Forest Land Diverted for Non-Forest Activities

Suresh Ediga

Is deforestation absolutely needed for development? Is destruction a precursor to development? The answer to these questions might be in the official government statistics involving the forest land diversion for non forestry activities.Total number of forest land in hectares that was diverted for non forest activity in the last 3 years:

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2012 – 25,218 hectares
2013 – 41,716 hectares
2014 – 32,168 hectares – As on 1st December, 2014

To understand the magnitude of this, remember 1 hectare is as big as a cricket ground. It is like diverting the forest land equal to 99102 cricket fields.

This is still just scratching the surface. There is more bad news once we dig in deeper into these numbers. They tell a very sad story of the indiscriminate and indifferent of violation of the natural resources. The Forest Survey of India (FSI), Government of India does a ‘State of Forest Report’ every two years. According to FSI, between 1987 and 2013, almost 196126 square kilometers of reduction in forest cover was observed. To add some perspective, 1 square kilometer is equal to 100 hectares and 1 hectare is as big as a cricket ground. So for every square kilometer, a hundred cricket grounds worth of forest cover is reduced.

The top offenders in terms of the number of square kilometers of forest cover that saw a significant reduction are

State	Reduced Forest Cover (in Sq KM)
Kerala	-112117
Madhya Pradesh	-58019
Uttar Pradesh	-16877
Andhra Pradesh	-3457
Odisha	-2906
Nagaland	-1350
A&N Islands	-890
Manipur	-485
Dadar & Nagar Haveli	-25

There is also some good news. Between 1987 & 2013, the forest cover also saw a significant addition, of almost 97216 square kilometers. The top performers here are in the table below. However, the total area that was reduced is almost twice during the same period.

State	Increased Forest Cover (in Sq KM)
Karnataka	25840
West Bengal	8373
Tamil Nadu	6372
Maharashtra	5016
Rajasthan	3328
Arunachal Pradesh	3189
Gujarat	2662
Assam	2511
Himachal Pradesh	2203
Tripura	1913

These numbers are telling a story, a very poignant story and when this is put in the context of number of natural disasters that India had seen during the same time, may be the math adds up – the question that it raises is if the cost of development is affordable and if this is the development that we seek?

We would like to hear what you think?
Data Source: Reply to Question No 3710 in Lok Sabha dated 16th December 2014 & Forest Survey of India (FSI)

Featured Image: Srinivas Kompally | Forest