Lok Sabha Question No. 2946 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-03-12
Subject: Increase in Forest Cover
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Mohan Mandavi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTIO N NO. 2946

TO BE ANSWERED ON 12.03.2021

## Increase in Forest Cover

## 2946. SHRI MOHAN MANDAVI:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the schemes being implemented by the  Government to increase the forest cover in rural and urban areas of the country;
- (b)  if so, the details thereof, State/UT-wise;
- (c)  whether any new guidelines have been issued by the Government for encouraging plantation across the country; and
- (d)  if so, the details and the outcome thereof, State/ UT-wise?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  THE  MINISTRY  OF  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI BABUL SUPRIYO)

- (a) and (b) The National Forest Policy 1988 envisages the national goal to have a minimum of
- one- third of the total land area under forest or tree cover and two-third of the area under such cover in the hill and in mountainous regions of the country in order to prevent  erosion  and  land  degradation  and  to  ensure  the  stability  of  fragile  ecosystem. In consonance with NFP, 1988 Ministry has been taking several initiatives, to  increase  the  forest  and  tree  cover  in  rural  and  urban  areas  of  the  country  as under:
- i. For preservation and protection of forest & wildlife, various laws including the  Forest  (Conservation)  Act  1980,  Indian  Forest  Act,  1927,  Wildlife Protection  Act  1972,  and  other  central/state  laws  as  applicable  to  a State/UT,  are  implemented  by  the  respective  State  Government  /UT Administration. The Ministry also provides financial supports to the States /UTs under Forest Fire Prevention and Management Scheme for protection against forest fire.
- ii. The  MoEFCC  is  implementing  two  major  afforestation  schemes  namely National  Afforestation  Programme  (NAP)  for  tree  plantation  in  degraded forests  through  people's  participation  and  National  Mission  for  a  Green India (GIM), An area over 2 million hectare was sanctioned for taking up afforestation  in  the  States/Union  Territories  (UTs)  with  an  investment  of about  Rs.  3896  crores  till  2019-20  under  NAP  since  its  launching  year 2000 and under GIM an amount of about Rs. 343 crore has been released to States/UTs since 2015-16 to 2019-20. The State-wise details are given in Annexure I.
- iii. The Government of India has disbursed an amount of Rs. 48477.77 crore from National Fund to 31 State funds as share of respective States as per
- Compensatory Fund Act,  2016  till  31.01.2021.  State/UT  wise  details  are given in Annexure I.
- iv. The MoEFCC  encourages plantation/ afforestation through people's participation  under  Nagar  Van  Yojana  (NVY)  for  protection  of  urban forests. The scheme aims at creation of 200 Nagar Vans in different States during the period of 2020-21 to 2024-25.
- v. Further, tree plantation, being a multi-departmental, multi-agency activity, are also being taken up cross-sectorally under various programmes/funding sources  of  other  ministries/  organizations  and  also  through  State  Plan budgets.
- vi. The Department of Agriculture Cooperation & Farmers Welfare (DAC & FW)  is implementing Sub-Mission on Agroforestry (SMAF)  under National  Mission  for  Sustainable  Agriculture  (NMSA)  since  2016-17  as part  of  the  recommendation  of  the  National  Agroforestry  Policy  2014  to promote plantation on farmlands. The scheme is being implemented in the States  which have liberalized  transit  regulations  for  selected  tree  species. At present scheme is being implemented in 20 States and two UTs.
- vii. As per information received from Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), 1776 No. of parks over 3500 acres of land have been developed in the Mission cities which also contributed to the urban green cover.
- viii. Afforestation and tree planting activities, including in non-forest areas, are also taken up under various programmes/funding sources such as Mahatma Gandhi  National  Rural  Employment  Guarantee  Scheme,  Pradhan  Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana and under the schemes/plans of States and UTs.
- (c) The schemes implemented by the Ministry and other Ministries have their specific Guidelines. Further, the Ministry has issued advisories time to time to achieve the annual  tree  plantation  targets  with  coordinated  efforts  by  various  agencies.  The Ministry has also advised all States and UT Governments to step up tree planting drive to achieve plantation targets and also to put in place a sound mechanism for coordination and monitoring of tree plantation programme.
- (d) The multi departmental efforts has yielded good results in conserving environment by addressing the problem of deforestation, besides keeping the pace of development, which is evident from the fact that the forest cover has stabilized and has  been  constantly  increasing  over  the  years.  The  latest 'India  State  of  Forest Report (ISFR, 2019), of Forest Survey of India (FSI), revealed that the total forest and tree cover of the country is 807,276 square kilometres (which is 24.56 percent of  the  geographical  area  of  the  country.   The State/UT  wise  details  of Forest  and Tree Cover as per ISFR, 2019 is given in Annexure II. There is an increase of about 13,000 square kilometer of forest and tree cover combined when compared to ISFR, 2015, at the national level.

