Page 96 - economic review

AGRICULTURE AND ALLIED SECTORS68

Section 5
Forestry and Wild Life

2.121 The total forest cover of the country as per India State of Forest Report 2013 is 78.92
million ha. which constitute 24.01 percent of the geographical area of the country. In comparison to
the 2011 assessment, there is an increase of 5771 sq.km. in country’s forest cover. This increase
is largely under open Forest category which lies outside the main Forest areas. Maximum increase
in Forest cover was in West Bengal (3810 sq.km) followed by Odisha (1444 sq.km) and Kerala
(622 sq.km). Madhya pradesh has the largest forest cover of 77522 sq.km followed by Arunachal
Pradesh at 67321 sq.km. In terms of percentage of forest cover with respect to geographical area,
Mizoram with 90.38% followed by Lakshadweep with 84.5%. The present assessment reveals that
15 states/UTs had above 33% of the geographical area under Forest cover. Out of these states/
UTs 8 states viz; Mizoram, Lakshadweep, A & N Island, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya,
Manipur & Tripura had more than 75% Forest cover while 7 states viz; Goa, Sikkim, Kerala,
Utharakhand, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Chattisgarh and Assam had forest cover between 33% to 75%.

2.122 The Northern state of India account for one –fourth of the country’s forest cover. There is a net
decline of 627 sq.km is forest cover as compared to the previous assessment. Mangrove cover has
decreased by 34 sq.km compared to the 2011 report. The total growing stock of India’s forest & trees
is estimated as 5658.046 million Cu.m inside forest and 1484.68 million Cu.m outside the forest. In
the present assessment, total carbon stock in country’s forest was estimated to be 6941 million tones
which is an increase of 278 million tones compared to 2011 report.

2.123 The forest cover of the Kerala State as per the 2013 report of FSI was 17922 sq.km with 1529
sq.km of very dense forest, 9401 sq.km of moderate dense forest and 6992 sq.km of open forest.
This constitute 46.12 percent of the total geographical area of the State, shows that the forest cover
of Kerala increased over previous assessment. There is an increase of very dense forest cover to
the tune of 87 sq.km, moderate forest of 7 sq.km and open forest 528 sq.km. As per FSI, the main
reason for forest cover increase was due to the change in the area of the trees outside forests. In
Kerala, Idukki District has the maximum forest cover of 3852 sq.km and Alappuzha District has the
lowest forest cover of 113 sq.km. In terms of percentage of forest cover with total geographical area,
Wayanad has the highest forest cover of 83.34 percent, followed by Idukki and Pathanamthitta. The
district wise details of forest cover in Kerala is given in Appendix 2.61. The estimated forest area
(provisional) in Kerala is 11309.475 sq.km. This includes 9107.206 sq.km of reserve forest, 364.473
sq.km of proposed reserves and 1837.796 sq.km of vested forests.

Natural Forest

2.124 The forest of Kerala is mainly classified into 5 major categories. The coverage of the planta-
tions forestry is to the extent of 13.5 percent of the total area. The major types of forests in Kerala are
given in Appendix. 2.62. The quantity of timber production in 2012-13 was 44822.46 cum (round
log). The number of bamboos and reeds produced were 8.74 lakh and 24.24 lakh respectively. The
sandal wood production was 58269.07 kg. The trend in production of forest produces from 2006-07
to 2012-13 are shown in Appendix 2.64.

2.125 The forest policy of the state is guided by the 1988 National Forest Policy. In Kerala the
strategies adopted for the development of forests envisages maintenance of environmental stabil-
ity through preservation and reduction of degraded forests, conservation of bio-diversity, increasing
productivity of forest, increasing substantially the forest cover through massive afforestation and
developing participatory forest management. A comprehensive state forest policy to address the
specific problems and issues related to the conservation of forests and biodiversity of the state

Kerala State Planning Board