17 hours Ago
Pune: The forest cover of Maharashtra has shrunk by around 54.5 sqkm in the past two years, stated the India State of Forests Report (ISFR), 2023. The report was published by the ministry for environment, forest and climate change and Forest Survey of India (FSI) on Dec 21.
As per the report, Palghar lost the maximum forest cover at 87sqkm followed by Nandurbar at 65sqkm. Pune has also witnessed a loss of around 4.57 sqkm.
Meanwhile, Ratnagiri and Thane have witnessed an increase in their forest cover. Ratnagiri and Thane's forest cover stands at 4,292 and 1,432 sqkm, respectively. Currently, open forests acquire a large portion of forest land in the state at 19,415 sqkm, while moderately dense forest stands at 21,577 sqkm.
However, very dense forests constitute only 9,857 sqkm, accounting for a small portion of the dwindling forest cover. According to the report, out of the state's 3.1 lakh sqkm of geographical area, only 50,858 sqkm is covered by forest i.
e. 16.53%.
The state should ideally have 33% forest cover. "It is truly a sad picture, considering we were at 22 per cent of land covered in forests at some point in time. The biggest problem is Nandurbar and Palghar have seen a lot of forests being cut for agricultural purposes.
Most of the Konkan region has less protected forest area; it is mostly private or reserved. Maharashtra's forests are rapidly decreasing, and we need to conduct an on-ground survey instead of satellite-based calculations to understand it better," Madhukar Bachulkar, a noted taxonomist, said. While Mumbai city saw a decrease of 0.
16 sqkm, Mumbai suburban saw an increase of 1.42 sqkm in the forest cover. Similarly, Nashik saw an increase of 25 sqkm, but Gadchiroli saw a decrease of 20 sqkm.
Kolhapur has witnessed a decrease of 21.1 sqkm, whereas Ahmednagar saw an increase of 26.48 sqkm.
"Pune witnessed multiple developmental projects, which led to heavy destruction of forest cover. Similar is the case in many other urban areas as well. Whereas in some parts of Konkan, such as Ratnagiri, due to deliberate plantations, forest cover might have increased.
But the overall number is still extremely low," Ankur Patwardhan, head of department (HoD) of Annasaheb Kulkarni Department of Biodiversity at Abasaheb Garware College, said. Forest fires on the rise With 7,042 incidents, Gadchiroli district reported the highest forest fire incidents in the country. The fire incidents were detected with the help of the SNPP-VIIRS system of the FSI between Nov 2023 and June 2024.
For the same period, 6,093 forest fires were reported in 2022-2023. At 16,008 forest fire incidents reported between November 2023 and June 2024, Maharashtra ranks fifth in the country. Compared to the year 2020-2021, in which 32,025 forest fire incidents were detected, this number has decreased.
Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India . Don't miss daily games like Crossword , Sudoku , Location Guesser and Mini Crossword . Spread love this holiday season with these Christmas wishes , messages , and quotes .
.
