GUWAHATI: Assam has 3,620.9 sq km of forest area under encroachment while across 25 states and Union Territories over 13,000 sq km of forest area is under encroachment, according to the Union Environment Ministry.
ALSO READ: Two Killed, Four Injured In Head-On Collision Between NTPC Goods Trains In Jharkhand
The recorded forest area of Assam is 26,832 sq km accounting for 34.21 per cent of its geographical area. According to their legal status, Reserved Forests constitute 66.58 per cent and Unclassed Forests 33.42 per cent of the total forest area.
Among the 25 states and UTs that have submitted their reports to the ministry, Madhya Pradesh had the highest forest encroachment with 5,460.9 sq km affected as of March 2024 followed by Assam.
According to reports, in April last year, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had directed the ministry to compile the details of encroachment of forest areas in all states and Union Territories in a prescribed format.
In its report submitted to the NGT last week, the ministry said that as of March 2024, a total of 13,05,668.1 hectares (or 13,056 sq km) of forest area was under encroachment in 25 states and UTs.
States and UTs, which are still to submit the data and details on forest encroachment, are Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, Telangana, West Bengal, Nagaland, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Forest area or the Recorded Forest Area (RFA) includes land officially designated as forest by the government, even if it does not have tree cover.
RFA is further divided into three categories: reserved forests, which have full protection, with activities like hunting and grazing generally banned; protected forests, where some activities are allowed unless specifically restricted; and unclassed forests, which are not classified as reserved or protected.
This is different from forest cover which refers to the actual area with tree canopy (more than 1 hectare with tree canopy density of at least 10 per cent), regardless of legal status. Forest cover includes forests inside and outside recorded forest areas, such as plantations, community forests and private lands with tree growth.
