NEW DELHI, July 19: A real-time data has revealed that about 4,350 sq km of primary forest area has been lost in the Northeastern states of India in the last two decades (2001 to 2021), which is much higher than the figures released by the Forest Survey of India earlier.
According to the US-based Global Forest Watch (GFW) data, the forest cover of Arunachal Pradesh alone has decreased the most at 1,250 sq km. This was followed by a reduction in the forest cover of 1,100 sq km in Tripura and then 630 sq km in Assam during the period.
Forest cover of 460 sq km, 450 sq km, 310 sq km and 150 sq km was reduced in Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram respectively.
The total degraded forest area can be estimated at four times the size of New Delhi.
However, according to India’s State of Forest Report 2021 published by the Forest Survey of India, the Northeastern states have lost 1,020 sq km of forest during 2019-2021.
The eight states account for 23.75 per cent of the country’s total forest cover.
It may be mentioned that the maximum forest cover was lost in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland in the year 2016 while Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura recorded highest forest degradation in 2017.
Started by a US-based non-profit organisation, viz. World Resources Institute, GFW is an open source application to monitor in real-time forests across the globe.
