The latest ‘India State of Forest Report’ reveals that Maharashtra’s total forest cover is only 16.51 per cent of its geographical area. With respect to the previous assessment of 2019, the latest assessment of 2021 brings out that the total forest cover in the State has increased by 20.20 sq km. However, going deeper into district-wise statistics reveals that the State’s capital has abysmally low forest cover of just 3.20 sq km. Whereas, Gadchiroli has retained its position as the district with the highest forest cover of 9,902.82 sq km. Forest cover and its impact on the development projects has always been a contentious as well as a political issue. In fact, the issue has been featuring regularly in the regional development documents and notes. Especially, in case of Vidarbha region, the development experts and environmentalists have been at loggerheads.

 

The pro-Vidarbha statehood activists have been of the opinion that the region has been lagging in development despite having conserved forests better than other parts of Maharashtra. However, the environmentalists have been of the opinion that finding deficiency of other districts in forest conservation should not serve as an excuse for depleting forests in Vidarbha. Against this backdrop, the latest ‘India State of Forest Report’ brings out some interesting details. A reading of the statistics of district-wise forest cover reveals that Mumbai City, which has been treated as a city-district in the report, has abysmally low forest cover of just 3.20 sq km. It is the lowest in the State.

 

The only silver lining is that Mumbai has reported increase of 0.20 sq km of forest cover as compared to 2017 and 2019 assessments. Compared to the highly urbanised Mumbai city’s geographical area of 157 sq km, its forest cover in 2021 was just 2.04 per cent. In sharp contrast, the easternmost district of Maharashtra -- the mineral-rich and tribal-dominated Gadchiroli in Vidarbha region -- has the retained the distinction of being the district with the highest forest cover in the State. It has forest cover of 9,902.82 sq km. However, compared to previous assessments, the forest cover in Gadchiroli district has registered a steady decline. In 2017, it had forest cover of 10,004 sq km. In 2019, it declined to 9,916.94 sq km. Compared to 2019, the forest cover in Gadchiroli declined by 14.12 sq km in 2021. Still, compared to its geographical area of 14,412 sq km, Gadchiroli’s forest cover was 68.71 per cent. Interestingly, of the top five districts with the highest forest cover in sq km in 2021, as many as three are from Vidarbha.

 

These include Gadchiroli with 9,902.82 sq km, Chandrapur with 4,050.27 sq km, and Amravati with 3,168.11 sq km. Chandrapur’s forest cover was 35.40 per cent of its geographical area, and that of Amravati was 25.95 per cent of its geographical area. Ratnagiri district of Konkan had the second-highest forest cover of 4,211.94 sq km (51.32 per cent of its geographical area). Thane, with 2,992.94 sq km (31.31 per cent of its geographical area), was another district among top five in forest cover in the State. However, the order of top five districts changes if one compares geographical area to forest cover. In this term, Gadchiroli still tops the chart with forest cover constituting 68.71 per cent of its geographical area. However, it is followed by Sindhudurg with 54.23 per cent forest cover, Ratnagiri (51.32 per cent), Raigad (41.26 per cent), and Gondia (37.17 per cent). Even on this parameter, top five districts in the State include two from Vidarbha region and three from Konkan.

 

No district from Western Maharashtra or Marathwada features in top five. As per the ‘India State of Forest Report-2021’, the ‘bottom five districts’ are Mumbai City -- 3.20 sq km, Latur -- 13.12 sq km, Jalna -- 34.53 sq km, Parbhani -- 39.82 sq km, and Solapur -- 46.86 sq km. However, comparison of geographical area to forest cover changes the list a bit. Latur has forest cover that is merely 0.18 per cent of its geographical area. A few years ago, it was Latur district where water had to be transported by train. It is followed by another drought-affected district of Solapur with forest cover that is just 0.31 per cent of its geographical area. Then comes Jalna where forest cover is 0.45 per cent of its geographical area, followed by Parbhani where forest cover is 0.64 per cent of geographical area, and Osmanabad with forest cover (49.53 sq km) that is just 0.65 per cent of its geographical area.