‘Haryana’s forest cover up by 12 sq kms between 2019- 2023’

As per the minister’s reply tabled in the lower House, the decadal increase (from 2013 to 2023) in Haryana’s forest cover was 30.88 square kilometres.

Haryana’s forest cover saw an increase of 12 square kilometres between 2019 and 2023 - from 1,602 square kilometres in 2019 to 1,614.26 square kilometres in 2023 - as per the India State of Forest Report (ISFR).

Minister of state for environment, forest and climate change, Kirti Vardhan Singh responded in a written reply to an unstarred question by Congress MP from Ambala, Varun Chaudhary in Lok Sabha on Monday.

This was stated by minister of state for environment, forest and climate change, Kirti Vardhan Singh in a written reply to an unstarred question by Congress MP from Ambala, Varun Chaudhary in Lok Sabha on Monday.

As per the minister’s reply tabled in the lower House, the decadal increase (from 2013 to 2023) in Haryana’s forest cover was 30.88 square kilometres. The reply said that Haryana’s forest cover was 1,583.38 square kilometers as per the ISFR reports of 2013 and increased to 1,614.26 square kilometers in 2023.

Reacting to the state’s forest cover statistics tabled in the Lok Sabha, Congress MP, Varun Chaudhary said that a mere increase of 12 square kilometres in Haryana’s forest cover in five years after spending more than ₹1,000 crores was quite disappointing.

“The neighbouring states have performed better. Haryana continues to have the smallest forest cover among all states,’’ Chaudhary said in a statement.

As per the reply tabled in the Lok Sabha, a sum of ₹982.08 crore was approved by the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority for Haryana during the last five years. “An amount of ₹439.24 crore has been released under Nagar Van Yojana to all states which included ₹4.49 crore to Haryana during the last five years,” the reply said.

The reply said a sum of ₹619 crore was released in the last five years under the Green India Mission to 18 states, which included ₹7.88 crore released to Haryana. Further, ₹164.92 crore was released under Forest Fire Prevention and Management Scheme to all states which included ₹0.17 crore to Haryana during the last five years, the written reply said.