India State of Forest Report 2019 (Volume II)

Mizoram has the highest percentage of area under forests among all states, covering 85.41 per cent and 18,005.51 square kilometres of the state's geographical area.

Andhra Pradesh has variety of ecosystems, its topography ranging from the Eastern Ghats to the shores of the Bay of Bengal. Red sanders (a type of sandalwood) trees are endemic to the state and highly valued for their rich red colour and grain pattern.

Kaziranga National Park – located in  Golaghat and Nagaon districts of Assam – is home to two-thirds of the world's population of the one-horned rhinoceros. The species was close to extinction in India at the start of the 20th century.

The threatened species Asiatic lion and wild ass both have their last refuge in Gujarat, in the forests of Gir and the Little Rann of Kachchh respectively.

The report recorded the existence of over 500 bird species in the state of Haryana – nearly 40 per cent of total bird species in the country.

The Western Ghats, with their high levels of biological diversity and endemism, account for roughly 60 per cent of Karnataka’s forest area.

There are six tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh, covering 6,117.26 square kilometres of its area. According to 2018 data from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the state has the highest number of tigers in India at 526, followed by 524 in Karnataka and 442 in Uttarakhand.

Out of the 126 species of bamboos recorded in India, 53 can be found in Manipur.

The Lalwan and Keshopur reserves in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur districts were the first ‘community reserves’ to be notified under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. These reserves allow the conservation of biodiversity on private or community lands with the state government’s support.

The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve in the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu is one of India’s biodiversity hotspots and a threatened ecosystem.

Uttarakhand has 12,167 van panchayats – government-recognised institutions for forest management, the first of which was formed in 1921. These manage 7,32,688 hectares of forested land in the state.

The forest cover in Uttar Pradesh is 14,805.65 square kilometres – 6.15 per cent of the state’s geographical area. Between 2015 and 2019, the report says, 163.76 hectares of the state’s forest land was diverted for non-forestry purposes under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.

About 7.6 per cent of people in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are from tribal communities. The union territory is home to six such communities: the Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Nicobarese, Onge, Sentinelese and Shompen.

Lakshadweep is an archipelago of 36 islands in the Arabian sea, with a vast lagoon of 4,200 square kilometres comprised of sandy beaches and an abundance of marine fauna. The forest cover in the union territory is 27.1 square kilometres or 90.33 of its geographical area.

Forests make up 20.49 square kilometres or 18.46 per cent of Daman and Diu’s geographical area. The mangroves of Fudam Bird Sanctuary in the union territory (now merged with Dadra and Nagar Haveli) is rich in fishes and a feeding ground for many avian species.

Focus and Factoids by Mayank Labh.