NORTH-EASTERN STATES ACCOUNT FOR ONLY 7% OF COUNTRY’S LAND AREA AND 25% OF FOREST COVER

ONLY SEVEN OTHER STATES SCORE HIGHER THAN COUNTRY’S AVERAGE

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The seven north-eastern states contribute 25.78 per cent of the country’s forest cover while their share in the country’s geographical area is only about seven per cent. The forest cover in the north-eastern states range from 57 per cent of the geographical area in Tripura to 86.99 per cent in Mizoram which is much higher than the country’s forest cover of only 19.39 per cent of the geographical area.

The total forest cover in the seven north-eastern states is 1,64,299 sq km while the forest cover in the country is 6,37,293 sq. km. Among the other states only Sikkim (43.94%) Chhattisgarh (41.93%), Goa (33.80%) Orissa (30.2%) Madhya Pradesh (29.73%), Kerala (26.56%) and Himachal Pradesh (23.50%) have forest cover higher than that of the country’s average as a share geographical area.

The National Forest Policy, 1988 requires to increase the forest/tree cover to 33 per cent of the country’s geographical area by 2012. State-wise forest cover as per Forest Survey of India report of 1999 is as follows :

State	Forest Cover (in sq. km.)	Forest Cover (as a % of Geographical Area)
Mizoram	18,338	86.99
Nagaland	14,164	85.43
Arunachal Pradesh	68,847	82.21
Manipur	17,384	77.86
Meghalaya	15,633	69.70
Tripura	5,745	57.00
Assam	23,688	33.20
Sikkim	3,118	43.94
Chhattisgarh	56,693	41.93
Goa	1,251	33.80
Orissa	47,033	30.20
Madhya Pradesh	1,31,830	29.73
Kerala	10,323	26.56
Himachal Pradesh	13,082	23.50
Karnataka	32,467	16.93
Andhra Pradesh	44,229	16.08
Maharashtra	46,672	15.29
Bihar	26,474	15.23
Tamil Nadu	17,078	13.13
Uttar Pradesh	34,016	11.55
West Bengal	8,362	9.42
Jammu & Kashmir	20,441	9.20
Jharkhand	21,644	9.20
Gujarat	12,965	6.61
Delhi	88	5.92
Rajasthan	13,871	4.05
Punjab	1,412	2.80
Haryana	964	2.18