[CA] ISFR 2019

¶       Union Ministry for Environment released the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2019 in New Delhi

¶       The report is published by the Forest Survey of India (FSI)

¶       ISFR 2019 is the 16th report in the series.

¶       India is among few countries in the world where forest cover is consistently increasing.

¶       The total forest and tree cover of the country is 80.73 million hectare which is 24.56% of the geographical area of the country.

¶       Compared to the assessment of 2017, there is an increase of 5,188 sq. km in the total forest and tree cover of the country.

¶       Top three states showing increase in forest cover are Karnataka (1,025 sq. km) followed by Andhra Pradesh (990 sq km) and Kerala (823 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 (85.41%), Arunachal Pradesh (79.63%), Meghalaya (76.33%), Manipur (75.46%) and Nagaland (75.31%).

ISFR 2019
Maximum Forest Area (by area)	Maximum Forest Area (by %)
Madhya Pradesh	Mizoram (85.41%)
Arunachal Pradesh	Arunachal Pradesh (79.63%)
Chhattisgarh	Meghalaya (76.33%)
Odisha	Manipur (75.46%)
Maharashtra	Nagaland (75.31%)

¶       Mangrove cover has been separately reported in the ISFR 2019 and the total mangrove cover in the country is 4,975 sq km.

¶       An increase of 54 sq Km in mangrove cover has been observed as compared to the previous assessment of 2017.

¶       Top three states showing mangrove cover increase are

Ø Gujarat (37 sq km)

Ø Maharashtra (16 sq km) and

Ø Odisha (8 sq km).

Classification of Forests

Class	Details
Very Dense Forest	All lands with tree canopy density of 70% and above
Moderately Dense Forest	All lands with tree canopy density of 40% and more but less than 70%
Open Forest	All lands with tree canopy density of 10% and more but less than 40%
Scrub	All lands with tree canopy density of less than 10%
Non - forest	Lands not included in any of the above classes (includes water)

Click for *** States & UTs details on % of Forests ***