Introductory Agroforestry

Present Status of Indian Forest

Present Status of Indian Forests (2009)

1. The forest cover of the country as per 2007 assessment is 690,899km2/69.09 mha which is 21.02 percent of the geographical area of the country.
2. Very dense forest constitutes 83,510 km2/ 8.35 million ha (2.54%),
3. The moderately dense forest 319,012 km2/ 31.90 million ha (9.71%) and
4. Open forest constitutes 288.377 km2/28.84 million ha (8.77%)
5. The scrub accounts for 41,525 km2/4.15 million ha (1.26%).
6. Mangrove: 4639 km2/0.46 million ha (0.14%)
7. Excluding the area (18.31 million ha) above tree line, the forest cover of the country comes of 22.26 per cent
8. Reportedly, hills and tribal districts, especially the North-Eastern (NE) states, contributed significantly to this increase.
9. Madhya Pradesh has largest area under forest cover followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa and Maharashtra
10. Mizoram has maximum proportion of geographic area under forest cover followed by Nagaland
11. North-East region accounts for 25.11 per cent of forest cover
12. Native forests in India are disappearing at a rate of up to 2.7 per cent per year
13. Very dense forest - All lands with tree cover of canopy density of 70% and above
14. Moderately dense forest - All lands with tree cover of canopy density between 40% and 70%
15. Open forest - All lands with tree cover of canopy density between 10% and 40%
16. Scrub - Degraded forest lands with canopy density less than 10%
17. Non-forest – Any area not included in the above classes

Plate 2.3 Pictorial illustration of different forest covers