2023 FSI report: Gautam Budh Nagar loses forest cover, Ghaziabad sees slim rise

The FSI has defined the forest cover as “All lands, more than or equal to one hectare in area, with a tree canopy of more than or equal to 10%, irrespective of ownership and legal status”

Ghaziabad: The state of Uttar Pradesh in the Forest Survey of India’s (FSI) “State of Forest (SFR) – 2023” report has shown a rise of 559.19 square kilometers (sq km) in combined forest and tree cover. However, its NCR city of Ghaziabad showed a slim increase of 0.03% while Gautam Budh Nagar showed a decline of 0.05% in forest area as compared to the previous assessment in 2021.

The report released on Saturday states that Chhattisgarh witnessed a maximum increase in combined forest and tree cover with 684 sq km, and Uttar Pradesh stands in the second place with its 559 sq km area being under the same cover. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The report released on Saturday states that Chhattisgarh witnessed a maximum increase in combined forest and tree cover with 684 sq km, and Uttar Pradesh stands in the second place with its 559 sq km area being under the same cover.

The FSI has defined the forest cover as “All lands, more than or equal to one hectare in area, with a tree canopy of more than or equal to 10%, irrespective of ownership and legal status; and includes orchards, bamboo, and palm”.

The 2023 FSI report states that Gautam Budh Nagar district having a geographical area of 1,441.86 sq km, includes 22.77 sq km or about 1.58% of the total under forest cover. The previous 2021 FSI report had indicated the district having geographical area of 1,282 sq km includes 20 sq km or 1.56% of forest cover.

The 2019 report had also stated that the district’s geographical area of 1,282 sq km had a forest cover of 20 sq km, about 1.56% of that area.

The latest report states that the district showed -0.05% decline in forest cover as compared to the 2021 assessment.

The forest department officials in Gautam Budh Nagar said they believe that there is no decline and will be able to comment only after analysing the report. “The data taken up by the FSI is of previous years, and we will analyse the report in detail. Our regular plantation drives are conducted and targets achieved,” said PK Srivastava, divisional forest officer, Gautam Budh Nagar.

For Ghaziabad district, the latest assessment shows total forest cover at 21.02 sq km, about 2.36%, of its geographical area of 891.61 sq km. As per the previous 2021 assessment report, the forest cover was 25.22 sq km, about 2.14%, against the previously recorded geographical area of 1,179 sq km.

The FSI reports indicate that there was no change observed in forest cover in 2021 assessment as compared to the 2019 report which indicated Ghaziabad’s 1,179 sq km of geographical area having 25.22 sq km of forest cover.

“We have seen the report and have sought clarifications from FSI about the figures and calculations mentioned in the 2023 report. For instance, if we simply compare the increase in terms of percentage, the FSI figures show an increase of just 0.03% in Ghaziabad in 2023 report. However, the difference is 0.22% if we compare percentage increase figures of 2021 and 2023. The change in geographic area could be the result of separating Hapur district from Ghaziabad this time,” said Dr Saloni, sub division officer, forest department, Ghaziabad.

Hapur district was part of Ghaziabad till 2011.

Environmentalists, however, blame the rapid rise in housing, industrial and infrastructure activities as the reason behind a dismal growth of forest cover in the NCR region.

“The NCR cities have basically reduced for providing housing and other allied infrastructure facilities to residents, and there is hardly any focus to increase forest/tree cover. Some drives are conducted to fill up paperwork. It is even seen that due to scarcity of land, compensatory afforestation is taken up in far-flung areas and not in cities where trees are felled,” said Dipesh Chaudhary, an environment lawyer.

The different forest covers in the 2023 report give rise to concerns. It indicates decline in moderate dense forests in both Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar as compared to 2021 assessment while both the districts recorded no presence of very dense forests in 2023 and 2021.

The FSI’s 2021 figures state that Ghaziabad recorded 8.67 sq km of moderately dense forests and 16.55 sq km of open forests where the coverage decreased to 7.9 sq km and 13.17km, respectively, in the latest 2023 assessment.

Likewise, Gautam Budh Nagar reported moderately dense forest area of 5 sq km and 15 sq km of open forest areas in 2021. The “moderately dense forest” reduced to 4.45 sq km in 2023 while “open forests” increased to 18.32 sq km.

“The figures indicate that there is depletion and reduced reliance on dense forestry. The reliance should have been more on dense forestry or moderately dense forestry to tackle the issues of rise in temperature, pollution and to help preserve biodiversity,” said Sushil Raghav, an environmentalist.

The FSI report states that classification of forest cover is based on tree canopy density (proportion of an area covered by the crowns of trees).

It states, “very dense forest” have high canopy density equal to or more than 70%; “Moderately dense forest” having canopy density equal to or more than 40% but less than 70%, and “open forest” having canopy density equal to or more than 10% but less than 40%.