The country’s green cover may be increasing according to the headline findings of the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023 , but the study also points to the degradation of large tracts of forests, increase in plantations and lack of clarity in status of so-called unclassed forests -- all of which could have serious impacts for biodiversity, forest dependent people and ecosystem services provided by old-growth forests, experts said.
Degradation of forests
According to the report, released Saturday, 40,709.28 sq km has seen degradation between 2011 and 2021, from very dense and moderately dense to open forests, and 5,573.02 sq km has seen degradation from very dense, moderately dense and open forests to scrub type. Most worryingly, 46,707.11 sq km has seen very dense,moderately dense , open, and scrub type forests degrading to non-forests.
Very dense forests (VDF) have a canopy density of ≥ 70 %; Moderately dense forest (MDF) between 40% and 70%; Open forest (OF), between Open Forest (OF), between 10% and 40%; and Scrub type, less than 10%. Non-forest lands are cropland, settlements and other areas. Forest canopy density is the proportion of the ground covered by the crowns of trees, a measure of how dense the forests are.
“A land bank of approximately 92,989 sq km (basically the sum of all the areas that have seen degradation) has been identified for “density upgradation” within recorded forest areas. As per the report this will be used for “enrichment planting” through forestry interventions -- likely through compensatory afforestation programs, which presents a bigger problem,” said Prakriti Srivastava, retired IFS and former principal chief conservator of forests, Krithika Sampath and Prerna Singh Bindra, conservation researchers.
{{/usCountry}}“A land bank of approximately 92,989 sq km (basically the sum of all the areas that have seen degradation) has been identified for “density upgradation” within recorded forest areas. As per the report this will be used for “enrichment planting” through forestry interventions -- likely through compensatory afforestation programs, which presents a bigger problem,” said Prakriti Srivastava, retired IFS and former principal chief conservator of forests, Krithika Sampath and Prerna Singh Bindra, conservation researchers.
{{/usCountry}}“Allowing compensatory afforestation to be carried out on recorded forest areas through such identified land banks without consideration for their ecological uniqueness will not only destroy vital ecosystems and wildlife habitat and connectivity impacting species survival, but also weaken the “land for land and tree for tree” principle enshrined in the Forest Conservation (FC) Amendment Act’s Compensatory Afforestation (CA) component,” they added in their critique, which they also shared with FSI officers.
Unclassed Forests
The FC Amendment Act or the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam 2023 which was passed last year exempts “unrecorded” deemed forests from requiring a forest clearance, paving way for their diversion for infrastructure and other projects.
Last year, 11 retired government officials, including some from the forest and environment departments and two environmental activists (including Srivastava and Bindra) challenged the new amendment in the Supreme Court. The apex court gave an interim order on February 19 upholding the order of the 1996 Godavarman judgement which defined forests as per the dictionary meaning of the word irrespective of ownership.
These experts were expecting that ISFR 2023 would provide accurate details of “unclassed” or “deemed” forests in each district based on inputs from state expert committees. “The data on unclassed forests is completely unreliable and there is no explanation given for the huge fluctuations in the data of states for unclassed forests from one cycle of reporting to the next,” Srivastava pointed.
For example, unclassed forests in Odisha increased from 17 sq km (in 1999) to a staggering 16282 sq km between 2001-2015, while in just the next reporting cycle (in 2017), they drastically fell to 22 sq km.It is shown as 22 sq km in the 2023 report also, they said. Kerala and West Bengal do not show any changes in unclassed forest area across the entire time period (1995-2021). In fact, Kerala does not record any unclassed forest area at all in the 2023 report .
Between ISFR 2021 and 2023, 1488 sq km of unclassed forests have been lost, the critique added.
Plantations
The way the Forest Survey of India (FSI) defines “forests” is not new and has been a subject of controversy for years now. The Union environment ministry, in its response in the Rajya Sabha said last year that as per decision 19/Conference of Parties (CP) 9-Kyoto Protocol (1996), a forest can be defined by any country depending upon its capacities and capabilities .
India’s definition is accepted by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for their reporting/communications. “The forest cover is defined as ‘all land, more than one hectare in area, with a tree canopy density of more than 10 percent irrespective of ownership and legal status. Such land may not necessarily be a recorded forest area. It also includes orchards, bamboo and palm’. The definition of forest cover has clearly been defined in all the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) and in all the International communications of India,” the ministry added in its response.
But it is important to note that in the 2021 ISFR, the forest cover figures are divided as ‘Inside Recorded Forest Area’ and ‘Outside Recorded Forest Area.’ “Those ‘Inside Recorded Forest Area’ are basically natural forests and plantations of Forest Department. The Forest cover ‘Outside Recorded Forest Area’ are mango orchards, coconut plantations, block plantations of agroforestry. Thus data of mango plantations etc. is automatically getting separated out as Forest Survey of India is reporting the figures of ‘Outside Recorded Forest Area’ separately,” the ministry said in its response.
Forest cover inside recorded forest area is presently 5,20,365.32 sq km and forest cover outside in 2023 is 1,94,977.29 sq km. The fact that this report clearly mentions these has been welcomed by some experts.
“I would say this is a good report because it provides important data on the status of green cover including degradation, agroforestry, forest cover inside and outside recorded forests, in ecologically important areas such as Western Ghats and Northeastern region,” said N H Ravindranath, retired professor, Indian Institute of Science and forestry expert.
But he added that it is worrying that mango, rubber and coffee plantations are being counted as forest cover. “Old growth forests are important for the biodiversity they support and ecosystem services provided by them.”