The Hindu : New Delhi News : India has lost forest cover to tsunami and dams: report

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Wednesday, Feb 13, 2008
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India has lost forest cover to tsunami and dams: report

Aarti Dhar

NEW DELHI: India has lost 728 square kilometres or 0.11 per cent of rich forest between 2002 and 2004, primarily because of the destruction caused by tsunami and due to the construction of dams in several States.

The latest State of Forest Report, released here on Tuesday, also said that shifting cultivation and bamboo flowering in Nagaland and Manipur had resulted in depleting forest cover. However, Arunachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand have shown an increase by plantation and better protection. Andaman and Nicobar Islands lost forest due to tsunami and forests in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were cleared to pave the way for large dams, including the controversial Narmada dam.

The forest cover in India is 20.60 per cent or 67.71 million hectares of the total geographic area of the country. Of this 1.66 per cent is very dense forest, 10.12 per cent is moderately dense, and the rest 8.82 per cent is open.

Madhya Pradesh has the largest area under forest cover — 7.6 million hectares which is 11.22 per cent of the country’s forest cover, followed by Arunachal Pradesh (10.01 per cent), Chhattisgarh (8.25 per cent), Orissa (7.15 per cent) and Maharashtra (7.01 per cent). The seven northeast States have 25.11 per cent of the country’s forest cover while the hilly districts of the country have 38.85 per cent and tribal districts 36.81 per cent of geographic area under forest cover.

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