India’s forest cover declines

India has lost 367 square kilometres of forest cover in the past two years. According to the India State of Forest Report, 2011, released by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) on February 7, the total forest cover in the country is now at 6,92,027 sq km. This accounts for 21.05 per cent of the total geographical area of India.  

Change for the better

India is the first country in the world to start an operational system for monitoring its forest cover. The Forest Survey of India (FSI), an organization under the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), is responsible for preparing the country’s forest cover map biennially. The FSI has made use of the significant advancements in remote sensing imagery and interpretational techniques to continuously provide more reliable and detailed information about the state of forests in the country.

Depleting cover

europe's forests are deteriorating at an alarming rate despite measures to reduce air pollution, says a new report. About 35 per cent of trees assessed throughout Europe can be classified as "healthy," about 40 per cent are in the "warning stage," while about a quarter of trees are rated "damaged," indicating that they have lost more than 25 per cent of their leaves, says the report published by the European Commission and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

Only people's participation in eco-projects can combat corruption

What were your major achievements during your tenure as environment minister? Since 1952, we have been trying to increase forest cover to 33 per cent, but there has been no action plan. I have prepared a very comprehensive action plan and a number of donor agencies have been identified to fund this afforestation programme. This project will cost about us $32 billion. Interviewee:  Suresh P Prabhu

Shrinking cover

a recent report released by the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development ( wcfsd ) says that about 12.5 per cent of the world's 270,000 species of plants and about 75 per cent of the world's mammals are threatened by the decline in forest cover.

Ominous signs

orissa's green cover has shrunk by 1,420 square kilometre (sq km) in the last nine years, bringing down the total forest area from 59,555 sq km in 1990 to 58,135 sq km in 1999, forest department sources said. The biannual report published by the Forest Research Institute at Dehradun in Uttar Pradesh reveals that between 1995 and 1997 there was an increase of 880 sq km of open forest and 16 sq km of mangrove forest.

VIETNAM

The country's forest cover has shrunk by a third in the last 15 years due to illegal logging, slash-and-burn farming methods and felling of trees to make way for plantation crops, according to forest officials.

INDIA

As monsoons approach the hills of Garhwal, residents of Tehri town face the threat of eviction. If the construction of the dam is on schedule, the residents will have to be evacuated latest by November. An increasing number of deer in Delhi zoo are contracting tuberculosis, as a result of rampant and unchecked inbreeding. Two breeds are being sent to Calcutta and Bubhaneshwar zoos on an exchange programme. This will only spread the disease, say experts.

Changing colours

Grabbing land for green cover

"Green cover" -- a near-generic, near-pacifist environmental term today -- was coined at a time of bitter war, by Allied troops hiding from Japanese bombing runs in Malaya's forests in World War II. In the next great war, the Vietnam war, ironically, green cover was home to the Vietcong and a threat to the American troops, who Agent Orange-d the country. Thereafter, the progress of development has seen to the defoliation of the world's land to such an extent that war has come into something so benign as environmentalism.