Depletion of forest, state of forest in world, India, Kerala

Presented by

Reshma V R

Depletion of forest

• Forests are burned or cut down for various reasons, but the aim behind all of these reason is ‘economic gains’

• At present we are losing forest at the rate of 1.7 crores hectares annually world wide

Depletion of forest

Causes of deforestation

• Overgrazing and conversion of forest to pasture for domestic animals

• Fuel wood gathering• Commercial logging• Mining, quarrying, and irrigation and industrial projects• Shifting cultivation• Expansion of agribusiness that grows oil palm, rubber,

fruit trees and ornamental plans has also resulted in deforestation

• Finally, government- sponsored programs that resettle landless farmers on forested site have contributed deforestation all around the world

Effect of deforestation

• Soil erosion

• Expansion of deserts

• Decrease in rainfall

• Loss of fertile land

• Effect on climate

• Lowering of water table

• Economic losses

• Loss of flora and fauna

• Loss of biodiversity

• Loss of medicinal plants

• Environmental changes

Case study

Himalayan region;

• After denudation of our Himalayas, the process of deforestation started in the shivalik range

• shivalik Sal forest were over exploited for industrial uses

• Thus foot hills of shivaliks once covered with dense forest, are facing an acute water scarcity and semi desert condition

States of forest in world

• According data from the U N food and agriculture organization deforestation was at it’s highest rate in 1990’s

• At the same time, forest area expanded in some places, either through planting or natural processes

• In the first decade of this centaury, the rate of deforestation was slightly lower, but still, disturbingly high 13 million hectares were destroyed annually and the forest that remain are of lower quality

World forest cover, 1990- 2010

Region 1990 2000 2010

Africa 749 709 674

Asia 576 570 593

Europe 989 998 1,005

North and central America

708 706 705

Oceania 199 198 191

South America 946 904 864

total 4,168 4,085 4,033

• Forest are primarily threatened by land clearing for agriculture, pasture and harvesting wood for fuel or industrial uses

• In Brazil which has lost 55 million hectares since 1990

• Brazil contains 13% of the world’s forest area; second only the Russia's 20%

• Brazil lost 2.6 million hectares of forest each year more any other country

• brazil is trying to reduce deforestation, but rising corn, soya bean price likely to pressure the government to weaken it’s forest protection

• South American countries Bolivia, Venezuela, have also felled large areas of trees, making the south America the region with largest forest loss between 2000 & 2010

• Africa also sufferers from extensive deforestation

• Fire wood and charcoal production are important drivers

• Sub- Saharan nations- Nigeria, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and the democratic republic of the Congo- each cleared more than 300,000 hectares per year

• In china, after disastrous flooding 1998, they realized the tremendous flood control and soil protection benefit of forests,, leading it to ban logging in key river basins and to begin planting trees at rapid rate

• Now china become the world’s largest processor of wood product, but it also import both legally and illegally logged timber

• In Indonesia, large driver of deforestation is palm oil production

• Expansion of oil palm, which is largely planted on lands that have been logged or burned, threatens the remaining forest

• Mexico is another country where the government banned deforestation

• In the 1990’s Mexico had the 7th highest rate of deforestation in the world

• Recent efforts to reduce deforestation and encourage plantation halved the rate of forest loss

• Across the globe, Australia moved the opposite direction, switching a net forest gain in 1990’s to a net forest loss in the following decade

• Australia persistent drought from 2002 to 2010 was doubled trouble for it’s forest

• The drought and high temperature, burned million of hectares of forest in Australia

• Just one mega fire on February 7, 2009, now known as “ black berry Saturday”, burned over 40,oooo hectares

• U S added a net 7.7 million hectares of trees between 1990’s and 2010, around 380,000 hectares per year

• Although the U S have experienced impressive forest generation within Although the it’s own boarders

• But still it contribute to deforestation as importer of forest product

The depletion of deforestation can be carried out as follows;

