented in the form of a chapter, wherethe ‘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.The results for the States of Assam andOdisha (as well as AGB maps), were presented earlier in ISFR 2019. The interim
results for AGB estimates (and AGB maps) for the entire country have been presented
as a new chapter in ISFR 2021. The detailed report will be published after completionof the study.

The above are some of the new initiatives which have been undertaken in the SFRI 2021.
India’s Forests vis-à-vis Forest Resources in the World: iv

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Key Findings from the ISFR-2021
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 2261 sq km in the total forest and tree cover of thecountry. Out of this, the increase in the forest cover has been observed as 1540 sq
km and that in tree cover is 721 sq km. To see the forest cover in the States & UTsof the country as per the 2021 assessment and change therein with respect to theprevious assessment (2019), click here.

SourceSourceIncrease in forest cover has been observed in open forest followed by very denseforest. Top five states showing increase in forest cover are Andhra Pradesh (647 sqkm) followed by Telangana (632 sq km) and Odisha (537 sq km), Karnataka (155sq Km) and Jharkhand (110 sq. Km).

Area-wise, Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover in the country followed
by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra. In terms of forest
cover as percentage of total geographical area, the top five States are Mizoram (84.53per cent), Arunachal Pradesh (79.33 per cent), Meghalaya (76.00 per cent),
Manipur (74.34 per cent) and Nagaland (73.90 per cent).

Source

17 states/UT’s have above 33 per cent of the geographical area under forest cover.
Out of these states and UTs, five states/UTs namely Lakshadweep, Mizoram,
Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have more than 75percent 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.

Tree Cover (small patches outside the forests) of the Country is on the rise. Thetree cover of the country is estimated to be 95,748 sq km which is 2.91 percent of thegeographical area. There is an increase of 721 sq km in the tree cover of the country ascompared to assessment of 2019. To see the state-wise estimates of tree cover, clickhere.

Total Forest and Tree Cover is nearing one-fourth of the total geographical areaof the country- The Total Forest and Tree Cover gives a complete picture of allforests and tree resources of the country.The total Forest and Tree cover of the country
as per the current assessment is 8,09,537 sq km which is 24.62% of the geographicalarea of the country. Total forest and tree cover of the country has increased by 2261 sq
km as compared to the last assessment.

The country’s forests & Trees Outside Forests (TOF) are better stocked ascompared to the last assessment. The total growing stock of wood in the country is
estimated as 6167.50 million cubic metres out of which 4388.15 million cubic metresis inside forest areas and 1,779.35 million cubic metres is outside recorded forest areas(TOF). There is a total increase of 251.74 million cubic metres (4.26 per cent) in total
growing stock of the country as compared to previous assessment reported in ISFR
2019. Out of this, the increase in growing stock inside the forest is 114.68 million
cubic metres (2.68 per cent) and 137.06 million cubic metres (8.35 per cent) outside
the forest area. To see the estimates of growing stock in Forests and TOF in the States& UTs, click here.

The Stock of Bamboo in the country has increased. The total number of bamboo
culms has increased by 13,882 million as compared to the assessment of 2019. The
total estimated green weight of bamboo culms at national level is 402 million tonnes.
The present assessment observed an increase of about 124 million tonnes equivalentgreen weight of bamboo as compared to the previous assessment.

Total mangrove cover in the country is 4992 sq km. An increase of 17 sq Km inmangrove cover has been observed as compared to the previous assessment of
2019.Top three states showing mangrove cover increase are Odisha (8 sq km) followedby Maharashtra (4 sq km) and Karnataka (3 sq km).

SourceTotal carbon stock in country’s forest is estimated to be 7204 million tonnes andthere an increase of 79.4 million tonnes in the carbon stock of country as comparedto the last assessment of 2019. The annual increase in the carbon stock is 39.7
million tonnes.

Forest Fire Prone Areas Mapping - Severe fires occur in many forest types
particularly dry deciduous forests, while evergreen, semi-evergreen and montane
temperate forests are comparatively less prone. FSI has been monitoring forest firesince 2004.
 Total Fire prone forest area is 35.47 per cent of the forest cover as per current
assessment.

Assessment of Forest Cover and decadal change in 52 Tiger Reserves and Lion
Conservation Area of India.
 There are 52 tiger reserves, spread across eighteen major states of the country
covering a total notified area of 73,972.50 sq km.

