There has been a net decline in forest cover in the tribal districts of the country, the Rajya Sabha was today informed.
"As per the India State of Forest Report 2011, there has been a net decline of 679 sq km in the forest cover of the tribal districts of the country," Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said in a written reply.
Quoting the report, she said 14 states and UTs have shown a decrease in forest cover to the extent of 867 sq km while 15 states and UTs have registered an aggregate increase of 500 sq km.
"Effectively there is a net decline in forest cover to the tune of 367 sq km," Natarajan said.
According to the figures, Andhra Pradesh showed the highest decline in forest area with 281 sq km and management interventions like harvesting of short rotation crops followed by new plantations, forest clearance in some areas were listed as the reasons for the decline.
Natarajan further said that field verifications of change polygons as mentioned in the report do not suggest any large scale decline in forest cover due to organised crime.
"Further the ministry has also not received any information about organised wood smuggling. However, there are sporadic incidents of illegal tree felling in forest areas mostly for the purpose of small timber and fuel wood," she said.
The National Afforestation Programme (NAP) is implemented for regeneration of degraded forest through a decentralised mechanism of State Forest Division Agency at state level, Forest Development at forest division level and Joint Forest Management Committees at village level.
"As on March 2012, 800 FDA projects have been approved in 28 states to treat an area of 18.86 lakh hectares since the inception of the scheme in 2002," Natarajan said.
