West Bengal state forest report 2011-2012
West Bengal( Area 88,752 Sq K.M. Comprising of 19 Districts ) is the only Indian State to have a coastline as well as the Himalayas and is situated between 21º20' and 27º32' N latitude and 85º50' and 89º52' E longitude, bordering Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. The State supports approximately 7.54% of the population of India on only 2.69% of the country's geographical area. The State has the highest population density of 1029 persons per sq. km. 72% of the population resides in rural areas whereas 28% resides in urban areas of the State. The demand of forest produce for this huge population on the limited natural resources e.g the land and forests, makes it almost impossible to be met from the notified forest area, which is only 13.32%. To cope up with the situation, efforts have been taken by the Forest Department to increase the forest and tree cover through promotion of Social Forestry, Farm Forestry, Agro Forestry, Community Forestry & afforestation on wasteland, panchayat land, Private land, tea gardens etc. outside the notified Forest area. Keeping this in view, the Planning Commission of India has set the target for achieving the National goal of 33% of Forest and tree cover of the total geographical area of the State by 11 Five Year Plan period i.e 2012. There has also been a conscious effort to enhance the forest productivity by improving of planting stock through Modern Nursery hycopot seedlings and by the use of clonal technology etc.
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