Reducing consumption of paper and wood products

Recycling paper

Reclaiming wood

Legally sourcing wood from sustainable plantation

Finding substitute for fire wood

Stabilizing population by accelerating the shift to smaller families

States of forest in India

Forest cover in India

Very dense

forest

All land with tree canopy density of

70% and above

Moderately

dense forest

All land with tree canopy between

40% and 70%

Open forest Degraded forest land with canopy

density less than 10%

Non- Forest Are not included in any of these

above classes

scrub Degraded forest land with canopy

density less than 10%

Very dense forest

Moderate dense forest

Open forest

scrub

Forest cover Area (km²) % ofgeographical area

Very dense forest 83,471 2.54%

Moderately dense forest

320,734 9.76

Open forest 287,820 8.75

Total forest cover 692,027 21.05

Scrub 42,176 1.28

Non forest 2,553,060 77.67

The geographicalarea

3,287,263 100.00

‘forest report’ india,2009

state Geograp

hical

area

Very dense

forest

Medium

dense

forest

Open

forest

total

Andhra

Pradesh

275069 850 26377 19443 46670

Arunachal

Pradesh

83743 20873 31574 15037 67484

Assam 78438 1461 11558 14673 27692

Chhattisgarh 135191 4163 34911 16604 55678

Delhi 1483 6.76 49.84 119.98 176.58

Goa 5702 543 578 1091 2212

Gujarat 196022 376 5249 8995 14620

Haryana 44212 27 463 1104 1594

Himachal

Pradesh

55673 3224 6383 5061 14668

Jammu &

Kashmir

222236 4140 8760 9637 22537

Jharkhand 79714 2590 9899 10405 22894

Karnataka 191791 1777 20181 14232 36190

Kerala 38863 1443 9410 6471 17324

Madhya

Pradesh

308245 6647 35007 36046 77700

Maharashtr

a

307713 8739 20834 21077 50650

Manipur 22327 701 5474 1105 17280

Meghalaya 22429 410 9501 7410 17321

Mizoram 21081 134 6149 12900 19183

Nagaland 16579 1274 4897 7293 13464

Orissa 155707 7073 21394 20388 48855

Punjab 50362 0 733 931 1664

Rajasthan 342239 72 4450 11514 16036

Sikkim 7096 500 2161 698 3359

Tamilnadu 130058 2926 10343 10282 23551

Tripura 10486 109 4702 3174 7985

Uttar Pradesh 240928 1626 4563 8152 14341

Uttarakhand 53483 4762 14165 5568 24495

West Bengal 88752 2987 4644 5363 12994

A & N island 8249 3762 2405 495 6662

Chandigarh 114 1 10 6 17

Dadra &

Nagarhaveli

491 0 114 97 211

Daman & Diu 112 0 0.62 5.03 5.65

Lakshadweep 32 0 16.71 9.77 26.48

Pondicherry 480 0 34.1 15.87 49.97

3287263 83428 320238 288728 692394

‘Forest report’ India, 2011

state Very dense

forest

Medium dense

forest

Open

forest

total

Andhra Pradesh 850 26242 19297 46389

Arunachal

Pradesh

20868 31519 15023 67410

Assam 1444 11404 14825 27673

Chhattisgarh 4163 34911 16600 55674

Delhi 6.76 49.48 119.48 176.2

Goa 543 585 1091 2219

Gujarat 376 5231 9012 14619

Haryana 27 457 1124 1608

Himachal

Pradesh

3224 6381 5074 14679

Jammu &

Kashmir

4410 8760 9639 22539

Jharkhand 2590 9917 10470 22977

Karnataka 1777 20179 14238 36194

Kerala 1442 9394 6464 17300

Madhya

Pradesh

6640 34986 36074 77700

Maharashtra 8736 20815 21095 50646

Manipur 730 6151 10209 17090

Meghalaya 433 9775 7067 17275

Mizoram 134 6086 12897 19117

Nagaland 1293 4931 7094 13318

Orissa 7060 21366 20477 48903

Punjab 0 736 1028 1764

Rajasthan 72 4448 11567 16087

Sikkim 500 2161 698 3359

Tamilnadu 2948 10321 10356 23625

Tripura 109 4686 3182 7977

Uttar Pradesh 1626 4559 8153 14338

Uttarakhand 4762 14167 5567 24496

West Bengal 2984 4646 5365 12995

A & N island 3761 2416 547 6724

Chandigarh 1.35 9.55 5.88 16.78

Dadra &

Nagarhaveli

0 114 97 211

Daman & Diu 0 0.62 5.53 6.15

Lakshadweep 0 17.18 9.88 27.06

Pondicherry 0 35.37 14.69 50.06

83471 320736 287820 692027

• The figure gives the changes in forest cover for all the states in all in all the tree canopy density classes

• The state which have shown positive changes are Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Jharkhand, Andaman & Nicobar, Rajasthan & Orissa

• Whereas states like Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya have shown negative changes

