Deforestation

• Deforestation is a very broad term, which consists of cutting of trees including repeated lopping, felling, and removal of forest litter, browsing, grazing and trampling of seedlings.
• It can also be defined as the removal or damage of vegetation in a forest to the extent that it no longer supports its natural flora and fauna.
• The rapid rate of deforestation in the tropics is a key driving force in the yearly increase of flood disasters.
• Deforestation refers to the loss of tree cover; land that is permanently converted from forest to non-forest uses such as agricultural pasture, desert, and human settlement.

Causes of Deforestation

The most common reason for deforestation is cutting of wood for fuel, lumber and paper. Another important cause relates to the clearing of forest land for agriculture, including conversion to crop land and pasture. The main causes of deforestation are:

• Agriculture: The expanding agriculture is one of the most important causes of deforestation. Man has always modified the natural ecosystems in such a way that environment becomes more favourable for crop growth whether using traditional or modern methods of agriculture. As demands for agricultural products rises, more and more land is brought under cultivation and for that more forests are cleared, grasslands and even marshes, and lands under water are reclaimed. Thus there is much more ecological destruction than gain in term of crop yield. The forest soil after clearing are unable to support farming for long periods due to exhaustion of nutrients. Once the soils become unfit for cultivation, the area suffers from to soil erosion and degradation.
• Shifting cultivation: Hunting and gathering has been the main form of sustenance practiced in the earlier periods of human history. Shifting cultivation or Jhoom farming is a 12000-year old practice and a step towards transition from food collection to food production. It is also known as slash and-burn method of farming. Annually about 5 lakhs ha (hectares) of forest is cleared for this type of farming. In this type of cultivation there is a limited use of tools with not very high level of mechanization. However, this method of cultivation causes extreme deforestation, as after 2-3 years of tilling, the land is left to the mercy of nature to recover. This type of cultivation was always meant to fulfil local needs or onsite demands to meet the requirements of the cultivating villagers. Even today, shifting cultivation is practiced in the states of Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Demand for firewood: Firewood has been used as a source of energy for cooking, heating etc. Almost 44% of the total global wood produced fulfils the fuel requirements of the world. Close look at the pattern of utilization of wood produced will show that the developed countries utilize 16% of their share for fuel requirements. India consumes nearly 135-170 Mt (Million tonnes) of firewood annually and 10-15 ha of forest cover is being stripped off to meet the minimum fuel needs of urban and rural poor.
• Wood for industry and commercial use: Wood, the versatile forest produce, is used for several industrial purposes, such as making crates, packing cases, furniture, match boxes, wooden boxes, paper and pulp, plywood, etc. 1.24 lakh ha of forest have been cut for various industrial uses. Unrestricted exploitation of timber as well as other wood products for commercial purposes is the main cause of forest degradation.
• Urbanisation and developmental projects: Often urbanisation and developmental activities lead to deforestation. The process of deforestation begins with building of infrastructure in the form of roads, railway lines, building of dams, townships, electric supply etc. Thermal power plants, mining for coal, metal ores and minerals are also important causes of deforestation.
• Other causes: Recent developments everywhere in world have caused large scale environmental degradation, especially in tropical forest areas. The large amounts of resources –living and nonliving (minerals, river, land) found in these forests have attracted both industry and other developmental agencies, which have severely depleted forest cover. Forests may sometimes suffer from natural calamities such as overgrazing, floods, forest fires, diseases and termite attack.

Forest Survey Report 2021

• It is the 17th biennial assessment of India’s forests by the Forest Survey of India, an organisation under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
• The ISFR-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.

Major Findings

• 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 2,261 sq km in the total forest and tree cover of the country. Out of this, the increase in the forest cover has been observed as 1,540 sq km and that in tree cover is 721 sq km.
• Increase in forest cover has been observed in open forest followed by very dense forest. Top three states showing increase in forest cover are Andhra Pradesh (647 sq km) followed by Telangana (632 sq km) and Odisha (537 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 (84.53%), Arunachal Pradesh (79.33%), Meghalaya (76.00%), Manipur (74.34%) and Nagaland (73.90%).
• 17 states/UT’s have above 33 percent of the geographical area under forest cover. Out of these states and UT’s, five states/UTs namely Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have more than 75 percent 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.
• Total mangrove cover in the country is 4,992 sq km. An increase of 17 sq Km in mangrove cover has been observed as compared to the previous assessment of 2019. Top three states showing mangrove cover increase are Odisha (8 sq km) followed by Maharashtra (4 sq km) and Karnataka (3 sq km).
• Total carbon stock in country’s forest is estimated to be 7,204 million tonnes and there an increase of 79.4 million tonnes in the carbon stock of country as compared to the last assessment of 2019. The annual increase in the carbon stock is 39.7 million tonnes.