• Assam’s forest cover increases by 221.51 square kilometres in last two years
• But forest cover in 3 hill districts has declined drastically by 96 %
• In northeast, except for Assam and Tripura, all other states showed a decline in forest cover
• Karbi Anglong recorded the deepest plunge with 93.82% decline in forest cover
• Officials say aforestation and free distribution of seedlings to the public are on priority
• Forest department’s cadre structure has been streamlined for the first time in several years
• Due promotions were given on January 1 which were pending for officials
Assam’s total forest cover has seen an increase of 221.51 square kilometres in the past two years as per a recent report released by Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar.
As per the recently-released report prepared by Forest Survey of India titled ‘India State of Forest Report 2019’, the state has witnessed an increase in its forest cover by 0.76 per cent.
However, the forest cover in three hill districts in Assam has declined drastically by 96 per cent. Officials have blamed rampant encroachment, jhum cultivation and deforestation for the same.
Interestingly, among the northeastern states, apart from Assam and Tripura, all other states showed a decline in forest cover.
“Total forest cover in the North Eastern region is 1,70,541 sq km, which is 65.05% of its geographical area. The current assessment shows a decrease of forest cover to the extent of 765 sq km (0.45%) in the region. Except Assam and Tripura, all the States in the region show decrease in forest cover,” states the report.
AM Singh, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, told G Plus that the maximum increase in the forest cover has been seen in the open forest area.
Forests are classified into very dense forest where the canopy density is more than 70 per cent. The second classification is medium-dense forest with canopy density between 40 and 70 per cent and finally the open forest where canopy density is 10-40 percent which is also called degraded forest.
As per the report, in Assam, very dense forest has declined by 2 square kilometres while the medium dense forest category saw a rise of 87 square kilometres. However, the maximum increase was witnessed in the open forest category with 137 square kilometres rise in forest cover.
“We are undertaking all the aforestation efforts in the open forests. The advantage of this is that whatever destruction is being done in the non-forest area is about 178 square kilometres, but our open forest has been increased by 137 square kilometres and the increase in medium dense forest is around 87 square kilometres,” informed Singh.
He further termed the development as “positive” for the scenario of forest cover in Assam.
The officials said that the measures adopted by them in 2016-17 to improve the state of forests have shown results now. Authorities said that the major reason behind this development has been the aforestation efforts and free distribution of the seedling to the public over the past few years.
Additionally, as per the district-wise data for Assam, Karbi Anglong recorded the deepest plunge in terms of forest cover with a whopping 93.82 percent decline in its forest cover. Apart from Karbi Anglong, the districts which recorded a decrease in forest cover area include Cachar (0.66%), Dibrugarh (1.77%) and Dima Hasao (3.07%).
On the other hand, Goalpara district led the places which recorded the maximum increase in forest cover since 2017 with a quantum rise of 97.74 per cent. This was followed by 44.47 per cent in Kamrup district and Karimganj where the forest cover rose by 35.43 per cent.
“We will also write a letter to the government regarding the extreme decline in Karbi Anglong’s forest cover which is a point of worry for us,” said Singh.
Further, on the national level, the assessment revealed an increase of 3,976 sq km (0.56%) of forest cover, 1,212 sq km (1.29%) of tree cover and 5,188 sq km (0.65%) of forest and tree cover put together, as compared to the previous assessment in 2017.
This apart, the officials further mentioned that the forest department’s cadre structure has also been streamlined for the first time in several years.
“In the history of the forest department of Assam in the last 70 years, no due promotion was given on January 1 which was the due date for the officials. But this year, the promotions were given in time in the department,” Singh told G Plus.
