India Is Losing Its Forests In The Name Of Development, No Political Party Is Talking About It
Originally published on indiatimes.com |
The increase of 6,778 sq km of area under from ISFR report 2015 to ISFR report 2017 is subjected to various changes implied in the categorisation and basic definition of the forest.
Whether it’s a total of 467 hectares of Yavatmal forest land given to Reliance or the green signal given to 141.99 hectares forest land near Navegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve to Adani group, in a total of 2988 cases between 2015 to 2019, a total forest land of 54648.54 hectares have been diverted for development projects.
Definition play up
What defines a forest? Well, according to government of India, if there is only 10 percent canopy density in a hectare, it would be called a forest and guess what if this definition, majority of the orchards came under the definition of forest in ISFR report 2017.
The forest in India is categorized in three categories-Very Dense Forest, Moderately Dense Forest and Open Forest. The VDF account to a forest with canopy density of 70 percent or more, MDF implies to a canopy density of over 40 percent but lower than 70 percent while Open Forest means the canopy density with 10 per cent or more.
From 2015 to 2017, ISFR report claims that VDF in India was increased by 9525 sq km where as MDF decreased by 4421sq km and OF increased by 1674 sq km. But needs to understand that VDF in India is only 2.99 per cent whereas 9.38 per cent falls under MDF and 9.18 percent is OF.
Here are the states which have lost maximum forest Cover between 2015 and 2017.
1. Maharashtra
Maharashtra has been in news for various protest for the forest land being given for various public and private projects including bullet train project. Though the state conventionally has a thick forest cover, over last few year it has lost considerable forest cover while has added very little to the existing cover. Between 2015 to 2017, the state lost 140 sq km of MDF cover where it added only 51 sq km to VDF and 72 to OF.
2. Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh too has lost large chunk of forest. The state between 2015 and 2017 lost a total of 23 sq km of very precious VDF and a total of 266 sq km of slightly lesser crucial MDF, and the state has just added a total of 277 sq km of OF in which the density percentage of canopy is just 10 per cent.
3. Telangana
Between 2015 and 2017, Telangana saw maximum erosion of forest as the state lost a whopping 2602 sq km of MDF cover. Though it added 1131 sq km of VDF and 2036 sq km of OF.
4. Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand is one state where forest cover is quite good, but the state which often witness large forest fires lost a whopping 778 sq km of MDF cover. It added 165 sq km in VDF and 636 sq km under OF category.
5. Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh has the thickest forest cover in India with a total of 66, 964 sq km under forest out of 83,743 sq km. In 2017, the state has 20, 721 sq km under VDF, 30,955 under MDF and 15, 288 under OF. But between 2015 and 2017, massive deforestation took place as the state did lose a cover of 85 sq km and 226 sq km and only 121 sq km of OF was added.
These states did maximum diversion of forest land
Between 2015 and 2017, a total area of 54,648 hectares under forest land diverted to various projects under a total 2,988 cases. Here are the states that have diverted large areas under forest for developmental activities.
1. Madhya Pradesh
In last four year between 2015 to 2019, Madhya Pradesh has diverted a total of 12785.98 hectares of forest land for 242 different developmental activities.
2. Telangana
Telagana is one state which has lost maximum forest in last few years. In the interval of last four years, the state has diverted a total of 9420.24 hectares of forest area for 32 development activities.
3. Orissa
Orissa is another state where the forest cover is comparatively thick and the state government has diverted a total of 4968.48 hectares of forest area for 58 projects.
4. Maharashtra
Maharashtra has been among the thick of protests against the diversion of forest land and the state government in last four years have diverted a total 3797.16 hectares of forest land and most of this land is covered with VDF and MDF cover.
5. Uttarakhand
For 255 projects, the state government has diverted a total of 2850.87 hectares for development projects. The state has also lost 778 sq km of forest cover between 2015 and 2017.
Green vs forest
Does every that is green gets counted as forest? Actually , it shouldn’t. But frequent change in the definition and way of mapping which included mapping of more district as ISFR 2015 assessment report had covered 589 districts and in 2017 report, 633 districts were covered.
But ISFR uses satellites images to identify green as forest and the satellite imagery doesn’t separate natural forests, plantations, thickets of weeds such as juliflora and lantana, and longstanding commercial crops such as palm, coconut, coffee, or even sugarcane.
Earlier, the satellite imagery couldn’t map land unit smaller than 4 sq km but now a land unit of 1 hectare with minimum 10 percent canopy density regardless the kind of plantation is seen as green and thus forest.
For instance, Delhi ISFR in 1987 said that Delhi has only 15 sq km of forest and 2017 ISFR says Delhi has 192 sq km of forest. Lets imagine, the population density of Delhi in 1987 and now.