 The current assessment shows that the forests cover in the tiger reserves is55,666.27 sq km, which is 7.80 per cent of the country’s total forest cover and74.51% of the total area of tiger reserves.
 Gir Wildlife Sanctuary (excluding National Park), has 177.60 sq km ofgrassland whereas Gir National Park has 33.58 sq km of grassland, summing
up to 211.18 sq km, which is 26.11 per cent of the area of Gir National Parkand WLS.
Mapping of Climate Change Hotspots in Indian Forests - Mapping of Climate
hotspots over the forest cover in India using computer model-based protection oftemperature and rainfall data has been carried out for the three future time periods i.e.,
year 2030, 2050 and 2085. FSI in collaboration with Birla Institute of Technology &Science (BITS) Pilani, Goa Campus has performed this study.
The period 2030 represents near-term timeline that coincides with global short-termclimate action horizon. Period 2050 represents the mid-term timeline and coincides
with global long-term climate action goals. The period 2085 represents the long-termtime horizon.
 By analyzing all the scenarios in the studied periods i.e., 2030, 2050 and 2085;
it has been observed that Ladakh, Jammu-Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh
and Uttarakhand are projected to witness highest temperature increase while
Andaman & Nicobar Islands, West Bengal, Goa, Tamil Nadu and AndhraPradesh are Projected to witness the least temperature rise over these periods.
 The North-Eastern States and Upper Malabar Coast of India are projected toexperience highest increase in rainfall; whereas, part of North-Eastern States
like Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, North-Western parts of the country Namely
Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh are projected toexperience least increase and even decline in rainfall.

Mapping of Forest Cover in Major Mega Cities
 In the current assessment, extent of Forest Cover of seven major cities (asgiven in the table below) has been measured. The total forest cover in theseven major cities is 509.72 sq km which is 10.21 per cent of total
geographical area of the cities. Delhi has the largest forest cover (194.24 sqkm) followed by Mumbai (110.77 sq km) and Bengaluru (89.02 sq km.).
Hyderabad has shown maximum decadal increase of 48.65 sq km in Forest
cover followed by Delhi with an increase of 19.91 sq km.

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SourceMethodology
In tune with the Government of India’s vision of digital India and the need forintegration of digital data sets, FSI has adopted using the vector boundary layers ofvarious administrative units up to districts level as provided by Survey of India alongwith digital open series topo sheets, in order to ensure comprehensive compatibility
with the geographical areas as reported in Census, 2011.

The biennial assessment of forest cover of the country using mid-resolution Satellite
data is based on interpretation of Linear Imaging Self-Scanning Sensor 3 (LISS-III)
data from Indian Remote Sensing satellite data (Resourcesat-II) with a spatial
resolution of 23.5 meters with the scale of interpretation 1:50,000 to monitor forest
cover and forest cover changes at District, State and National level.

This information provides inputs for various global level inventories, reports such asGreenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory, Growing Stock, Carbon Stock, Forest Reference
Level (FRL) and international reporting to United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) targets under the Convention on BiologicalDiversity(CBD),Global Forest Resource Assessment (GFRA) for planning andscientific management of forests.

Satellite data for the entire country was procured from National Remote Sensing
Centre (NRSC) for the period October to December 2019. The satellite datainterpretation is followed by rigorous ground truthing. Information from othercollateral sources is also used to improve the accuracy of the interpreted image.

The accuracy level achieved in the current assessment is significantly high. The
accuracy of forest cover classification has been assessed 92.99%. The accuracy ofclassification between forest and non-forest classes has been assessed 95.79% againstinternationally accepted accuracy of classification of more than 85%. A rigorous
Quality Control (QC)&Quality Assurance (QA) exercise was also carried out.

Other Significant Features of ISFR 2021
The report also contains information on various parameters State/UT wise. Special
thematic information on forest cover such as hill, tribal districts, and northeastern region has also been given separately in the report.v

i

https://fsi.nic.in/isfr19/vol1/chapter1.pdf
https://fsi.nic.in/iii
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1789635
iv
https://fsi.nic.in/isfr-2021/chapter-1.pdf
ii

References
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https://fsi.nic.in/forest-report-2021-details
PIB press Release on Forest Survey report 2021 releaseddated January 13, 2022
https://newsonair.gov.in/News?title=Environment-Minister-Bhupender-Yadav-releases-India-State-OfForest-Report-2021&id=433421
Annual Report Ministry of Environment, Forest and climate change 2020-21
Year End Review :Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change
ISFR 2021
https://fsi.nic.in/isfr-2021/chapter-1.pdf
https://fsi.nic.in/isfr-2021/refference-annxure-contribute.pdf

Twitter References

https://twitter.com/byadavbjp/status/1481539360738922497?s=20
https://twitter.com/byadavbjp/status/1481552013104418818?s=20

Further Readinghttps://indianexpress.com/article/explained/takeaways-from-india-state-of-forest-report-7722163/
https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/forest-tree-cover-in-india-up-by-2261-sqkm-in-two-years/article38266588.ece
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/indias-forest-tree-cover-rose-by-2261-sq-km-in-last-2-yearsisfr-report/articleshow/88877952.cms

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