Question raised in Rajya Sabha on Areas covered by dense forests, 01/08/2016
Question raised in Rajya Sabha on Areas covered by dense forests, 01/08/2016. Forest cover of the country is assessed biennially and published as India State of Forest Report (ISFR) by Forest Survey of India, Dehradun, an organization under Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. As per India State of Forest Report-2015, the forest cover of the country is 7, 01,673 square kilometers. The forest cover is divided into three classes namely Very Dense Forest (VDF), Moderately Dense Forest (MDF) and Open Forest (OF). As per this classification, the total dense forest cover is 4,01,278 square kilometers including VDF and MDF. The area figures of Dense Forest Cover for last ten years are given in Annexure I. During last ten years, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has granted approval for diversion of 24,52,88 hectare of forest land in 11,580 cases under Section - 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 for various developmental activities. The State-wise details are given in Annexure-II.