Forest cover in State up by marginal 96 sq km
   Date :31-Dec-2019

Forest cover in State up
 
 
By Ramesh Marulkar :
 
Forest cover has increased by 96 sq km in the total recorded forest area of Maharashtra, if compared to the earlier figures of 2017 assessment. Forest cover inside and outside recorded forest area in Maharashtra is 61, 579 sq km but it comes less as per digitised forest area, which is 56, 374 sq km. The total geographical area of Maharashtra is 3,07, 713 sq km and the percentrage of forest cover is 20.01 per cent, as per the State of Forest Report in India published at the hands of Prakash Javadekar, Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change at Delhi on Monday.
 
Such reports are published after every two years, following surveys conducted at massive scale all over the country. Menawhile, forest and tree cover has increased by 5,188 sq km in the country while there is increase in very dense forest in 1,120 sq km. Forest and tree cover now stands at 80.73 million hectares which is 24.56 per cent of the total area, according to the report. Meanwhile, the report says that there is very dense forest in 524 sq km, medium dense forest in 6133 sq km and open forest in 9331 sq km in Maharashtra.
 
There are seven hill districts in Maharashtra consisting of 15,833 sq km forest area. This area has increased by 212 sq km if compared to the previous report in 2017. Moreover, there are 12 tribal districts in Maharashtra, where the total recorded forest area is 25,049 sq km in 2019 as against 25, 112 sq km in 2017, a straight decrease by 63 sq km. The State is having maximum tree cover in 19, 806 sq km, followed by Madhya Pradesh 08, 339 sq km, Rajasthan - 8,112 sq km and Jamuu & Kashmir - 7,944 sq km. Trees outside forest area is in 26,954 sq km in Maharashtra, which is probably highest in the country. Bamboo bearing area in the State is 15,408 sq km which was 15,927 sq km in 2017 - a reduction by 519 sq km. There is maximum occurrences of pure bamboo in 810 sq km.
 
As for mangroves in Maharashtra, the authorities took steps to conserve ecology and biodiversity of mangroves by protection, restoration, regeneration and maintenance. An increase in mangroves in 54 sq km is recorded. As for fire, 2516 MODIS and 26,939 SSNPPVIIRS fire alerts had been disseminated from November 2018 to June 2019. Extremely fire prone area in Maharashtra is 1677 sq km, very highly fire prone area - 1966 sq km, highly prone - 7667 sq km, moderately fire prone - 8181 sq km and less fire prone area is 29,642 sq m.
 
Forest carbon stock in Maharashtra was 4,40,508 metric tons, according to the survey. Maharashtra is fourth in forest carbon stock. In the meantime, dependence of fuelwood on forests is highest in Maharashtra in the country, whereas, for fodder, small timber and bamboo, dependence is highest in Madhya Pradesh. It has been assessed that the annual removal of the small timber by the people living in forest fringe villages is nearly seven per cent of the average annual yield of forests in the country