*****

Annexure referred to in reply to part (a) and (b) of the Lok Sabha Un-starred Question No.  2946  due  for  reply  on  12.03.2021  by  Shri  Mohan  Mandavi  regarding  'Increase  in Forest Cover'.

- A. State-wise Details of total funds released during the last three years (2017-18 to 2019-20) under National Afforestation Programme (NAP) and Green India Mission (GIM)

(Rs. in crores)

| Sl. No.   | State                | NAP    | GIM    |
|-----------|----------------------|--------|--------|
| 1         | Andhra Pradesh       | 9.75   | 3.11   |
| 2         | Bihar                | 5.41   | -      |
| 3         | Chhattisgarh         | 24.39  | 21.35  |
| 4         | Gujarat              | 0.00   | -      |
| 5         | Haryana              | 2.71   | -      |
| 6         | Himachal Pradesh     | 5.17   | -      |
| 7         | Jammu &Kashmir       | 7.20   | -      |
| 8         | Jharkhand            | 0.00   | -      |
| 9         | Karnataka            | 14.22  | 4.69   |
| 10        | Kerala               | 0.00   | 16.32  |
| 11        | Madhya Pradesh       | 16.52  | 54.81  |
| 12        | Maharashtra          | 22.06  | 10.30  |
| 13        | Orissa               | 23.30  | 20.34  |
| 14        | Punjab               | 0.00   | 9.40   |
| 15        | Rajasthan            | 3.35   | -      |
| 16        | Tamil Nadu           | 2.07   | -      |
| 17        | Telangana            | 0.00   | -      |
| 18        | Uttar Pradesh        | 0.99   | -      |
| 19        | Uttarakhand          | 5.94   | -      |
| 20        | West Bengal          | 0.00   | 9.43   |
|           | Total (Other States) | 143.10 | 149.75 |
|           | North Eastern states |        |        |
| 21        | Arunachal Pradesh    | 0.86   | -      |
| 22        | Assam                | 0.58   | -      |
| 23        | Manipur              | 7.57   | 15.47  |
| 24        | Meghalaya            | 2.38   | -      |
| 25        | Mizoram              | 13.59  | 60.07  |
| 26        | Nagaland             | 14.60  | -      |
| 27        | Sikkim               | 5.98   | 6.45   |
| 28        | Tripura              | 8.70   | -      |
|           | Total (NE States)    | 54.26  | 81.99  |
|           | Grand Total          | 197.37 | 231.74 |

- B. State-wise Details of Transfer of funds from the National Authority of CAMPA to States Authority

| Sr No.            | Name of State     |   Funds transferred on 31-01-2021 to States (Rs in crore) |
|-------------------|-------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------|
| 1                 | Andhra Pradesh    |                                                   1734.81 |
| 2                 | Arunachal Pradesh |                                                   1588.72 |
| 3                 | Assam             |                                                    560.81 |
| 4                 | Bihar             |                                                    522.95 |
| 5                 | Chhattisgarh      |                                                   5791.7  |
| 6                 | Goa               |                                                    238.16 |
| 7                 | Gujarat           |                                                   1484.6  |
| 8                 | Haryana           |                                                   1282.65 |
| 9                 | Himachal Pradesh  |                                                   1660.72 |
| 10                | Jharkhand         |                                                   4158.02 |
| 11                | Karnataka         |                                                   1350.37 |
| 12                | Kerala            |                                                     81.59 |
| 13                | Madhya Pradesh    |                                                   5196.69 |
| 14                | Maharashtra       |                                                   3844.24 |
| 15                | Manipur           |                                                    309.76 |
| 16                | Meghalaya         |                                                    163.31 |
| 17                | Mizoram           |                                                    212.98 |
| 18                | Odisha            |                                                   5933.98 |
| 19                | Punjab            |                                                   1040.84 |
| 20                | Rajasthan         |                                                   1748.26 |
| 21                | Sikkim            |                                                    392.36 |
| 22                | Tamil Nadu        |                                                    113.42 |
| 23                | Telangana         |                                                   3110.38 |
| 24                | Tripura           |                                                    183.65 |
| 25                | Uttar Pradesh     |                                                   1819.63 |
| 26                | Uttarakhand       |                                                   2675.09 |
| 27                | West Bengal       |                                                    236.48 |
| Total (A)         |                   |                                                  47436.2  |
| 28                | Andaman &Nicobar  |                                                     16.41 |
| 29                | Chandigarh        |                                                     11.38 |
| 30                | Jammu &Kashmir    |                                                    764.54 |
| 31                | Ladakh            |                                                    249.27 |
|                   | Total (B)         |                                                   1041.6  |
| GRAND TOTAL (A+B) | GRAND TOTAL (A+B) |                                                  48477.8  |

