Lok Sabha Question No. 4513 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-03-20
Subject: Water Sources in Forest Areas
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Pankaj Chowdhary

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.  4513

TO BE ANSWERED ON 20.03.2020

## Water Sources in Forest Areas

## 4513.    SHRI PANKAJ CHAUDHARY:

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

- (a) whether water sources within the forests have drastically declined as per State of India Forest Report, 2018, an authorised biannual report of the Government, if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether  man-animal  conflict  has  increased  due  to  the  migration/movement  of  animals towards  human  settlements  along  with  rising  incidence  of  wild  fire  due  to  the  said shortage; and
- (c) if so, the efforts made by the Government to tackle the said adverse circumstances and conservation of water sources in the forest in the country especially in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) The  India  State  of  Forest  Report  (ISFR),  published  on  biennial  basis,  contains  results  of forest and tree cover assessment in the country. So far 16 such reports have been published since 1987 and the latest report is ISFR-2019. In ISFR-2017, an assessment of coverage of water  bodies  within  forest  areas  was  carried  out  by  Forest  Survey  of  India,  in  order  to indicate decadal change (2005-2015) in water bodies within forests. For the purpose, water bodies lying inside or upto an aerial distance of 1 kilometre from the forest and covering an area of more than 1 hectare have been considered and the changes in their extent over a decade have been computed. There is an increase of 2,647 square kilometre in the extent of water bodies over the said decade (2005-2015) as per ISFR-2017. The State-wise details are given in Annexure.
- (b)  &(c)      Government  of  India  provides  financial  assistance  to  all  the  States/  UT  Governments including    Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes namely 'Development  of  Wildlife  Habitats'',  ''Project  Tiger''  and  'Project Elephant' for the management  of  wildlife  and  its  habitats  which, inter  alia ,  helps  in  preventing  humananimal  conflicts.  The  activities  include  restoration  of  natural  water  bodies,  creation  of artificial ponds, waterholes, augmenting food/fodder sources and management of fire.

Incidences of human-animal conflicts are reported in various parts of the country from time to time. Since management of forest and wildlife is the primary responsibility of respective State/UT Governments, State-wise and year-wise data of such incidents are not collated in the Ministry.

As per the provisions contained in the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Rules, 2018, soil moisture conservation works and fodder augmentation are permissible activities under Net Present  Value  component  of  CAMPA  (Compensatory  Afforestation  Management  and Planning  Authority)  funds.  Most  of  the  Annual  Plan  of  Operations  of  States/UTs  have placed  emphasis  on  fodder  and  water  augmentation.  The  Ministry  also  envisages  a  pilot watershed treatment project based on Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) survey with money available under National Fund.

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## Annexure Annexure referred to in reply to part (a) of the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 4513

## due for answer on 20.03.2020 regarding 'Water Sources in Forest Areas'

## State/UTs wise details of extent of water bodies

(Area in km

2 )

| State/UTs           |   Extent of Water Bodies 2005 | Extent of Water Bodies 2015   |   Change |
|---------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|----------|
| Andhra Pradesh      |                        626    | 943                           |   317    |
| Arunachal Pradesh   |                        582    | 387                           |  -195    |
| Assam               |                        387    | 474                           |    87    |
| Bihar               |                         52    | 44                            |    -8    |
| Chhattisgarh        |                        850    | 927                           |    77    |
| Delhi               |                          3.77 | 4.32                          |     0.55 |
| Goa                 |                         76    | 84                            |     8    |
| Gujarat             |                       2203    | 2631                          |   428    |
| Haryana             |                         21    | 16                            |    -5    |
| Himachal Pradesh    |                        402    | 455                           |    53    |
| Jammu &Kashmir      |                        267    | 287                           |    20    |
| Jharkhand           |                        147    | 211                           |    64    |
| Karnataka           |                       1493    | 1620                          |   127    |
| Kerala              |                        302    | 373                           |    71    |
| Madhya Pradesh      |                       1930    | 2319                          |   389    |
| Maharashtra         |                       1116    | 1548                          |   432    |
| Manipur             |                         32    | 58                            |    26    |
| Meghalaya           |                        105    | 142                           |    37    |
| Mizoram             |                         72    | 124                           |    52    |
| Nagaland            |                         39.43 | 62.8                          |    23.37 |
| Odisha              |                        312    | 369                           |    57    |
| Punjab              |                         30    | 37                            |     7    |
| Rajasthan           |                        414    | 454                           |    40    |
| Sikkim              |                         10    | 12                            |     2    |
| Tamil Nadu          |                        453    | 732                           |   279    |
| Telangana           |                        871    | 1228                          |   357    |
| Tripura             |                         77    | 113                           |    36    |
| Uttar Pradesh       |                       1220    | 1018                          |  -202    |
| Uttarakhand         |                        310    | 355                           |    45    |
| West Bengal         |                         82    | 104                           |    22    |
| A&N Islands         |                          2.84 | 2.41                          |    -0.43 |
| Chandigarh          |                          1.45 | 1.49                          |     0.04 |
| Dadra &Nagar Haveli |                         17.34 | 17.44                         |     0.1  |
| Daman &Diu          |                          2.08 | 2.71                          |     0.63 |
| Lakshadweep         |                          0    | 0                             |     0    |
| Puducherry          |                          0    | 0                             |     0    |
| Total               |                      14509    | 17,156                        |  2647    |