India State of Forest Report 2017

TNPSC Current Affairs - February 2018 by TNPSC Guru 

• India’ forest cover has been increased by 1%  according to the state of forest report 2017.
• Mangrove forest increased by 181Sq.Km, Maharashtra has maximum increase by 82 sq.km followed by Andhra Pradesh  by 37 sq kms and Gujarat with 33 sq kms.
• It is the 15^th biennial forest cover assessment released by Forest Survey of India which is initiated in 1987.

Key Findings:

• India is ranked 10^th in world with 24.4% of geographical area under forest and tree cover.
• There is an increase of 8, 021 sq km( 6,778 forest cover and 1,243 tree cover )in the total forest and tree cover of the country comparing with 2015.
• Forest cover assessment calculate based on having tree canopy density of 10 % and above in an area of 1 hectare.
• Top Three states which has maximum increase are Andhra Pradesh by 2141 sq km, followed by Karnataka by 1101 sq km and Kerala by 1043 sq km.
• Top 3 states where forest cover decrease are Mizoram by 531 sq km, Nagaland by 450 sq
• Km and Arunachal Pradesh by 190 sq km.
• Madhya Pradesh has largest forest cover with 77,414 sq.km , Arunachal Pradesh with 6,964 Sq.km , Chhattisgarh with 55547sq.km.
• The Main reason for the increase is due to Government’s various conservation and management policies like Green India Mission, National Agro-Forestry policy (NAP), REDD plus policy, Joint Forest Management(JFM), National Afforestation Programme and funds under Compensatory Afforestation to States.
• And the reason for the decrease in some states are due toshifting cultivation, other biotic pressures,
• rotational felling, diversion of forest lands for developmental activities, submergence of
• forest cover, agriculture expansion and natural disasters.
• The present assessment is based on data from the indigenous LISS – III sensor, 277 scenes from Resourcesat-2 satellite and 33 scenes from Resourcesat -1  satellite which is procured from National Resource sensing Centre , Hyderabad.                                  
•                                                                                                          -  source pib