BHOPAL: The Greens of Madhya Pradesh have a cause for cheer. The recently-released India State of Forest Report (ISFR), 2019 reveals that MP has the largest forest cover among all the states in the country and more importantly, it is growing, albeit at a nominal pace.
ISFR is biennial report published by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. It was released by Union Minister Prakash Javdekar at a function at New Delhi. It bases its estimation of forested area both on the reports of the state government and satellite data.
According to the report, forests cover 77,482 sq km area of the state. This is 25.14 per cent of the state’s total geographical area. In other words, around one-fourth of the area of the state is covered with forests. Even more importantly, amid reports of massive deforestation due to mining, industrialisation and construction of roads and railway lines, the forest cover of the state has actually increased by 68.49 sq km since 2017.
The State has 6,676 sq km under Very Dense Forest (VDF), 34,341 sq km under Moderately Dense Forest (MDF) and 36,465 sq km under Open Forest (OF). During the period January 2015- February 2019, a total of 12,785 hectares of forest land was diverted for non-forestry purposes under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
The ten national parks and 25 wildlife sanctuaries in the state cover a total area of 6,117 sq km and are classified as protected forests. And they are the home to 526 tigers, making MP the Tiger State of India.
Balaghat most forested, Ujjain least
Among the districts, Balaghat has the densest forest cover, with 53.44 per cent of its area covered by forests. It is followed by Umaria (49.62 per cent) and Mandla (44.44 per cent). However, the area under forests in Umaria and Balaghat has declined over the past two years while in Mandla it has grown by some eight per cent.
Ujjain (0.59 per cent) has the least forest cover among the districts while only 1.02 per cent of the area of Shajapur is covered by canopies of trees. Around 11 per cent area of Bhopal district and 17.41 of Indore is covered by forests.
Talking about biodiversity, the state’s forests have 146 species of trees, 79 of shrubs and 72 of herbs.
Trees outside forests cover an area of 12, 730 sq km in the state, with Palash being the most popular tree in the rural areas and Neem in the urban areas.
JFM worked wonders
The report says that Joint Forest Management (JFM) movement has helped the state preserve its forest wealth. “Madhya Pradesh is the pioneering state in the implementation of the Joint Forest Management (JFM) movement in the country. The State has a strong JFM network through 15,228 Joint Forest Management Committees, covering an area of 66,874 sq km,” the report says.
