ARUNACHAL'S FOREST COVER DECREASES

The India State of Forest Report 2021 has vindicated what activists, lawyers and academicians have been saying all along – Arunachal Pradesh, which is the second-largest forested state in India, is losing its primary forests and that too at a large scale every passing year.

As per the ISFR 2021 — brought out by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) and released on January 13— Arunachal Pradesh has a geographical area (GA) of 83,743 sq km with its 16 hill districts, (total number 25, the recently bifurcated not shown separately in the report) has witnessed a loss of 257 sq km of forest cover compared to the 2019 assessment.

As per ISFR 2021, the total forest cover (within and outside the recorded forest area) is 66,430.67 sq km (79.33 per cent of GA). Of that, very dense forest is 21,058.37 sq km (25.15 per cent), moderate dense forest is 30,175.56 sq km (36.03 per cent), open forest is 15,196.74 sq km (18.15 per cent). Scrub, not counted in total, is spread over 796.98 sq km (0.95 per cent).

Arunachal Pradesh is considered one of the forest-rich states in the eastern Himalayas. The state has about 20 per cent of species of the country’s fauna, about 4,500 species of flowering plants, 400 species of pteridophytes, 23 species of conifers, 35 species of bamboos, 20 species of cane, 52 species of Rhododendron and more than 500 species of orchids. Two National Parks and 11 Wildlife Sanctuaries constitute the Protected Area network of the state covering 11.68 per cent of its geographical area. Large areas fall under community forests.