BHOPAL (Madhya Pradesh): Eleven districts in the state have shown improvement in the forest cover while large part of the state has witnessed depletion of forest cover, according to latest biennial Indiaís State of Forest Report 2021, published by Forest Survey of India.
As per report, the overall green cover in the state has depleted by 10.11% in comparison to previous report that was published in 2019.
Bhind district in Chambal region has shown remarkable improvement in forest cover with phenomenal addition of 119.81% in comparison to previous report of 2019.
Sidhi district stands second with 33.36% addition in the green cover. Surprisingly Morena too has shown growth of 21.50% in its forest cover closely followed by Rewa and Chhindwara that improved its greenery by 20.05% and 20.12% respectively. Ratlam districtís green cover increased by 15.31% compared to previous study.
Other districts that bettered their record include Datia 10.50%, Shivpuri 6.61%, Gwalior 5.65%, Panna 5.89% and Ujjain by a meager 0.49%.
Biggest loss to green cover took place in Barwani district that reduced by 23.63% and Umaria, which reduced by 21.34%. Industrial town Singrauli lost 17.27% of its green cover. Harda, Sheopur and Shahdol too made big losses in green cover that stood at 16.95%, 16.09% and 16.01% respectively compared to past.
Jabalpur districtís greenery reduced by 12.10% and Anuppur by 11.21% according to forest report 2021.
Tree cover too has reduced in the state. It is defined as all tree patches of size less than 1 hectare outside the recorded forest area. It covers all formations including scattered trees. According to 2019 assessment, there were 8,339 trees per square km, which reduced to 8,054 in 2021. The Forest Survey of India defines forest cover as all lands of a hectare or more with tree patches with canopy density of more than 10 per cent.
This covers all lands, irrespective of legal ownership and land use. Recorded forest area includes only those areas recorded as forests in government records and includes pristine forests.
