Northeast loses forest cover the size of Mumbai

Even as the India State of the Forest Report (ISFR), 2017, recorded a rise of 6,778 sq km in the country's forest cover, the Northeast region lost 630 sq km of forests, an area more than the size of Mumbai city.

In fact, the region has consistently recorded loss of over 500 sq km since the beginning of the decade, the State of Forest reports between 2011 and now show. The Forest Survey of India and Environment Ministry said during the report's release on Monday that shifting cultivations, developmental activities and anthropogenic pressures have been the chief causes for the loss of forest cover.

Northeastern states constitute only 7.9 per cent of geographical area of the country but accounts for nearly one-fourth of the country's forest cover, the report said. It is one of the 18 biodiversity hotspots of the world due to these rich forests.

The ISFR-2017 said that the total forest cover in the region is 1,71,306 sq km, which is 65.34 per cent of its geographical area in comparison to the national forest cover of 21.54 per cent. The region has lost 2,434 sq.km of forest cover, the IFSR reports from 2011 to now show.

With the exception of Assam and Manipur, all the other states in the region have lost forest cover. Mizoram, with the second largest cover in relation to its geographic area, lost 531 sq km since 2015, the maximum in the region.

Mizoram is followed by Nagaland, which lost 450 sq km and Tripura (164 sq km). Assam added 567 sq km forest cover. A density-wise breakup of forests shows that Mizoram and Nagaland have largely lost open forests while states such as Arunachal Pradesh have largely lost very-dense forests.