New Delhi, Mar. 14: Tree cover in 13 states and union territories of India’s Himalayan region has declined by 2.27 per cent between 2021 and 2023, Union Minister Kirti Vardhan Singh said.
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, the minister said that according to the State of Forests of India Report 2023, tree cover in the region has declined from 15,427.11 sq km in 2021 to 15,075.5 sq km in 2023.
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The total carbon storage in the forests of the Indian Himalayan region is estimated to be 3,273.10 million tonnes in 2023, Singh said. It was 3,272.68 million tonnes in 2021. Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Assam and West Bengal are part of the Indian Himalayan region.
Forest health is influenced by multiple environmental and biophysical parameters and not just the greenery of forest areas, he said. To ensure forest health, the Forest Survey of India collects data on various forest parameters such as soil depth and soil erosion, forest vegetation characteristics and threats to forests. These characteristics interact with each other and determine the condition of forests at a given time, the minister said.