Global Forest Watch Report: The new Global Forest Watch report has mentioned shocking information about the forests in India. In 2024, India has lost as much as 18 thousand 200 hectares of primary forest. Between 2001 and 2024, the forest cover has now ended on 2.31 million hectares. The most damage has been done in the northeastern states.
The condition of forests in India is becoming serious day by day. Shocking facts have come to light in the Global Forest Watch report. In the single year of 2024, 18 thousand 200 hectares of forests have been destroyed in India. In 2023, this figure was 17 thousand 700 hectares. That is, the rate of forest destruction has increased in a single year.
The report says that between 2002 and 2024, India lost a total of 3.48 lakh hectares of humid primary forests. This figure is 5.4 percent of the total forests in the country. In the six years from 2019 to 2024, 1.3 lakh hectares of forests were destroyed. According to Global Forest Watch, primary forests are such types of natural dense and humid forests that have not been completely destroyed in recent years. These forests are identified through satellite images and algorithms.
Assam has the highest forest destruction
Some of the important reasons for which forests have been reduced in India are shifting cultivation, permanent expansion of agriculture, deforestation, natural disasters, deforestation for basic amenities and urban settlements. If we look at it, the eastern states have been the most affected. Between 2001 and 2024, Assam lost the most forest cover, at 3.4 lakh hectares. This was followed by Mizoram (3.34 lakh hectares), Nagaland (2.69 lakh hectares), Manipur (2.55 lakh hectares) and Meghalaya (2.43 lakh hectares).
Carbon emissions have increased..
A total of 2.31 million hectares of forest cover was lost in India between 2001 and 2024. This is estimated to have emitted 1.29 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This is having a serious impact on the environment. The only encouraging thing is that during these 24 years, India has created 1.78 million hectares of new tree cover. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, India has lost an average of 6.68 lakh hectares of forest cover every year between 2015 and 2020. This has made India the second most forest-depleted country in the world.
https://www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/country/IND/
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