India's Forests Cover Increased By 5516 Sq. Km.

Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun, an organization under the Ministry carries out the assessment of forest cover biennially and the findings are published in India State of Forest Report (ISFR). There has been an increase in forest cover of the country by 5516 square kilometre between ISFR 2017 and ISFR 2021. The State/UTs wise details of change in Forest Cover including the State of Chhattisgarh between ISFR 2017 and ISFR 2021 are given in Annexure-I (below this content) .

The Ministry supports the States/Union Territories for carrying out afforestation activities through the Centrally Sponsored Scheme, namely Green India Mission. This flagship afforestation scheme of the Ministry, aims to undertake afforestation activities in degraded forest areas with people’s participation. The scheme promotes environmental conservation and rain water harvesting through afforestation and tree plantation, restoration of degraded forest landscapes, habitat improvement including through soil moisture conservation activities.

The details of fund released under Green India Mission to the State of Chhattisgarh during the last five years are as follows.

Year	Fund released under GIM (Rs. In Crores)
2018-19	5.36
2019-20	5.04
2020-21	1.66
2021-22	6.12
2022-23	Nil
2023-24	Nil
Total	18.18

 

Afforestation activities are also undertaken in a major way under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund as per the provisions of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 and the Rules made there under. The approved Annual Plan of Operations (APO) for State of Chhattisgarh for undertaking activities under the State CAMPA fund during the last five years are as follows: -

Year	Amount approved in APO under State CAMPA  (Rs. In Crore)
2018-19	897.52
2019-20	848.51
2020-21	1347.02
2021-22	1500.75
2022-23	688.47
2023-24	471.36

The Ministry is also implementing the Nagar Van Yojana which envisages creation of 600 Nagar Vans and 400 Nagar Vatika in the country during the period 2020-21 to 2026-27. The Nagar Van Yojana aims at enhancing the green cover in the urban and peri-urban areas and augmenting biological diversity.

Afforestation activities are also taken up under various programmes and schemes of line Ministries such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, National Bamboo Mission, Sub-Mission on Agroforestry etc. and under schemes of State Governments/UT Administrations through different departments, Non-Government Organizations, Civil Societies, Corporate bodies etc. The multi departmental efforts have yielded good results in conserving and enhancing forest cover in the country. 

Annexure-I

(Area in Square Kilometre)

S.No.	States/UTs	Geographical area	Forest Cover	Change in Forest Cover between ISFR 2017 & ISFR 2021  (b-a)
ISFR 2017 (a)	ISFR 2021(b)
1	Andhra Pradesh	1,62,968	28,147	29,784	1,637
2	Arunachal Pradesh	83,743	66,964	66,431	-533
3	Assam	78,438	28,105	28,312	207
4	Bihar	94,163	7,299	7,381	82
5	Chhattisgarh	1,35,192	55,547	55,717	170
6	Delhi	1,483	192.41	195.00	2.59
7	Goa	3,702	2,229	2,244	15
8	Gujarat	1,96,244	14,757	14,926	169
9	Haryana	44,212	1,588	1,603	15
10	Himachal Pradesh	55,673	15,100	15,443	343
11	Jharkhand	79,716	23,553	23,721	168
12	Karnataka	1,91,791	37,550	38,730	1,180
13	Kerala	38,852	20,321	21,253	932
14	Madhya Pradesh	3,08,252	77,414	77,493	79
15	Maharashtra	3,07,713	50,682	50,798	116
16	Manipur	22,327	17,346	16,598	-748
17	Meghalaya	22,429	17,146	17,046	-100
18	Mizoram	21,081	18,186	17,820	-366
19	Nagaland	16,579	12,489	12,251	-238
20	Odisha	1,55,707	51,345	52,156	811
21	Punjab	50,362	1,837	1,847	10
22	Rajasthan	3,42,239	16,572	16,655	83
23	Sikkim	7,096	3,344	3,341	-3
24	Tamil Nadu	1,30,060	26,281	26,419	138
25	Telangana	1,12,077	20,419	21,214	795
26	Tripura	10,486	7,726	7,722	-4
27	Uttar Pradesh	2,40,928	14,679	14,818	139
28	Uttarakhand	53,483	24,295	24,305	10
29	West Bengal	88,752	16,847	16,832	-15
30	A&N Islands	8,249	6,742	6,744	2
31	Chandigarh	114	21.56	22.88	1.32
32	Dadra & Nagar Haveli	491	207	227.75	0.26
33	Daman & Diu	111	20.49
34	Jammu & Kashmir	2,22,236	23,241	21,387	-1,854
35	Ladakh	0	2,272	2,272
36	Lakshadweep	30	27.10	27.10	0.00
37	Puducherry	490	53.67	53.30	-0.37
	Grand Total	32,87,469	7,08,273	7,13,789	5,516

This information was given by Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Monday. 

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