“Under provisions of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016, the National Authority has approved an area of 252,000.44 hectares for taking up compensatory afforestation under the various Annual Plan of Operations submitted by the States and Union Territories from year 2019 to 2024,” added Singh.Singh also responded to queries over the delay in releasing of biennially forest cover report due to higher number of districts. The Forest Cover report was scheduled to be released in 2023.“The reason for delay in publication of India State of Forest Report 2023 is due to the inclusion of 751 districts in the report instead of 638 districts included in earlier reports,” said Singh. Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun, an organisation under the Ministry carries out the assessment of forest cover biennially since 1987 and the findings are published in India State of Forest Report (ISFR).As per ISFR, the forest cover includes all lands, more than one hectare in area with a tree canopy density of more than 10 per cent irrespective of ownership and legal status. Such lands may not necessarily be a recorded forest area. It also includes orchards, bamboo and palm.
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