state Reason for change

Andhra

Pradesh

Management intervention like harvesting of short

rotation crops followed by new regeneration/

plantation, forest clearance in some encroached

Areas

Andaman &

Nicobar

island

Recovery of coastal vegetation in tsunami affected

areas, shelter belt plantation and increase in

mangrove cover

Arunachal

Pradesh

Changes in forest cover in the state is because of

shifting cultivation and biotic pressure

Assam Decrease in forest cover is mainly attributed to

illicit felling, encroachment in insurgency affected

areas and shifting cultivation practice

Bihar Enhanced plantation activity outside forest

areas in recent times contributed towards

increase in forest cover

Chhattisgarh Submergence of forest areas in catchment of

the dams

Jharkhand Increase of forest cover is mainly on account

of effective protein by the village forest

protection committees and plantation activities

undertake in the state

Manipur Decrease in forest cover in the state is due to

shortening of shifting cultivation cycle and

biotic pressure

Meghalaya Decrease in forest cover in the state is due to

shortening of shifting cultivation cycle and

biotic pressure

Mizoram Decrease in forest cover in the state is due to

shortening of shifting cultivation cycle and biotic

pressure

Orissa Main reason for the increase in forest cover is due to

effective protein by the JFM committees &

regeneration of shifting cultivation areas

Nagaland Decrease in forest cover in the state is due to

shortening of shifting cultivation cycle and biotic

pressure

Punjab Growth of young plantation carried out under

externally aided project and agro-forestry activities

in TOF areas

Rajasthan Regeneration in forest areas and extensive

plantation activities

Tamil

Nadu

Regeneration in forest and extensive plantation

activities in land outside forest

Forest cover in different type of forest group

Group % of forest cover

Tropical wet evergreen forest 2.92

Tropical semi- evergreen forest 13.79

Tropical moist deciduous forest 19.73

Littoral and swamp forest 0.69

Tropical dry deciduous forest 41.87

Tropical thorn forest 2.25

Tropical dry evergreen forest 0.13

Sub tropical broad leaved hill forest 2.69

Sub tropical pine forest 2.63

Sub tropical dry evergreen forest 0.03

Montana wet temperature forest 0.69

Himalayan moist temperature forest 4.12

Himalayan dry temperature forest .84

Sub- alpine & alpine forest 2.55

Plantation 5.07

Total 100.00

State of forest in Kerala

Reserve forest Proposed

reserve

Vested forest+

EFL

total

9107.2066 364.4731 1837.7957 11309.4754

80.53% 3.22% 16.25% 100%

Distribution of forest area according to legal status (km²)

– Reserve forest;

The forest reserved under section 19 of Kerala forest act and include forest notified under section 4 of said act

• vested forest;

Any forest vested in government under section 3 of Kerala forest private forest act, 1971

• EFL;

‘ecologically fragile land’ means any portion of land held by any person and lying contiguous or encircled by reserve forest or vested forest or any other forest land owned by the government and predominantly supporting natural vegetation;

No Type area (km²) % of

total

1 tropical wet evergreen & semi

evergreen

3877.4413 34.28

2 Tropical moist deciduous 31.97 31.28

3 Tropical dry deciduous 391.3636 3.46

4 Mountain sub-tropical

temperature sholas

386.4210 3.42

5 Plantation 1492.9166 13.20

6 Grassland 501.0865 4.43

7 others 10.44.2624 9.24

Total 11309.4754

Classification of forest type

No Mode of utilization Area % of total

1 Dense forest/ degraded forest

8982.8138 79.43

2 Plantation 1492.9166 13.20

3 Area under lease 423.3859 3.74

4 Forest land diverted under FCA

410.3591 3.63

Total 11309.4756

The distribution of forest according to utilization

No District Area (km²)

1 Thiruvananthapuram 463.8341

2 Kollam 840.5672

3 Pathanamthitta 1533.7937

4 Kottayam 100.8450

5 Ernakulam 823.8302

6 Idukki 2713.7226

7 Thrissur 1022.7517

District wise forest area

8 Palakkad 1527.3564

9 Malappuram 723.9181

10 Kozhikode 290.4514

11 wayanad 907.0447

12 Kannur 241.4522

13 kasargode 119.8499

Total 11309.4172

No District VDF MDF OF total %

1 Thiruvananthapuram

55 824 470 1349 61.54

2 Kollam 75 632 623 1330 53.39

3 Pathanamthitta 144 1147 464 1775 66.43

4 Alappuza 0 12 26 38 2.69

5 kottayam 12 542 335 889 40.35

6 Idukki 350 2159 1421 3930 78.30

District wise forest cover in Kerala

2011 assessment

7 Ernakulam 12 298 385 695 28.87

8 Thrissur 181 388 362 931 30.71

9 Palakkad 276 693 606 1575 35.16

10 Malappuram 144 406 659 1209 34.06

11 Kozhikode 32 288 271 591 25.21

12 Wayanad 140 1347 288 1775 83.29

13 Kannur 21 351 269 641 21.61

14 Kasargode 0 307 285 592 29.72

Total 1442 9394 6464 17300 44.52

No district Area (ha)

1 Thiruvananthapuram 881.7584

2 Kollam 273.7233

3 Idukki 1255.5515

4 Thrissur 70.7990

5 Palakkad 5177.5634

District wise ecologically fragile land ( EFL)

6 Malappuram 1265.1209

7 Kozhikode 1531.9014

8 Wayanad 2673.0326

9 Kannur 777.1344

10 kasargode 94.8827

Total 14001.4676