E-Paper
Punjab’s forest cover rises by 0.65%, SBS Nagar, Ludhiana take lead
2nd lowest forest cover in country as 83% area under agriculture; tree cover down by 30 sq km in last two years
Punjab’s forest cover has gone up by 0.65% in the last two years, according to the India State of Forest Report 2019.
The report, released by Union minister of environment, forests and climate change Prakash Javadekar in New Delhi on Monday, has shown an increase of 11.63 square kilometres in forest cover of the state as compared to previous assessment made in 2017.
The state’s forest cover has been estimated at 1,848.63 sq km with 8 sq km of it being under very dense forest in terms of forest canopy density, 800.97 sq km under moderately dense forest and 1,039.66 sq km under open forest.
With 3.67% of its total geographical area of 50,362 sq km under forest, Punjab – an agricultural state predominantly with 83% of its total area under cultivation – has the second lowest forest cover among the states.
Only Haryana, which is also an agricultural state, has a lower forest cover at 3.62% of its geographical area. As per the latest assessment, the state’s forest cover is up by 14 sq km or 0.88%. Against this, the country’s forest cover has increased by 0.56% and the overall forest cover stands at approximately 7.12 lakh sq km or 21.67% of the total geographical area.
“With major portion of the land under agriculture in Punjab, there is limited scope to increase the area under forests except by bringing the wastelands and degraded lands,” says the report, attributing the increase in forest cover to plantation and conservation activities.
Among the districts, Hoshiarpur, Rupnagar and Gurdaspur account for 65% of the total forest cover of the state.
SBS Nagar, Ludhiana and Rupnagar are among the few districts that have shown an increase whereas forest cover has declined in most other districts, particularly Faridkot and SAS Nagar (Mohali) over the last two years.
The forest cover is an estimate of tree patches of one hectare or more in size having canopy density of more than 10%. Trees occurring in patches of less than one hectare in size, including scattered trees, are considered tree cover which has emerged as an area of concern for Punjab as per the latest report. Tree cover in the state has shrunk by 30 sq km, going to 1,592 sq km from 1,622 in the last two years.