Annexure referred to in reply to part  (d) of the Lok Sabha Un-starred Question No. 2946 due for reply on 12.03.2021 by Shri Mohan Mandavi regarding 'Increase in Forest Cover'.

## State-wise details of Forest and Tree Cover in the country(As per ISFR, 2019)

(Area in Sq.km)

| Sl.No.   | State/UT            |   Geographical Area |   Forest cover | Tree Cover   |   Total Forest& Tree Cover |
|----------|---------------------|---------------------|----------------|--------------|----------------------------|
| 1        | Andhra Pradesh      |              162968 |          28147 | 3753         |                      31900 |
| 2        | Arunachal Pradesh   |               83743 |          66964 | 807          |                      67771 |
| 3        | Assam               |               78438 |          28105 | 1496         |                      29601 |
| 4        | Bihar               |               94163 |           7299 | 2263         |                       9562 |
| 5        | Chhattisgarh        |              135192 |          55547 | 3833         |                      59380 |
| 6        | Delhi               |                1483 |            192 | 113          |                        305 |
| 7        | Goa                 |                3702 |           2229 | 323          |                       2552 |
| 8        | Gujarat             |              196244 |          14757 | 8024         |                      22781 |
| 9        | Haryana             |               44212 |           1588 | 1415         |                       3003 |
| 10       | Himachal Pradesh    |               55673 |          15100 | 822          |                      15922 |
| 11       | Jammu& Kashmir      |              222236 |          23241 | 7815 *       |                      31056 |
| 12       | Jharkhand           |               79716 |          23553 | 2922         |                      26475 |
| 13       | Karnataka           |              191791 |          37550 | 5713         |                      43263 |
| 14       | Kerala              |               38852 |          20321 | 2959         |                      23280 |
| 15       | Madhya Pradesh      |              308252 |          77414 | 8073         |                      85487 |
| 16       | Maharashtra         |              307713 |          50682 | 9831         |                      60513 |
| 17       | Manipur             |               22327 |          17346 | 220          |                      17566 |
| 18       | Meghalaya           |               22429 |          17146 | 657          |                      17803 |
| 19       | Mizoram             |               21081 |          18186 | 467          |                      18653 |
| 20       | Nagaland            |               16579 |          12489 | 379          |                      12868 |
| 21       | Odisha              |              155707 |          51345 | 3993         |                      55338 |
| 22       | Punjab              |               50362 |           1837 | 1622         |                       3459 |
| 23       | Rajasthan           |              342239 |          16572 | 8266         |                      24838 |
| 24       | Sikkim              |                7096 |           3344 | 35           |                       3379 |
| 25       | Tamil Nadu          |              130060 |          26281 | 4671         |                      30952 |
| 26       | Telangana           |              112077 |          20419 | 2669         |                      23088 |
| 27       | Tripura             |               10486 |           7726 | 215          |                       7941 |
| 28       | Uttar Pradesh       |              240928 |          14679 | 7442         |                      22121 |
| 29       | Uttarakhand         |               53483 |          24295 | 767          |                      25062 |
| 30       | West Bengal         |               88752 |          16847 | 2136         |                      18983 |
| 31       | A &NIslands         |                8249 |           6742 | 35           |                       6777 |
| 32       | Chandigarh          |                 114 |             22 | 10           |                         32 |
| 33       | Dadra &Nagar Haveli |                 491 |            207 | 30           |                        237 |
| 34       | Daman &Diu          |                 111 |             20 | 10           |                         30 |
| 35       | Lakshadweep         |                  30 |             27 | 2            |                         29 |
| 36       | Puducherry          |                 490 |             54 | 27           |                         81 |
|          | Grand TOTAL         |             3287469 |         708273 | 93815        |                     802088 |

*  Includes Jammu & Kashmir area outside LoC that is under illegal occupation of Pakistan and China.

*****